I've been training for a marathon for the past five weeks now. I don't really know why I haven't talked about it in this blog. Running is such a HUGE part of my life. I do it six days a week come rain or shine and when I'm not running I'm planning my next run, preparing a meal for a run or recovering from a run. Normally my family are the only ones who hear about my funny stories or random thoughts/complaints about my runs. But after my long run this past Saturday and the emotional burnout I felt from the weekend I decided that I should share more with you. I think that by sharing it will help give me motivation and keep me accountable when I'm messing up.
This is my thirteenth week of my training and my mileage is starting to reach epic proportions. Oh by the way, this is my first marathon. I did a half marathon and a 5k earlier this year. Training for the half was a bit rough considering I had only been running for two months prior to the race and it was my first race...EVER! You would think that the crash course would make me shy away from racing but here I am at it again and deciding to take on a longer distance.
Prior to this past weekend the furthest I ran was 15 miles. Saturday (which are my long run days) I was supposed to run 18 miles. Notice the key word supposed to. I started my run our great, nice and steady and at a slower pace so that I could warm up my body. As usual I hit my stride at mile 5 but by mile 8 I was totally out of it mentally which meant my physical threshold was fast approaching. What is going on with me? Why can't I get it together? Well I have some theories.
My routes are pretty routine and every once in a while I like to shake it up and run either in the opposite direction of my normal route, or in a completely new location. For this particular day and distance I wanted to do something totally different. I wanted my wife to drop me off at my usual run spot and I would run home. It would have been perfect because from the starting point to my house is a perfect 18 miles. Then I realized that I hadn't driven the route ahead of time to make sure it was safe. I didn't map out any bathroom stops or places where there could be water for when my Gatorade ran out. And since this plan was formulated twelve hours before my run, this was not going to happen. I was bummed out that I had made this awesome route idea and couldn't try it out. Boom! Mental wall drawn.
The day before my long run was my birthday. My wife and I had plans for a date night which we haven't had since our youngest daughter was born (16 months ago). Normally before a long run I have pasta, a baked potato, and some type of protein. Well that day I ate none of those things and swapped the good stuff for a Belgian waffle with tons of syrup, coffee, coffee and more coffee and a ton of sweets at the movies. By the time I realized I was running the next day it was 9 o'clock at night and I was scarfing down a pasta salad I made the day before. Bad, bad, bad. Poor planning of my meals. Boom! Physical wall drawn.
As much as I try to not let little things get the best of me, I couldn't shake the epic fails that I had created the day before. Once I hit mile 10 and I was alternating between running and walking I knew it was over. So I decided to end the day at mile 12 and tack on the missed miles to my run the next day. Sunday I did 10 miles with a much better attitude and substantial fuel in my tank. From this point on I promise to not skimp on my food and whether or not I do the route I had planned I should just run and "git 'er done".
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