Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 4 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T - 4 weeks (Dec 12-18):

Miles ran:  40 (5mi, 5.5 mi, 5.5mi, 23.5 miles)

Miles scheduled: 36

Cross training: Yoga x 1; misc cross training

Total miles run since training began: 437

General Notes: This week I did the longest training run I will do prior to the marathon. I have one more long run scheduled for the weekend of Dec 29-30, but that one will probably top out at 22 miles. Everybody knows long runs are an integral part of marathon training. Your body AND your mind has to be taught how to run that long. 

I always run alone, never with friends. Seriously. I’ve run over 2000 miles in the last three years and I can count on one hand the number of runs I’ve done with other people. Running is my time alone – where I don’t have to hear kids or students or husbands – and that’s the way I prefer it. 

Of course, this week as I ran 23.5 miles, I discovered I’m not really alone in my long runs: I have voices in my head. Literal voices. Of people I know.

If you have ever trained for a marathon, you know that long runs are just stupid hard. “The hard is what makes it great.” Whatever. The hard is what makes it HARD. There’s no way around that.

As I was coming up on 22-miles – nearly 4 hours into my long run this week – I was exhausted. Mentally, physically, emotionally. Exhausted. I joked about how I thought to myself “Why am I doing this again?” during those miles, but the truth was, I could hardly put a coherent thought together during that time. It was just: left, right, left, right, left, right.  

When you reach that point and you still have 2 or 3 or 5 miles left, it’s a terrible feeling. Basically you’re hitting the emotional wall. I hit it pretty hard this weekend but fortunately that’s when the voices came out.

I could hear my Ragnar peeps in my head yelling, “Run faster, B*tch! You got this!” with their infectious laughter.

And other running friends: “This is so dumb, isn’t it? But don’t you dare stop.”

I could hear my besties as if they were right next to me: “Come on, sister. One more mile. You’ve got that in you.”

 “You can do hard things.” An unexpected voice - my friend Beth from high school. A breast cancer survivor who knows way more about doing hard things and I, but still lent her encouragement.

When I was at my actual lowest, when I really didn’t think I could go any further and  was totally ready to quit, it was my parents’ voices I heard.  My parents, who have unfailingly encouraged me at every point in my life. Their love all boiled down into one sentence:

“You’re doing great, baby girl. Keep going.”

It became my mantra. And I did keep going. And I made it. And all the voices disappeared, but I know they’ll be there when I need them next time.

But more importantly, it reminded me that I want to make sure that I am a voice providing encouragement for someone else (especially my children). We all have marathons – most of them have nothing to do with running. We all need to hear encouraging voices at some point as we’re hitting the wall. 

May I learn to be the voice someone needs to hear.

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 5 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T - 5 weeks (Dec 5-11):

Miles ran:  25 (14mi, 6 mi, 5mi)

Miles scheduled:23

Cross training: Yoga x 1; misc cross training

Total miles run since training began:397

General Notes: A relatively light week in terms of miles. And I must say, after two weeks of 20+ milers on the weekends, it was nice to have a slight break and call my long run 14 miles. (I had the Surf-n-Santa 10 mile race, so I added four miles before the start - worked out beautifully)

I had some twinges and swelling in my right knee this week. Didn't seem to be anything serious. (I think it might be from lunges I was doing earlier rather than actual running -- so no lunges for me for a while.)  A friend of mine who was also training for the Disney marathon found out he has a stress fracture in his tibia and can't run for six weeks - marathon is out. After all the work I've put in, I'd be devastated. So caution is the order of the day.

Hard to believe the marathon is exactly one month from today. My main long runs looks like this from now on:

Dec 15-16 - 23 miler
Dec 22-23 - 15+ miler (we'll be out of town, so whatever I can get in)
Dec 29-30 - 22 miler
Jan 4-5 - 14 miles, over three runs (Ragnar Key West)

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 6 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T - 6 weeks (Nov 28- Dec 4):

Miles ran:  34 (7mi, 20mi, 3mi, 4mi)

Miles scheduled:34

Cross training: Pilates x 1; misc cross training

Total miles run since training began:374

Audiobook: I have totally given up on audiobooks. Once I started on really long runs I found that the audiobooks took too much concentration -- concentration I needed to just remain upright and moving forward after 18+ miles. It's all music for me from here on out. Good news is, I have discovered Pandora.

General Notes: So it's been a month since my last marathon training post, but fortunately my running didn't suffer so much. Except for the week where my mom had her stroke, I've pretty much stayed on my training schedule. 

Nov 7 -13: 15 miles total (6 mi, 9mi)

Nov 14-20: 28 miles total (6 mi, 18 mi, 4 mi)

Nov 21-27: 29. 5 miles total (8 mi, 21.5 mi)

The long runs are tough. Really tough. I'm so excited that this weekend I don't have a 20+ miler (mostly because I have a 10 mile race on Saturday, so I'm going to call that my long run -- maybe adding a few extra miles if the weather is nice -- and be done with it). I have two more scheduled 20+'s  before the marathon. They are grueling, but important, almost as much mentally as physically.

If you want an understanding about the ridiculousness that is long runs, here's a FB conversation between me and a buddy who is also training for a marathon earlier this week:

A1:  I ran 18.07 miles in 3:54. The overwhelming desire to lay down and rest at mile 15 means that your training is going as planned, right?

Janie: You did give in to the desire to lay down at mile 15 right? That is important an important part of training.

A1: I didn't lay down, but I'm pretty sure I blacked out somewhere between 16 and 18. Sadly, when I came to, I was still moving.

Janie: Don't you hate it when you get to that point where you decide to walk for a while, but then it hurts just as much to walk PLUS you're moving slower so it will take longer. And you just want to cry.

A1: My favorite part was when I was like, "OK, legs! We've only got three miles! We can do three miles, easy!" Then I started running. Except by running I mean walking. And by walking, I mean standing and staring off into the distance.

Janie: And no matter what you can't make your body move faster. And you wonder if someone came and threatened you with a gun if you could run. And you even envision that scenario. But when you open your eyes you're still standing staring off into the distance.

A1: I totally thought that! I was like, if someone mugged me right now, I would just hand them my sweaty damn money and be done with it.

Note to self, start crime ring that targets runners in their last month of training.

Janie: Seriously. While on my long runs that often take me a bit far from normal civilization, I used to fear hoodlums who might try to steal my virtue. But after 15+ miles you have to face the facts: even rapists have standards.

And then you remember that no one is forcing you to run this marathon. As a matter of fact you paid a pretty obscene amount of money to do this to yourself. Sigh. So as you can tell marathon training makes you crazy. I’m interested to see how much more of my mind I can lose before January 13.