Theme Song.

Getting out of bed at 5AM, while it’s still dark, coughing up a storm, chugging down Emergen-C spiked electrolyte formula that is spiked with questionable caffeine based performance enhancer, squeezing my fat ass in to compression tights, poking myself with the safety pin to attach my race bib, leaving my comfortable home to go run in a 28F weather while suffering from chest congestion…  These were the only words that ran through my head the entire time. 

It all seems to stupid, it makes we want to give up.

But why should I give up, when it all seems to stupid.

This training has been really hard and very frustrating.  Partly because I am not sure where I am in terms of pace and endurance.  Some days I do really well, and some days I do so poorly.  I haven’t had one good long run and now I’m left with only one more this weekend.  There is no more re-dos or adjustments or anything.

One thing I got going for me is that I am relatively injury free.  Other than the nagging pain typical of post workout pain (like bum, calf tightness, etc.) it’s been incident free.  I do have left calf pain going up hill, but it feels like something that will go away soon and more like a fatigue factor than an injury.  THIS, I must say is an improvement and Coach Terry’s greatness.  I’ve never been quite injury free during training.  Despite rather hard work load, I may actually get to the start line in one piece.

I also decided that I am not going to be so time oriented, after I read this.  I am so “Runner #2”. 

Runner 2: Training to hit goal

Our second athlete is more aggressive and decides she’s going to “do whatever it takes” to qualify for Boston. She starts her segment and begins to push her easy and long run pace to get it closer to the times she’ll need to run in the marathon. On workout days, she pushes the envelope when she feels good and finishes each workout exhausted. The first few weeks of this plan go ok and after a 10k tune-up race, she realizes she’s only 25 minutes from her goal time. So, she starts doing her long runs with the faster group in her running club. All goes great until her IT band starts bothering her. After a few days of limping through runs she goes to a physical therapist and is told to take a week off. Reluctantly, she takes the needed rest. When she returns to training, she feels good but realizes she’s now a week behind in her training schedule and it’s crunch time if she’s going to hit her goal. So, she jumps right back into the hard workouts and long runs. Two weeks later, she starts to feel her achilles tug. Once again, a visit to the therapist confirms she needs to take a week off. This process repeats itself until race day, where she valiantly attempts to run the race but due to lack of consistent training, runs 40 minutes slower than her goal time. Once she recovers from the race, she repeats the cycle and unfortunately never runs much faster than her current personal best.

I might no longer be a sub 3:30 runner, but I have many, many, many more marathons to run and if I stay healthy, I may actually go sub 3:30 again.  Is it frustrating? Yes.  But not every race can be a PR race.

Another thing I learned is that even pros have a hard time with poo.  Pros.  Just. Like. Us.