Halfway there! It's
hard to believe that I'm less than three months away from my first
marathon. In fact I have but a short 12
weeks to go. I'm at the point in my
training where every week is new territory, be it the daily mileage or the long
runs. The feeling I have is strange because I'm nervous yet excited for each new
week. Some of that is the challenge of
what I can actually accomplish but mixed with the emotions and doubt that creep
in when I look too far forward in my training plan and see the 18 and 20 milers
and the weekly miles rising high on the horizon.
There are many pros so far. I'm running more days and more
miles than ever before and (let's all knock on wood) I'm injury free. Sure I have that ache here and there but I'm
also 54 years old and still manage to find a pimple stopping by to say hi from
time to time. I've not missed a single
run nor have I been unable to complete one.
I find it much like a job. You
know what needs to be done so show up early, give that little extra, and take
pride in a good day's work, or in this case a successful run. The support I am getting is tremendous. I'm
not sure how anyone can do this without it. I'm grateful for it. The most
surprising thing however has to be that I have found that I love running with a
partner. I had become a loner on the
road, running with my ipod and not wanting to be bothered. Now I look forward to it and from time to time
there are 3-4 of us.
There are some cons.
I never seem to have enough Vaseline.
While I use it like crazy, places that shouldn't be raw tend to be
raw. In turn I walk like I've been
riding a horse and now have a phobia about having my nipples face directly into
the shower. My running shoes are dead
and the second pair were purchased a
couple weeks ago - pair number three is happening next week. I'm losing weight yet always hungry and those
20,000 pushups I did no longer show the effect they once did. I'm also now waking up at 3:30 in order to
get my workout in before work. That I
don't mind as much as the gym is empty and my favorite treadmill
untouched.
Sharon's training plan has been great so far - not easy but
great. Saturdays are up to 16 miles and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are 7
miles each. The pace isn't fast but I'm
training for distance and not for speed this time. As mentioned, I'm enjoying the Saturdays run
now that she's running with me. We talk but she knows when I need quiet to push
up a hill or simply finish the next mile or two in a distance I've never ran. Last week I was dying on the last mile and my
form was shot to shit. I know she was
telling me to straighten up, drop my shoulders, and something about my
stride. I looked at her and thought "I
might be dead right now, just want to get home, exhausted, nipples hurt"
but I smiled and mumbled "thank you".
That girl gives me no slack and pushes me every week. That's exactly what I need though I might not
always communicate it.
12 weeks to go.
Hundreds of miles. All for the
chance to complete 26.2 in May without failure.
Sounds silly doesn't it? What's
sillier is that the 26.2 will probably mean more to me that all the miles that
lead up to the marathon. I hope
not. I hope I look back at the journey
instead. Time will tell, right now I
need to go find some more Vaseline.
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