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Great run today

Posted on September 17, 2007
Filed Under Training Updates, Running Thoughts |

I’ve actually been running lately, but not blogging it! You can see from the workout list on the side that i’ve been actually pounding some miles but not logging them here. I need to do a lot better at my running consistency though.

This weekend my brother-in-law ran his first marathon and Adria and I went to Logan to support him - it was a bitter-sweet experience for me. It was a lot of fun to see Mark run the marathon, he did awesome, but it really frustrated me because he started running a few months after i did and both of us had a goal of a marathon when we started. I felt pretty inferior because he was doing a marathon and I haven’t done one yet. The difference is, he did a 5 month marathon training plan and I’ve taken the route of a longer-term approach to build up my body to be able to handle it without it killing me. Sure enough, when Mark ran the marathon, he had to stop multiple times, walk a fair amount and was sore and injured at the end. But, he did it. He did it in 5 hours, and I haven’t done it yet. I’m ok with that, sort of, but it was pretty frustrating for me.

On top of that, running has become very very routine for me. When I run, it’s pretty much the same distance over the same course at pretty much the same time. I think this has a lot to do with why I’m inconsistent with running - because it’s become routine, it’s something that i can just cut out and not feel guilty about it. I slice my routine up to get work accomplished all the time.

So, my current feelings on running are this: It’s routine, I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything or moving forward anywhere. I don’t feel anything competitive about it at all, I can do my workouts with very minimal effort - I never feel my runs afterwards and i don’t feel like I’m improving. The only races I run are 5k’s - the problem with that for me is that I know I can run a 5k, i want to find what I CAN’T run and push through that! Now, a lot of this certainly has a lot to do with my inconsistentcy, but I’m in a conundrum - I don’t feel motivated or excited about running right now - so I’m very inconsistent with it because I don’t look forward to it anymore.

So I came up with a new plan/approach - one that I feel pretty excited about. At least once a week I’m going to take a long run - today was my first one - I’ll increase the long run by 1 mile each week. So today I did 6.2 miles, the rest of the week will be recovery and training (doing my normal workouts of 3-5 miles/day) for next week’s run of 7 miles (I may pile some extra miles on there depending on how I feel) toward the middle of the week, if I’m feeling good enough for it, I may put on more than the normal training miles.

I don’t know why, but there is just something in me that feels that I HAVE to be doing at least one long run a week. If I don’t, I feel like I’m not really pushing myself or even accomplishing anything. I think it’s the same drive that lets me do what I do professionally - I often will push a deadline and do 6 weeks worth of work in 2 weeks - and then look for the next opportunity to do it again. Oddly enough, I feel most alive when I’m buried deep in a deadline and I’m pushing with all I have to get as much done as possible. So I think that treating running the same way will help me be as passionate about running as I am about my work (which is how I WANT to be).

So, to today’s run - for the first time in several months, I ran more than 4 miles in a training run - and it felt GREAT!!! The first 3 miles were hohum, but on mile 4 everything kicked in and I felt awesome - all my little aches and pains went away and I felt like I could go on forever. In fact, I was seriously thinking about doing another 4 miles around the block but decided not to because I needed to get to work. If I had left an hour or so earlier, I definately would have gone farther. I kept my heart-rate between 150 and 155 through it all and those last 2 miles just sailed by. I was seriously disappointed when I got back home. Now, for the first time in a long time, I feel the run in my leg muscles and it feels fantastic! And for the first time in a long time, I feel excitement and urgency about running.

So, there’s one other thing to do - Coach, what do you think? I know this doesn’t go with the plan, will it hurt my to do this? Will it mess up building my base properly? Can we build a plan that will be safe and productive that incorporates more challenge like this?

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