nt off to Oxfordshire to celebrate my mother-in-law's 70th (that's her with my 2 sisters-in-law and myself at left) at a wonderful and very luxurious hotel and I then went to London to see my friend Dawn and came back for a business meeting in Lincoln. Haaaaarrrrggghhh!!!! Complicated plans and travel arrangements - I should know that when it all gets too complicated to think about, it IS too complicated. Anyway, good times were had and now we're slowly heading back to normality - school begins 2 weeks from today.Running. Ah yes. We were going to get to that weren't we? Well.... It went very well in Holland. Since I came back, the results have been mixed. I got my long run (only 12M) last week which was fine. But with all the to-ing and fro-ing I have missed a few of my midweek runs. I've been reading other people's blogs and it seems many (Maddy and Melissa, for two) have been trying to work their ways out of some slumps (Susan, you don't count because you were ill and you HAVE to take time off then. Boss's orders..). It seems that somewhere in the middle of all the training life sometimes steps in and says, either through other commitments or through your body just being exhausted, that you can't always prioritise your running. So where am I now? Struggling to be honest. Not struggling to run - I'm finding it easy and fine to go out and run 5 or 6 miles. But I'm going nowhere fast - averaging over 10 minute miles in all my runs, 11 minute miles in my long runs. I'm beginning to wish I'd picked a program with some speedwork in it. And I am finding it hard to motivate myself for 18 and 20 milers. I went out for a possible 17 today and left it at 6. Hrmmm. Not good. What now? Well, running along today and listening to the always inspirational Zenrunner I tried to line up my options. As I see it, I have 3 (but do tell me if you think differently):
- I just grit my teeth and get on with my current schedule.
- I jump down to an easier program. Maybe it will be easier to motivate myself if I run slightly shorter distances. I might find myself less exhausted and possibly, a bit faster as well. I'm currently doing Hal Higdon Intermediate II, I could easily go down to Intermediate I.
- I don't do the marathon. While this is a tempting solution I'm loathe to do it. I'm running with my friend Sally, and it's her first. She would not have done one, and certainly not this one, without me. I think I owe it to her.
So that's where I am. All is well actually - after a few weeks of erratic and not necessarily healthy eating and drinking I'm back on Dr. Monte's track and I'm feeling fine and beginning to feel better rested. I am enjoying running, but seem to have just misplaced my marathon mojo.
If I'm brutally honest, what I would like to do right now is just run 5 milers 4 or 5 times a week and then run a 10 miler on the weekend and just stick to that for a while. But .. it's only about 8 weeks to the marathon, I've (sort of) come this far and I truly am not fussed about my time at this stage so perhaps I should just get on with it. What do you think?
4 comments:
Pretty ladies!
I think you should forge ahead and get the marathon DONE. With your current schedule! Don't let it beat you! I, too, feel less mojo than last time around... and slow as a turtle... but I just have to grin and bear it! Nothing that is worth having comes easily, they always say. Oh I wish it wasn't true!
You KNOW you can run a marathon on less. I'd suggest adding in a little speed work to a couple of short runs, just to spice things up (an easy way is to do this: after warm-up, run 1 minute hard, one 1 minute easy; then next run try 2 hard 1 easy; build up to 5 hard 1 easy; don't forget cool down). Get in at least one 16-18 miler, preferably 2 before your race (do 16 if 18 is out of the question). Then run the marathon with your friend. If you're not shooting for a PR, I think you will do just fine!
Another idea to get the long runs done is to split them, 10-12 in the morning, 6-8 later in the day.
Also, if you're not taking walk breaks during your runs, try them. I've found them to be very helpful in breaking up the long runs into manageable little blocks.
Good luck!!!
Shirley is the expert!! :-) I am a fan of walking breaks. I run 5 min and walk 1. I tried to build up to more running (I actually run 1 mile and walk 1 min on my shorter runs of 6 miles or less), but I can actually run faster with the breaks....something worth considering.
Meanwhile, you have done marathons on less, so there is no doubt you can do this one. Consider what you really want to do - the go for it! We will be here to cheer you on.
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