IF I can ever say that, maybe I'll actually feel like a runner. Actually if I can feel like that after a half marathon that would be a huge accomplishment. I've decided that I'm just not a naturally athletic person. I'm 5'2" and basically have no coordination in terms of team sports. I love watching them, but besides one season of softball (that I'd rather just forget completely), I never played a sport growing up.
Try as hard as I can, any run beyond 10 miles is really hard for me. Oh wait, I'm also not even running "that fast." I like half marathons because of the medal. And that people cheer for you. The more fun the race, the more excited I am to sign up. The free beer at the end is enough to make me keep running after mile 11. But after last night I'm really debating if I should even have a full marathon as a life goal*. Maybe, I should just accept the fact that I'm not naturally athletic enough to make it happen during my lifetime. A full marathon would be much more of a struggle for me than someone who has played soccer their whole life.
*I will revisit this thought after I run the Richmond Half Marathon in November (i.e. After a year of solid training.)
*I will revisit this thought after I run the Richmond Half Marathon in November (i.e. After a year of solid training.)
Anyway, last night I set out for the gym with a goal that I was going to run at least 11 miles. Tuesday night was the only free night I had this week for a long run. So I knew if I wanted a long run this week (Um. DUH) it had to be Tuesday. I spent the majority of the day feeling nervous about running 11 miles/pissed that I had to run 11 miles on the treadmill. I LOVE running, I just knew this workout was going to suck and I wasn't looking forward to it. At all. It helped that the Ohio State-Illinois basketball game was on at 9. I even had something I cared about on TV, so really I had no excuses.
Last night I ran 9 miles without stopping. I'm not sure about the time. I started at a 10:30/mi pace and sped up to at least 10:00/mi for the last mile. Basically what happened was that at 8 miles I realized I wasn't going to make it to 11 miles without stopping. I just "wasn't feeling it." Not sure if it was boredom running that long distance on my own, the fact that the basketball game was almost over and not even close, me being moody, or me just being lazy.
Anyway, I felt good about doing a 9 mile run, but decided I should do at least 10 miles. After taking a five minute break, I ran an additional mile in 10 minutes. Then after about a 2 minute break, I did two half mile runs, each in under 5 minutes. With about a 1 minute walking break in between.
Basically, I decided that I should get my body used to what it feels like to recover from an 11 mile run. And if you look back in the archives of this blog, the long run+a little more at a faster pace is the method of training I seem to be using this time around. I made this up on my own. Haven't seen a plan that suggests this. But I haven't looked at a ton of plans either. The other thought I had was that the past 3 weeks I did a 8.5 mile run, 9 miles, and 10 miles. I think it's okay to revert back to 9 this week before going for 11+ next week.
Next week is my last chance before I have to start tapering. 10 will happen regardless of if I keep going after that.
Oh and good news I'm really not that sore today!
3 comments:
Hey, i think that's awesome! i totally get you on not being athletic...I didn't do sports or anything growing up either. I think you are going to do great at your race!!
Don't get down on yourself. Running for 2 hours takes time to get used to. I've found that 10 miles on the treadmill is 100% my limit. I just can't go any further than that. However, outside I have all sorts of things / crazies to look at that help pass the time.
BTW - Some of Hal Hidgon's plans talk about picking up the pace over the last third for the EXACT reason that you mentioned - getting used to running when you are tired.
I've never been an athlete either! I think I tried every sport imaginable when I was little and never found anything I was good at. I mean I sucked at everything! lol. I did do swimming while growing up but quit when I was 14 and was never very good at it. I think we would make good running buddies. We seem to be very similiar. I'm excited to hear how your race goes!!
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