One month down, three to go. This week marked the three month countdown to race day. Even though I was already counting down the days it’s seems a bit more real now. This week of training I will be racking up just about 26 miles on my feet. The fact that a few months from now I need to run the same distance in just a few hours is a bit frightening to say the least.
The last few weeks have been following a pretty normal schedule. Some running here, some spinning there, a strength day somewhere in there, a rogue yoga day once in a while. It’s been almost enjoyable. But this week Coach Bob laid down the hammer. He said those things are great and all but it’s time to start stepping up the running and “building a base,” which I will choose to believe he made up just to torture me.
This week included a speed day on the track, a speed/distance day, as well as two days labeled “easy day” that involve running 8 miles…each day, not total. How is running 8 miles easy? Maybe to the freaks of nature that run 7 minute miles but I believe that they are merely illusions.
Just last week the exhaustion hit me. It was a long week of training and work, plus we had some wonderful visits from family and friends. By the end of the week I had nothing left. I was dead in the water at my weekly broomball game and it took a special kind of motivation to head out for a 6 miler when I could have slept another 30 hours. Needless to say, when I saw that this week the running was ramping up I was less than thrilled. I believe we have entered the zone of sacrifice.
When I called Coach Bob to complain of extreme exhaustion in hopes that he would cut me some slack he did not such thing. He instead told me that it was time to think about what was important and, if needed, to cut things out to have more time to do other things. I know he was referencing broomball, but that ain’t happening, Pops. But I did some minor soul searching as well as commiserating with Bro-nami and felt much better. Bro-nami reminded me how great it will be to cross the finish line and to remember that you’re not alone. Because when you’re outside on a long run and it’s -10 and you hate everyone and all you want to do is crawl into bed, the moment you pass another runner you KNOW there are out there training for the marathon too. No one else would be crazy enough be running in these conditions. Here’s to three more months of training and less than a month til spring!
I’ve been there buddy.
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