Do not ask me why all of a sudden running three miles felt like the Bataan death march now that I know I’m doing it so that by February 1 I can run 13.1 of them.
I listened to my head space in as much as I tried to do what the Buddhists say and that’s to be present. I was present for that pain and just reminded myself over and over again that pain is part of the deal. It’s not supposed to be easy.
I will tell you what – I would not be doing this had Eliza not asked. Had my desire to see my friend after five years not been stronger than my desire to say “no.” I’ve always gone back and forth with doing a real long-distance run because after about eight miles running starts being hard and miserable and I don’t like it anymore and if there is anything I can’t not like it’s running.
I have to run. I have to have it in my life. It’s the constant.
But I’m vowing to approach this differently. To look at the training as something to learn from as opposed to being something to dread. To viewing being able to get to the place where I can do 13.1 miles and not want to quit running but rather be proud of the journey I took to get there. The truth, also, is that time is running out for me to do these things before I make some serious life changes – kids, family. This isn’t, of course, to say that kids preclude you from training for long foot races, but God willing, we’ll look to starting a family in the next year or so, which means training would be out of the question for a year.
Now is as good a time as any.
I managed to completely skip lifting yesterday, as the Hal Higdon training schedule suggests, but I did run my three miles today. Tomorrow is a run and a spinning class because I love it and two miles isn’t much of a workout for me right now. I’ll make up the extra strength day on Friday instead of rest. And next week? Well next week we’re getting married so I’ll have to make some adjustments there, too. Maybe there won’t be much of a thirty-minute cross train. I’ll definitely get in that four-mile run. We’re headed to New England and I can’t imagine a better opportunity than taking a long run out there.
