Wednesday, February 8, 2012

study break

It's been a crazy, crazy week. I cannot believe that it is already Wednesday. I drove back to Mobile this afternoon and I have this icky feeling in my stomach... I hate being here when my awesome family is hanging out with baby Lily without me. But I definitely had to come home. I had already missed three days of work and two classes and my cats were basically starving to death, so it's good that I'm back.

This is week one of my epic FOUR WEEK taper. It was supposed to be three weeks long, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get my 20-miler in this coming weekend so it was either four weeks of tapering or two weeks of tapering. Most people thought that I ought to train on the conservative side, this being my first jaunt into marathoning. This week is pretty shot for me, because of family time and Friday's Mardi Gras Ball and more family time, but I did manage a spin class tonight and I am planning a 10-mile run with Hans while he's here this weekend. I figure I kind of owe it to him, seeing as he was flying all this way to run a 1/2M in St. Pete. (We decided against making the trip so that we can spend time with my family. Priorities!)

Spin was kind of rough tonight. I don't know if I'm still fatigued from my run on Saturday, or just feeling shitty because of all the bad food I've eaten since this weekend (I was POOPED after being up all night at the hospital on Sunday and indulged in a Baconator on Monday... my first fast food of the new year!). After class, a bunch of people came up to me and asked how my marathon training was going. My first thought was, "Damn! I need to stop telling people about this! Now they all have expectations!" but really, it was kinda neat. Except for one of the guys I chatted with who is a very experienced long distance runner and cyclist and has run something like 30 marathons. He asked me how my 20-miler went and I have to say... I was pretty embarrassed to tell him. IT TOOK ME FIVE HOURS. He started doing the math out loud for what kind of pace I was running and I started making excuses "it was hilly, I had a cold/flu-thing, my legs were already tired, etc." All in all, not a very uplifting conversation. But he was nice about it and tried to be encouraging and I know it will motivate me to know that I have people that I am kind of sort of accountable to. I'm the kind of person who likes to keep goals a secret because I hate to let people down almost as badly as I hate to let myself down. Maybe it's time for me to nut up a bit.

Anyway, back to studying :-/

6 comments:

  1. Blog people will certainly hold you accountable. When I post something I fucked up then people nail me for it. Run more!

    You want that 20 miler to come in faster than 5 hours? Make your shorter runs faster than that pace. It will add up eventually.

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    1. Good point, John! I know when I've had a bad workout, I'm not too moved to blog about it, but I need to take the bad with the good and be honest with myself and anyone who reads this. I'm working on pushing my speed in my short runs lately and that will definitely be more of a focus when I train for future distance events.

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  2. i agree with John. don't stress! you'll do great either way.

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    1. Thanks! I think that finishing the marathon will feel like a huge accomplishment, regardless of my race time. I appreciate it :)

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  3. Thanks for sharing. I think sharing the good and bad helps other people too. We all have tough training days and it is OK! We are human and at least when we reach each other's blogs we know we aren't the only ones going through tough times! 20 miles is tough and you got through it! So that is what is important :) Also I went to a spinning class today and I thought I was going to die...I have no clue why, so don't feel so bad :) Family time is #1 in my book too!

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    1. JVT, thank you so much for your encouragement! I do think that I could be more honest in this blog... who wants to read about someone who trained for their first marathon and hit zero bumps in the road?!

      Family time is so great! I'm heading over there after work today :)

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