A couple weeks ago, what I thought would be an easy Saturday
long run was unexpectedly exhausting and slow.
Since Fat Tuesday was that week, we were doing a new route so we could
visit a Polish deli and eat paczkis.
Given that the total mileage was lower than previous weeks, and the
weather was unseasonably warm, I was excited to do the run.
As always, the first few miles are the easiest, since
everyone was running together and generally chatty. We got to the first water stop, about 2.5
miles in, and I realized that I would be running the rest of the 13 by myself;
most of the people at my pace were turning around, done for the day.
After taking some of our much appreciated club Gatorade, I
pushed forward, surprised at the chill and wind in the air. Even though the sun had come over the
horizon, the wind kept blowing every bit of heat I could generate away. I just plowed on, back to the water stop,
where I discovered the deli was closed until 9 am. No matter to me, because it was just about
accruing mileage. The paczkis were just
a bonus.
I had a long time to think as I plodded along, and the one
thing that kept going through my mind was that training miles are so much
harder than race miles. It’s not
something that is talked about much, but a race is the culmination of the
training. Even in high school and
college, where we raced every weekend, the goal was to peak at conference or
Regionals or Sectionals or State or Nationals.
If you prepared all year, that last race was a breeze. If not, it was the end of a difficult season.
All of my marathons have been challenging, despite being mostly
prepared for all of them. I can’t
possibly imagine what it would be like to not be prepared for that effort. Even so, I hear people talk in corrals about
being less than prepared and read blogs about people who struggled to find the
time to do that last long training run.
Why? Because training for a race is
nothing like that cute montage in the movies.
When you’re a 12 min marathoner, running a marathon is an all-day event,
so doing those long training runs can be an all-day event. It’s long and slow and boring and tiring, and
in this “shiny object” sort of world, it’s so much easier to fill one’s time
with fun instead of boring. Perhaps,
though, my marathon experiences make me appreciate all those training runs
because I’m not needing a race to motivate me.
On today’s run, I was talking with a friend about
training. I have learned by watching
successful figure skaters (even in the “recreational” adult ranks) that to get
results, you truly have to treat training like a part time job. Training has to be a priority in your
schedule, as does recovery, and sessions need to be organized in a way to
balance with the rest of life. In
addition, making sure to get enough sleep at night and to eat a healthy diet
are key components as well.
Last night I was frustrated over having to do 14 miles
because it was going to take all morning to complete. It would be so nice to be faster, to not have
to schedule all day for a long training run.
How quickly I have forgotten that “fast” and “slow” are relative terms,
and that no matter what pace, a long training run can be difficult and boring. (And often, a faster runner just adds miles
to the run rather than make it shorter.)
Epilogue: I spent the
entire next week sick with a bug, so I’m guessing it was why the paczki run was
so tough. I’m falling a bit behind with
mileage in February so hopefully the weather will warm up and I’ll be able to
add some miles in soon!
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