Week 4
I struggled with week 4. I skipped a day of running on Tuesday and I only completed eight miles out of the twelve miles scheduled on Sunday. The only silver lining is I ran my fastest 5km to date on Friday, which is no excuse for not running on Tuesday and stopping my run short four miles last night. I’m not going to beat myself up about this, because it just doesn’t matter anymore. It’s in the past and I need to keep moving forward since I have a marathon to run ~100 days from now. It all started going south when I woke up on Monday after running ten miles to close out week three. I was sore all over. Everything hurt. The older I’m getting, the more I’m feeling my age. I can say this and find an audience of similar aged people that will agree and share their ailments. To be honest, I could use age as an excuse to quit right now, pick up a pickle ball racket, reacquaint myself with my golf swing, and cruise through middle age.
So WTF happened?
As mentioned, I did not run my scheduled four miles on Tuesday. Why? The easy answer is I was sore from my ten mile run on Sunday and I needed an extra day to recover. There is some truth to this, but I could’ve cranked out those four miles and checked the box on my spreadsheet green. Also, it was extremely hot on Tuesday. HOT! The heat is a reality, but not an excuse. Plus, I told myself a lie that I knew was a lie when I said it. The lie that I told myself was that I would run in the evening when the weather cooled off a bit. I remember feeling really disappointed in myself that I skipped that run. I marked that day on my spreadsheet with red, representing strike one against me on my three strikes and I’m out policy.
Eight Miles Out of Twelve
The simplest answer for what happened when I cut my twelve mile short last night is I gave up. I ran the same route and I got bored and discouraged. I looked at the Garmin on my wrist and saw it register 7.98. I completed another .02 miles to take me to 8.00 and made a decision to quit without a second thought. The remaining four miles just didn’t matter in my mind. I didn’t have all twelve miles planned our from the beginning so I wasn’t running towards a goal. My idea was to run the previous week’s 10 mile route and add two more to the end to make it a total of twelve. I’m running through Barcelona and there are people everywhere at all hours of the day and night. My running route takes me right into the eye of the storm which makes it hard for me to maintain any pace. I was just running around people and there were so many people everywhere. Last week’s route was great for ten miles, since I never ran ten miles before in my life. I’m starting to learn quickly that I need to adjust my routes for the long runs so I can remain focussed and establish a pace. When I arrived at Drassanes, I hopped on the metro and went home. I didn’t feel defeated or discouraged. I felt like I need to have a better plan for the long runs and I failed myself. The irony is that I probably did run twelve miles in the end when accounting for all the zig zigging through people I had to do.
It’s All Relative
I know it’s easier to train and run a marathon in your 20s than in your 40s and beyond. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. However, it’s hard to justify age being a barrier to completing a marathon when you learn about a distinguished gentleman by the name of Fauja Singh, aka “The Turbaned Tornado”. He was an English-Sikh believed to have run a full marathon at the age of 100 in Toronto. Singh started running at the age of 89 to overcome the grief of losing his son. What about Stelios Prassas? At ninety-one years old, Prassas ran the Athens Marathon. He started running marathons at the age of 59. He runs everyday at the stadium near his house without a coach or trainer. He keeps it simple. Let’s not forget pioneering women runners like 20-year-old Kathrine Switzer who signed up for the Boston Marathon under her gender-neutral writing pseudonym, K.V. Switzer, in order to assure that no one would question her participation. Her run is documented in what are now considered iconic photographs of a racing officiant attempting to grab Switzer from behind and rip off her participant bib when it becomes evident that Switzer was indeed a woman. OMFG! A woman marathon runner?!?! What’s this world coming to? Simultaneously, Switzer’s boyfriend, also participating in the marathon, shoves the man to the ground in order for Switzer to keep running. I need to remind myself daily of these individuals so that I can continue pushing forward to 26.2 miles. Even though it was hot on Tuesday and there were a lot of people I had to run around, it seems ridiculous to me today that I didn’t allow myself to get out and run. I’m not going to dwell on this, but I am going to not let myself fall into this trap again.
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