Marathon Training Progress?!

120 Days Away

I recently looked at the countdown timer widget on my MacBook that reminds me how many training days are left. and was alarmed to see how quickly it went from 223 days from my first blog post to now being only 120 Days out. What have I been doing the past 100 days? In a nutshell, I haven’t been doing any kind of serious training. I was just going through the motions. I ran 3 miles here, 2 miles there with no clear vision on how I was going to get from mile 0 to mile 26.2. I didn’t feel like my training was paying any dividends and I was sticking to runs that kept me in my comfort zone. Complicating matters, I went to Greece for three weeks where the weather was unbearably hot. I packed my running shoes, but I knew I wasn’t going to do any running; except, running around Greece working on my tan and doing low impact workouts in the aqua blue waters of Greece. Furthermore, I “forgot” my running shoes in Athens and made no attempt to try alternative methods to getting in shape.

This all came to an end on July 9th when I returned to Barcelona from my Greek Odyssey to the harsh reality that I cannot run a marathon if I continue on my current course. I consulted the internet to download a 16 week marathon plan. This plan gets me to marathon conditioning 2 weeks ahead of schedule and accounts for any unforeseen injury in the process. The very next day, I strapped on my shoes and went for a 3 mile run on a very hot day. Three miles was no arbitrary number. Running three miles was a comfortable distance/pace that I was accustomed to before taking my sojourn from running. I was super encouraged to know that I could still run 3 miles effortlessly and ran ~5 miles two days later, another 3 miles the day after that. and started building miles with a six mile run on Sunday. After one week, I am encouraged by both my physical shape and mental aptitude to complete the next 16 weeks.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

In August, we are booked for a trip to Dublin, Belfast, and Greater Ireland. This time I don’t have the luxury of “forgetting” my shoes. I will be in Dublin for the assigned 15 mile run. I have my playlist for that run already chosen: Thin Lizzy. A little Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back In Town will lift my feet and my sprits. The only thing I have to address is finding a route to run and remember to look right and then left when crossing the street. Depending on where we we’re going to book our hotel, I’m going to plot a 15 mile run, up-down-and-all-around Dublin passing as many monuments and sites that I can squeeze in. Hopefully, I can run past some barley. Why barley? In Ireland, the barley came to be seen as a symbol of the spirit of Irish nationalism which could not be buried and destroyed. It would always be reborn and come back stronger than ever before. I’m thinking that a pre-run pint or two of Guinness will provide the carbs needed to fuel the body for 15 miles while lifting my spirit. I believe it will be more pleasant to run 15 miles in Dublin over Athens and Barcelona in August. If I can stick to the script and make through those 15 miles in Dublin, I believe I can make it to the finish line in November.

The New Shoes

To date, i have been running with some department store bought New Balance running shoes that I picked up for 50 euros in the spring. So far, they are working out really well. I went from laying lazily on the couch to being able to run six miles in these shoes. There’s nothing wrong with them, but I know I will need an upgrade for the Athens Marathon. As I’m building miles, I can feel the need for something with more cushioning; especially, on the hard road surface. So today I bought a pair of New Balance 1080×12 running shoes to help me tackle the long miles of running. I found them on sale for 90 euros from 180 euros and they were the last pair in my size. Obviously, I had to buy them. However, I’m not going to be running in these shoes anytime soon, because I have to “earn” the right to wear these. The deal I made with myself is that if I follow the assigned training for the next 4 weeks and make it through the 15 mile Dublin run, I can keep these new shoes for the remainder of my training, all the way through to the Athens Marathon. I would hate to have to return these to the store, because they look pretty awesome in a Greek blue. I need to stick to the script, because I feel like people are constantly negotiating with themselves and re-negotiating and negotiating again for more favorable terms. Running a marathon is a serious endeavor that requires a serious approach. I don’t think there is any room for negotiation in the training plan. If there is some room to negotiation, the fact remains that a marathon is still 26.2 miles after all. My hope is that I run so fucking much and my knees and feet hurt so much these next four week that I’m going to power through so I can get into the new pair of New Balance shoes. With the hard stuff behind me, I can focus my energy on running a successful race. For me a successful marathon is a sub five hour finishing time. I’ll check back again soon to provide another status update on this long distance endeavor.