T-Minus 6 Weeks

How is our marathon training going, you ask? Well, first of all, thanks for asking! Because inquiring minds want to know, here’s an update! In fact, here’s exceedingly more than you ever wanted to know…

All kidding aside, I know I said that I wouldn’t write much about training in an effort to avoid boring anyone, but I thought that it would be okay to confirm that we are indeed still planning to run 26.2 miles on October 30th, and we’re pretty much on schedule with our training as of right now. Or at least we’re following our plan fairly well. Whether or not we’ll actually be prepared on race day has yet to be determined. 


I was watching a documentary about marathons a few weeks ago, and a man who is a seasoned marathoner said that he questions himself every time he walks up to that start line. Because the reality is that it’s a daunting task set before you and there’s always this somewhat shaky voice inside asking, “Can I really do this?” I am familiar with that voice. But, we’ll just keep up with our running and hope for the best! And without further ado, here are my reflections on marathon training thus far...

1.) Blood? Check. Sweat? Check, check. Tears? Yep. Go ahead and check that one too.

If you will recall, I said the following in my post about signing up for the marathon: “With any luck, there won’t be blood. But there will be sweat. Lots and lots of sweat. And there may even be tears. Actually, knowing me, there’s a pretty distinct possibility that there will be tears.”

So there was a little blood a few weeks ago. Not a big deal, though. We were doing our long run on a Saturday morning and this audacious little square of sidewalk jumped up and bit me! (translation: a piece of sidewalk was popped up higher than the rest of the sidewalk, my toe caught, and down I went.) Travis tripped too, but caught himself. Being the heroic man that he is, he tried to grab me on the way down but to no avail. So I came away with a scraped up calf and knee. And maybe a slightly bruised ego, too. It’s hard to feel cool when you’re splayed out on the pavement. But did I stop running? No! The answer is no!

As far as the sweat goes, that’s a given. Because I am a self-conscious person at times (well, probably more often than I’d like to admit, actually), I’m always telling Travis that I sweat more than everybody else that I see running. Travis says that this is ridiculous and all in my head. And I say, “No really, I do! I swear!” But you know what? He’s right! The handful of times that I’ve actually given the other runners out there a good look and not just a quick glance, I have seen that they too look like a soggy mess! (Gross, I know. Sorry.) Honestly though, it’s pretty hard not to look this way when you’re running around in the toaster oven that has been DC this past summer. Not that I’m complaining. It’s summertime. Summertime = hot. This is the natural order of things. But it makes for soggy runners. The good news is that I’ve read that training in heat makes you stronger for the race itself, which will inevitably take place in cooler conditions.

And now we get to the part about the tears. Yep. I cried in the middle of a run. Just like a wimpy girl. I’m one of those females who cries when she’s really, really tired. Or when she’s just had enough. So yeah. It was inevitable. We were on a 12-mile run and a little past the halfway mark, and I don’t even know what happened…I just broke. My emotions caught me off guard, because I’ve run that far before (about 7 miles at that point) without melting down into a weepy puddle. However, it seems that the thought of turning around and covering all of the ground that I had just covered overwhelmed me.

But here’s the thing. I was not well hydrated. I did not eat anything before the run. We did not get good sleep for the couple of nights leading up to the run. And it was 90-something degrees out. So a valuable lesson was learned. We’ve quickly come to acknowledge that we’re getting to the point in our training where diet and sleep play a key role. We can’t just eat Chinese take-out, go to bed at midnight, and then trot off and run 12 miles the next morning. We can make that happen for 5 or 6-mile runs, but not with these longer ones that we’re getting into. (Some of you are probably saying, “Duh!” And you are so right.) So, we’re becoming super cool people and going to bed early on Thursday and Friday nights at a minimum in order to rest up for Saturday mornings. And though we try to be somewhat health conscious all the time with what we eat, we’re getting more serious. In so doing, our long runs lately have made for more positive experiences.   

2.) Ice Baths

Our friend Ben recommends taking an ice bath post-run to help with muscle soreness. So after our long run on the weekends, Travis stretches and then hops into a tub full of ice. He’s says it feels great once you’re done, but I don’t think that I’m ever going to try it. Our rubber ducky, however, seems to be fearless and has joined in on the ice bath fun…

3.) Achilles (Not the Greek Guy)

About a month ago, Travis was out for a week and a half because he strained his Achilles tendon. Apparently this is a very common affliction for runners. Rather than be “mister macho man” and try to push through it, he was smart and gave it rest so that he didn’t injure it further. The tendon seems to be doing okay now. Travis is my buddy, motivator, and encourager with running, so I was on my own out there for a bit. But I think that it was good. Without him there, I had to push myself a little more mentally and I think it’s helpful to practice this. Speaking of mental...

4.) Conversations With Shoulder Angel and Shoulder Devil

When I run, especially during the long runs, at some point there’s usually a back and forth conversation that starts up in my head. Does this make me crazy? Meh. Who cares. It’s like those cartoons where the shoulder angel pops up on the one side telling you to do the right thing, and the shoulder devil pops up on the other side telling you to do the exact opposite. Kind of like Procrastinatey Self and Productive Self. And by the way, don’t take this too seriously. I’m not referring to any sort of theological beliefs here. This is for comedic purposes only.

So the conversation usually goes something like this:

            

Shoulder Devil (SD):  Um, I’m getting pretty tired here.

            

Shoulder Angel (SA):  (pretends not to be listening)

            

SD:  Ahem! Did you hear me? I’m getting pretty tired. I would like to be done now.

            

SA:  (pretends not to be listening some more)

SD:  Hey! I saaaaid, I’m getting pretty tired here! I mean, what are you doing? This is exhausting. I’m breathing hard…it’s hot out here…I’m thirsty. Oh, and my legs are falling off.  No really. Falling right off. I think we better just stop.

SA:  Quiet! I heard you the first time, but I’m not listening to you. And no, we cannot stop. I don’t care that you’re tired. We’re finishing this thing, tired or not!

            

SD:  Okay, seriously, just stop. I’m not even kidding. Stop now! You know you want to. Look at that nice shady spot under those trees. Doesn’t that look delightful? Just jog on over there and take a little break.

            

SA:  Nope. No way. Not going to happen. This training is important. Pain is temporary. You’ve got this. Do you want to get picked up by the slow bus in October? One foot after the other, baby. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...

SD:  STOP!

            

SA:  NO!

            

SD:  YESSS!!!

           

SA:  NOOO!!! SHUT IT! WE ARE DOING THIS!!!!!

            

SD:  (Subdued. For the time being.)

            

SA:  Just keep running, just keep running, just keep runn-ing, running, running, running. What-do-we-do? We ruu-nnn, ruuu-nnnn... (to the tune of Dory’s “just keep swimming” ditty in Finding Nemo)...

And so it goes. Don’t worry. It’s not like this the entire time, or even during every run. For the most part, I enjoy getting out there and the way it clears your head, gets your blood flowing, makes you feel good because you’re doing something good for your body, etc. But I think we've all hit those spots where it gets a bit harder than you bargained for. And the doubts slither in. But that’s the beauty of it. Staying on course even though it’s not easy. Realizing that you really "can" even when you think you "can't." I almost think that I benefit more emotionally/psychologically from running than I do physically. It really is great psychological exercise too.

With that said, I think I’ll let Mr. Armstrong have the final word because he summarizes it all so nicely. And I like Nike ads. They motivate me these days.