Days until Burlington: 197
While at a party this weekend, someone said to me (about marathon training), "I'd say good luck, but I know luck doesn't have a lot to do with it." He's absolutely right - luck might make you a naturally fast runner. Luck might get you perfect weather on race day. But luck falls short for endurance sports - it's always preparedness.
After writing last week about how hard it is to get out there this time of year...I totally succumbed to cheesecake and gift wrapping and non-running. I've now had two weeks in a row below 10 miles - which isn't bad, per se, (better than two weeks in a row at 0 miles), but I've got about 8 weeks before I'm at a 25 mile a week (plus) clip. I am terrified that I'll just burn out, and hover around 10 miles, and then suddenly have to make a 150% increase. I haven't been hitting my targets to prevent that. I'm doing OK...but I could be doing better.
But running is like that. Most things in life are like that. You have your expectations (of yourself, of others, of the weather) and sometimes, you miss. So, you recalculate and refocus. I mean, I guess you could give up - but if that's your response to things, I doubt you're even reading this right now. Most likely, you're on your couch, barely on the radar (which is fine, if you have cheesecake, and are just taking a couple nights off of running).
One of the tactics that always helps me is rewording my goal, so that the same things will be accomplished, but my focus won't be on unrealistic (lofty) goals, or putting stress on myself to meet a goal that I just flubbed.
This entire marathon has been built on this premise. Usually, I'm beating myself up over miles, and staring at a 4:59:59 marathon time that I essentially make impossible to reach, because I'm not running the miles. It's a vicious cycle (that landed me a nice 6+ time last time). So, much like my focus for Burlington has changed (stick to the training plan, and the time will most likely follow), I have to change up my approach to my building miles.
My goal from now until February (when I start training) is to run 5 days a week. Maybe I can only do a mile some days because of time. Maybe I can only do a mile before my legs shred. Last night I did 4 miles because there was no wind by the Charles - and those days are pretty tough to find. I was feeling good, so instead of 3, I did 4. If I'm running 5 days a week, it'll be pretty easy to hit those mileage weeks I've been missing.
To also keep me focused, I'm looking at some races to put on my calendar. To kick off 2012, I'm running the St. Pete's Beach Classic 10K when I go to see my parents in Tampa MLK weekend. Definitely looking to get the speed back to what it was in June for another sub-hour 10K. (Especially because my Mom and Dad will be watching - and the last time they saw me run a race, it was the final quarter mile of Boston - so needless to say, I wasn't looking my best.)
Just making sure my luck won't run out!
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