run, rest, eat, bitch, buy things, cross-train, blog, repeat.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Time to Re-Evaluate

First of all.. thanks for all the sports bra recommendations... I ordered one to try out and should get it today! I'll review it once I get a chance to test it out!

So... since the Chicago Marathon and since deciding NOT to attempt the 50 mile race in December... I've been doing some reflecting and some planning.

First of all, upon further inspection of my training... I was not in as good of running shape as I thought I was for the Chicago Marathon. I was making an old mistake (see Eugene Marathon training and we know how that turned out)... I was mistaking the fact that I had gotten in all my long runs as proof that I was good to go for the marathon. Which.. yeah, to finish... I was fine. But even putting the stomach issues, the overheating issues, etc.. aside... there was no way I was prepared to bust out a sub 4:30 marathon. And that's fine. Because I wasn't training for time. I was training to help a friend cross the finish line.

But, after realizing that I was going to be on my own in the race when my friend got injured late in the training.. I started to think... hmmm maybe I can do better than just finish. And then I was all.. yeah.. I got in all my long runs. I'm good to go.

Such a fool I am. How did I forget that the long runs are only 50% of your training. The rest of it... is actually putting in the work the rest of the week. I KNOW this. I've LIVED this. And yet sometimes I still forget.

So, with that in mind.. it's my goal to getting back to that place where I do the long runs and I do the mileage the rest of the week, too. Running 3-5 mile runs 4-5 times the rest of the week, is fine for me if I want to finish marathons... but to actually think that I might could do more than finish... I gotta do more than that.

And you know what? I've actually got the itch to do something. I know! I'm shocked, too! I've gone over a year not having that itch... of just being happy to run the miles. So, I'm going to scratch the itch and see what happens...

5 comments:

Katie said...

I've been injured so much that I forget what it's like to NOT have the itch. glad you are being smart, lady!

Carina said...

I like it!

Have you ever thought about trying heart-rate based training? I did it this spring and liked it. Occasionally I'd realize I needed to slow down and ease up, but usually my numbers were telling me I need to push harder and pick up the pace. It seemed to work well for me.

JojaJogger said...

Here's to happy scratching!

T said...

That's the EXACT conversation I've been having with myself since NYCM: I can finish by phoning it in with long runs and not much other dedication. But do I want to?

Keri said...

I have been asking myself what I want to do next. I would love to try to qualify for Boston, but I do not want to kill myself trying. I thought about an ultra. Or maybe a tri, but then I remembered that I despise cyclists, so I guess an ultra it might be!