I am currently training for my third half marathon. If you had asked me two years ago if I could run 13.1 miles, I would have told you no. I had no interest in doing it. Here I am going back at it for a third time.
Half marathon 1- I trained by myself and failed to meet my goals. I walked two of the 13.1 miles and was beyond disappointed with myself. I knew I could do better. I had to do another to be able to say that I RAN a half marathon. To me I hadn't really done it because I hadn't ran it.
Half marathon 2- I found a training buddy and made an amazing friend out of it. We pushed each other past those days where you just didn't want to or thought that you were too tired to run. That doesn't mean that the runs didn't suck, it was just someone there to keep you going and give you a high five at the end. She had never run a half marathon without walking and killed it. We ran it in 2:17, 21 minutes faster than my first time. The feeling was amazing.
Half marathon 3- I moved to Boston and left my wonderful running buddy behind. I think that might be why I had such a bad running week last week. My success is all on me again. There is no one but me to get me out and moving. I want to write about how my training is, what I am feeling and when I look back at this next time, I will be reminded that it was hard, but I got through it stronger than when I started.
Last week was week 5 of my 12 week training schedule. Not quite half way. My short runs are starting to become more time consuming at 4 and 5 miles and my weekend run was supposed to be 7. Since I am new to Boston, every run is new to me. I am working on finding paths that I like, but that takes time and some bad runs. I don't have a collection of mapped out routes that I can just hop on and do in a second. Work is stressful and I tried to give up sweets. I forgot how important hydrating is. I had a work trip to Toronto. Fall is hitting and the sun is rising later and setting earlier. All of these things led to my horrible, miserable training week. The type of week that makes you want to quit. I ran a total of 6 miles when I was supposed to get to 22. Maybe if I write about my bad runs, I can put them behind me and move on.
In getting back in this week, I want to keep my positive thoughts up there and remind myself that bad runs happen. I have a friend running a full marathon. She is crazy: all marathoners are crazy. She runs so much and yet she still has bad runs like me. It is ok. It happens to all of us. The bad make the good feel even better.
Here is to happier running!
