Running with My Mind on My Mile & My Mile on My Mind

I used to be good at planning.  I used to be able to commit to dinners, happy hours, civic club meetings, etc, a month in advance.  Now I am doing well if I can RSVP the week of the event and actually make it. 

It was Tuesday of this past week when a coworker asked what time I was going to run on Thursday.  I had no idea.  I didn’t even know what time I would run on Wednesday!  At this point in my life, I pretty much take it a day at a time.  And while I occasionally let something slip (Who knew dog kennels in Charlotte fill up so quickly in the summer?!), I think concentrating on the current tasks at hand is the only way to get everything (or at least most things) done.

My philosophy of taking life a day at a time absolutely extends to my marathon training.  The idea of twenty weeks of hard, long, time-consuming training can be daunting especially when you have only just started.  A runner logging 60 miles a week should be getting around nine hours of sleep a night, but several nights this past week I was squeaking by with just six.  While pushing through an early morning run on less than adequate amount of sleep, I thought, “I am just running a lot this week – Other weeks will be easier.”  And then reality hit that I have only just begun building my mileage.  I will need to only find more time to run in the coming weeks.

While the sheer quantity of miles and hours required of marathon training can certainly send a person into a tailspin, nothing may create a sense of panic like a bad thought on a long run…

I was about five miles in to a fourteen miler on a hot, sunny, Sunday afternoon in Charlotte.  I began to worry about the heat and the blazing sun.  I had a ways to go, and I was miles from home…Would I make it?

Then, I checked in with myself (Yes – You will talk to yourself when you are a distance runner.)  “PJ (For some reason, I always call myself by my nickname while running) – How do you feel?  I feel good.  Not too hot?  No.”  And that was that. 

The worst thing you can do during a long training run or a marathon is get too caught up with the distance you have left to go.  Sure – You can’t blindly just run full-out ignoring the necessity to leave some energy to finish, but you will find that the easiest way to tick off mile-after-mile is to keep your mind focused on your current mile marker and learn to accept and find some sort of peace with where you are in the run.  Before you know it, you will be near the end and the countdown will have begun.

This week is the 4^th of July, and I can hardly believe it.  How did I not see the holiday coming, and when did it get so hot outside?   Just like the 4^th has snuck up on me, I know that the countdown to the Marine Corps Marathon will be here before I know it.  I don’t want to miss any valuable training with the false sense of security that the marathon is still months away.  Thus, I will keep my focus and do my best, week by week, day by day, mile by mile.     

MCM Training Week Three: 58 Miles

(Included 11 Mile Run on Beach.  Longest run = 12 miles)

This Week’s Beer Choice: Green Flash Brewing Co.’s West Coast IPA (San Diego, CA)