Sunday, August 01, 2010

NYC Marathon Training - Back on Track

This was a very good running week. I'm starting to feel a little more confident that I can actually pull off this crazy scheme of mine.

  • Monday - 4, loops in the neighborhood
  • Wednesday - 3, with circuits
  • Friday - 9, on the treadmill
  • Saturday - 2, at the Trail
All this for a grand total of 18 miles for the week. This is the highest my weekly mileage has been in at least five years. I looked back at my running logs from11 years ago, at the height of my marathon training, and I averaged between 20-25 miles per week, except for the weeks when I did long runs of 20 miles. I've learned from experience that my body doesn't handle super high weekly mileage. So as my long runs get longer, I'll have to back off on my other runs to balance everything out.

Friday's run was a real head trip. I went to the gym planning to run at least seven, but hoping for more. Somewhere around mile five, I started to doubt my plan. But then I decided to just take it one mile at a time, allowing myself a water break after each mile. Mile 9 was the hardest, not just because my legs were turning to rubber, but because I was bored stiff. I had already listened to two Fresh Airs and an entire running playlist. I had made the mistake of picking a treadmill in front of the TVs that were tuned to ESPN, Telemundo and Fox News, so I didn't want to watch any of those.

Through the whole mile, I kept thinking, "I could just stop. I don't HAVE to keep running. It's not like I have to run back to my car. All I have to do is push the Stop button, and I'm done."

Despite the running commentary in my head, I finished the mile. Woo!

Saturday I went down to the Trail for an easy 2 miles, just to get Friday's run out of my legs. I could have run farther, but I was back to my car, and I couldn't talk myself into running more.

I know that it's going to get harder, mentally, for me to do my long runs at the gym, but I'm going to have to suck it up. We're heading into the worst heat of the summer, and there's no way I'd survive my long runs outside. I'm going to have to download some audio books or something to get me through the endless miles in the gym.

But I can do it.

3 comments:

ckh said...

Nice! Audio books would be great. Keep it up. :)

Ann in NJ said...

Audio books are awesome to run/walk to (at least for me). My library offers free software which then allows you to download free audiobooks, etc. to my MP3 player. Currently listening to "Eat Pray Love" and enjoying it thoroughly.

Alexandra said...

I can't believe you are so dedicated. I am awesome, too, b/c I'm going to become like you.

Thanks for the kick in the butt. I gotta do this... just gotta.

You go, b/c it inspires me.