Friday, October 9, 2015
After I signed up with my marathon coach, I was given access to explore the robust NYRR training site. This also gave me the option of clicking through a week-by-week view of my personalized training plan. You know that moment when you have to decide whether to peek ahead just to see what you are in for, or just let the whole thing roll out over time? Well, I peeked. Oh why did I peek?
Before even starting the program, I jumped ahead and looked toward August and wondered what kind of evil mastermind would schedule a 6-mile run the day before an 11-mile run? And then there was the one-two punch of a 6-mile Saturday followed by an 18-mile slugfest on Sunday. Seriously, people? This led to Week 13, the Big Kahuna: 20 Miles. In between, there were 8-mile interval runs, 6-mile regular runs, … and fartleks (what new form of torture is that?) I am not an elite runner. I am a mom. I am a mere mortal. I have a life.
And I signed up for this.
At that point, I made a very conscious decision to stop clicking ahead. Like childbirth, sometimes it is just best that you do not know the details about what you are in for until it is too late to change your mind.
Since that day, just as I approach my runs one mile at a time and click them off as I go, so too I have focused my training energies on taking it one day, one workout at a time. If I can do what my coach doles out today, then surely I can do whatever is assigned tomorrow.
It is with the same building-block logic that I approach this weekend’s long run. Because I was able to do 16, I completed 18. Because I conquered 18, I can do 20 this Sunday.
And if I can do 20, I will be able to do 26.2.
Monday, October 12, 2015
The 20 miles are run and done! There literally is nothing left on the training books that I have not already completed. As noted by my coach, the hard work has been done, and it is time to reap the rewards. The hay is in the barn! And it feels pretty damn great.
All of us going through the training pilgrimage have done it – visualized race day. But now, more than ever, it seems real, palpable and, most important, within reach.
My focus is shifting now to this: stay healthy, stay safe, remain grateful for all this experience has brought my way, and embrace every living moment of this journey, because it is incredible.