Tuesday, August 09, 2005

A "Six Weeks To Go" Pep Talk

Sorry about the double post yesterday, Blogger has been acting up again.

Yesterday was my first day back to work after a week off, so I was ready for a run by the end of the day. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that the train schedules changed because of vacation season in Germany, so I was almost an hour late getting home. My wife was sacked out on the cough so I decided to go ahead and do my run.

The weather was still mild, 21C/70F, overcast, looking like rain. I warmed up, and set out on my 16K/10M route with a relatively slow pace. My goal was a gentle recovery run. As usual I gradually speeded up anyway, finishing the first 10K in 57:23. Around this point my legs started complaining so I tried to slow down again, eventually finishing my run in 1:32:32. My average pace was 5:47/K (9:18/M), entirely too fast for a recovery run. Of course I feel it in my aching muscles today.

I also made the mistake of taking a 30 minute walk with my coworker during lunch yesterday. It was nice, helped limber up the joints, but was probably not the best thing considering the run I had planned last night.

Anyway tonight I want to do upper body weight training (low weight) and maybe jog 3-6K (2-4M). I really feel like I need to do my hill run on Wednesday, but I question if I can recover enough by Saturday to do my approximately 3 hour 40 minute run (approx. 34K/21M). I guess my thighs will let me know!

Other Ponderings:

You may have noticed that I am pushing my training pretty hard. My goal for my next marathon is to finish in under 4 ½ hours. I am not a natural runner who glides effortlessly over the finish line of a race. I have to work for every step forward that I achieve. I’m sure many/most of you can relate to this. I don’t know if I will ever be able to invest so much time for training in the future, so I feel like I need to get over this hump now - on September 18th.

My first marathon taught me that you need to put in the time and the mileage. I agree with Galloway and others who say to finish you can do less and still get over the line. I achieved this! But in September I want more, I want to finish strong. In the last several months I have learned a lot about my body, I know I can push pretty hard, but I also know that the marathon will still be hard, really hard – on that day I will need to reach deep inside and hope that I can push all the way to the finish line...stay tuned!

Comments:
I have complete faith in you, Jack. With your attitude, nothing will stop you from reaching your goals.
 
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