One month in

I am happy that I have made it through my first month of marathon training - yes, that's right I am also freely talking about it, even though I am a tiny bit scared it will jinx me.  Today marks my 5th training week (yesterday was a rest day), which also means I am 19 days away from my first half marathon of 2012 - March 11th here we come!  My mileage has been pretty awesome and so far I have actually been running a little more then is totally necessary just because I am enjoying it so much (note - still doesn’t mean that I like getting up on Saturday morning early).  I’ve got to say I feel good, though I know that this is just the beginning.  The next four weeks long runs are 13, 10, 15 and 12 miles - which at this point I feel prepared for and I am pumped to be back in double-digit runs.  It is really about keeping my energy level where it needs to be to support my running as well as staying healthy and dealing with any injuries that may come up.

I feel really excited and optimistic about my training.  I know that really anything can happen between now and the end of May, but I will just figure it out.  That is really the biggest lesson that I learned last year was that the unexpected will happen and you just have to roll with it and do your best to keep running and not get discouraged.  I don’t love keeping a training schedule going (runs|workouts 5 days a week) but it keeps me honest in a few different ways – all of which I am super proud of.  I read this yesterday:

The Marathon is not about the race, it's about commitment; It's not about instant gratification, it's about endurance. It's not about the thrill, it's about passion. To run a marathon, you need to not only commit to the sport, you need to commit to yourself. In short, to run a marathon, you need to be a runner.

Run.

run love run

Onto week 3! I made it through my starter two weeks and am beginning my third week of training.  This week will put me back into the double-digit runs…it’s on - whether or not I am ready though luckily I think that this will be good for me.  My boyfriend left for bootcamp yesterday (though the journey actually started the day before) so this week was much more emotional than usual.  I decided to do a run for him yesterday.  This is a tactic that I like to employ when I don’t really want to go running because it places the emphasis on the fact that sometimes when you don’t necessarily want to do something you do it for someone else.  It was probably one of the best things that I did yesterday.  It was unusually warm again, so I was able to go out without a jacket and in what I like to think of as my “spring” (they are black and snazzy pink) pants.  I told myself that all I need to do was go out and see how I felt and that would determine how far I would go. I ran 5.5 miles from the Rondout through midtown with an uptown loopity loop and back home. 

Really I needed to run to clear my head and just let everything settle in.  As I was running I kept thinking “you need to be strong”. This strength isn’t found simply in the physical act of running, but I needed to remind myself to be strong in spirit and with my thoughts.  In order to thrive it is up to me to make my runs (and this time) bright and thoughtful.  I want to be a stronger person in all aspects of my life – to focus on making the time that I have worthwhile and meaningful.  Maybe some days that is a run and others it is writing or drawing - but letting myself see where it is I would like to be. 

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”  C.S. Lewis