I do me! (an update on marathon training) — Legally Fit

But amid the progress, there’s been pain.  This update on my training covers the past two weeks, and the biggest difference over these weeks has been the way my body feels.  Perhaps it’s due to the increased running distance.  Maybe it’s been the result of some harder strength training workouts.  It could be from the days I go climbing.  Most likely, it’s all of that.  And that’s where the biggest realization of what I needed to do with my training program hit me.  Up until this point, my life revolved around training.  I now understand that training also needs to revolve around me.  Of course, it’s always had to fit around my job, but work is not the only part of me outside of running.  With this insight, I now approach my program with one additional question in mind for each day’s plan . . . what’s the best thing I can do for me today?

It seems obvious to ask this question but answering it is not easy.  I didn’t ask myself this for the first nine weeks of training largely because I didn’t yet know the answer.  I needed to experience training.  I needed to run with discomfort from time to time.  And I needed to test the limits when faced with new obstacles that I’ve never encountered before.  Doing all of this taught me about running.  It taught me discipline.  And it also taught me about my body.

The full two weeks of training are described below this post for those who want to see every detail, but here I’ll share a few key moments of how I’m learning to make this training program my own.

The lesson started with my first run of this two-week cycle.  It was a short, easy pace run on Sunday August 10 after a 10-mile run the day before.  While that Saturday’s run was a dip down in milage, it was not an easier one for me.  It was when my body – particularly my groin – was increasingly feeling the effects of training and everything else around it.  When I woke up for Sunday’s run, I wondered if I should even be going out for it.  I was hurting more than usual.  Perhaps this meant I was supposed to take the day off.  After all, everything in fitness revolves around listening to your body.  I was prepared to accept that I could take a break if I needed one.  But I wasn’t convinced I did.  I also wasn’t convinced I didn’t.  So, there was only one way to find out.  After much self-analysis, I knew that the best plan was to go out and test it – carefully.  I’d run slower and pay close attention to how I felt.  If I was in pain, I’d stop immediately.  If I wasn’t, I’d learn a little more about running uncomfortably.  There are more details below, but the short of it is that the run taught me how to manage a moment that felt on the edge.  I learned how to take it easier.  I learned how to slow down to no pain when speeding up hurt.  I wasn’t out there to set a pace record, and in fact, it’s probably the first time I’ve ever run where I actually set a minimum time for it to take to run the distance.  The goal was literally to go slower.

Taking it easier kept the soreness in check, but continuing to stick to my training routine was unlikely to let it heal entirely.  Some days were a little better, and others were a bit worse.  It was time to start thinking about a day off.

I took that first day off on Wednesday August 13.  Typically, a light day anyway which only calls for 20 minutes of strength training, I saw it as a choice between getting stronger or getting fresher.  Fresher won out, as I took the day off entirely.  My run the next day proved I made the right call, as I hit a PR for my fastest mile run on a five-mile loop.  I did that because I was fitter and fresher.  One day off didn’t heal everything, but besides the positive effect on my body, it also fixed my mindset.  I learned so much more about how this all works.

Over the next week and a half, I had a better feel for each day than I ever had before.  I was becoming at-one with my program.  Or better yet, I was making the program at-one with me.

My last post covered my struggle to focus the last time I went climbing in The Gunks.  It was my first time out there where I lost the ability to stay in the moment.  No doubt, a good part of the reason for this was that my head was still wrapped in the mindset of training.  I even went for the run that was on my program that morning – at 4 AM – before climbing.  It all became too much for me amid my struggle on the rock.  One might think the easy lesson is, don’t climb anymore during training.  But climbing is undeniably a big part of who I am, and as I mentioned, the lesson I’m learning is to make training revolve around me rather than solely making me revolve around training.  That said, there’s some give and take in that.  After all, training is also part of who I am right now.  With all that in mind, I nailed this one.  I nailed it because I took a day off on Monday and skipped a cross-training day (after doing extra the day before).  I nailed it because I swapped out a 45-minute run on Thursday with a 40-minute swim– to put less impact on my body.  I nailed it because I planned the day with Patty as a mixture of climbing and learning. There’s more to do out there than just climb, as I need to learn so many levels of tying knots, setting anchors, taking down anchors, and learning the purpose of every part of what makes us safe out there.  We nailed that out there on Friday, and I nailed the climbing too!  Not without struggles, but without any thought in my mind beyond making every move.  I was out there doing me, and knowing that, left no room for distractions.