I leave for Walt Disney World to run the Star Wars the Dark Side Half-marathon in 25 days. 25 DAYS! It is DEFINITELY time to get excited, People! I may or may not already be packing;).
I wanted to give a quick update on my training. I know many of you reading are new to running, and I want to make sure you understand that no matter how cheerful and peppy I may seem about all these miles, training can be hard. I loosely follow Jeff Galloway’s training plans and I definitely recommend them! I really do run only 3 days a week, with cross-training on the off days (which for me is typically just a long walk), and it’s perfect for my life. I just did a video on the YouTube channel about The Long Run so head over there if you want more info on that.
But let’s talk about yesterday. I DID NOT want to run 10 miles and I actually didn’t HAVE to, but if I didn’t do it yesterday I’d have to do it next weekend, which would mean no break between my 10 and 12 mile long runs.
As an over 45 runner, I find it’s super helpful to my recovery to give myself a week off from a long run at least every 3rd week. So because I did my 10 miler yesterday, here’s how the next week will work:
3/25 (yesterday): 10 miles (averaged 12:16 per mile)
3/27 (Tuesday): 3 – 4 miles tempo run (run at goal race pace which, for me, is around 11 – 11:30/mile)
3/29 (Thursday): 3 – 4 miles easy (12:30 pace ideally)
3/31 (Saturday): 5 miles easy
I’ll then do my normal weekly runs, one more long run (12 miles) on April 7th and then a 2 week taper.
Yesterday’s 10 miler was truly harder than it should have been and I’m really happy I’m going to have time to get a 12 miler in as well. As I’ve mentioned, Sara and I will run this race together and we’re not running for time, but she’s naturally a better runner than I am (it honestly doesn’t hurt that her legs are twice as long as mine;), so I like to be prepared so I don’t slow her down. And also, want to have plenty of gas left in my tank at the end of the race for the REAL reason we’re there: wandering around Epcot having fun and eating and drinking (in moderation of course:).
I truly enjoyed yesterday until the last 2 miles when things started cramping up and I was having to engage my whole body to just keep going. I don’t like that feeling. I want running to be easy. But even after 7 years of doing this, it just never is. Now on the bright side, I’m truly not sore at all today so to me that says I really am almost half marathon ready.
There are, sometimes, those days when I feel like I could run forever. But they’re the exception, not the rule. So if you’re just starting on your running journey and you’re waiting for it to get easy, I’m sad to say it may never be. Will it get easiER?? Absolutely. For instance, when I started running 7 years ago, 10 miles in 2 hours seemed like a ridiculous pipe dream and now I can do that fairly regularly and honestly don’t think too much about it. Which is SUPER WEIRD.
But I think that’s why I love it so much. You never really stop trying to become a better, more accomplished runner, and as your body adapts to each new improvement, more effort is needed to get to the next level. And I’m some kind of nut job because I actually LIKE that. The carrot keeps getting moved just a little, and I keep trying harder to grab it.
So whether your run this weekend was effortless or whether it was tough like mine (or somewhere in between), I hope you feel proud of your effort. Because just getting out there is a victory in and of itself.
Happy Running!