Sunday, October 25, 2009

Run Fail

Since I'm going for 3 marathons this fall (and the coveted yellow Marathon Maniacs singlet), I've been pseudo following Hal Higdon's Running Multiple Marathons Plan, with 4 weeks between each of my fall marathons (I didn't follow it at all after Rochester and so was extremely disappointed at my 4:35:24 time at Nike Women's Marathon last Sunday). Hopefully, with a flatter course, I can once again stay below four hours again in the Rehoboth Beach Marathon, and get one final push before I take a little bit of a break in December.

Sunday's run called for 2 hours, which I estimated at around 12 - 14 miles, depending on how my legs felt. Long story longer, I barely made it to 5 before turning around in Prospect Park at walking. It was completely mental....I had a cramp, my legs were tired, my body was tired, I wasn't hydrated. I guess I could have pushed through run-walking for another few miles but at that point I was so fed up I just turned around, walked to Fulton Street and got myself a little coffee and read the paper. I was still massively disappointed with myself however. Come on, I just ran a marathon and I couldn't even do an easy 12 miles?

Recently, I've been trying to not be so hard on myself when I don't feel like running. Yet, I have this big crazy goal to qualify for Boston which, unless I start putting in some serious work, I don't know how feasible it is going to be in the spring. Then I think about all those stories of hardcore, dedicated runners who run everyday just because their bodies are used to it. So if it takes 21 days to form a habit, does that mean if I run for 21 days straight I won't feel so debilitated when I try to go long like I did this past Sunday?

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