I always have a hard time committing my first month of marathon training.
It’s kind of boring to me. Having run a bunch of halfs and fulls, ramping up my mileage doesn’t excite me until I get to past 13.1. Once I’ve run longer than a half, then it’s a little more exciting.
So I’ll take inspiration wherever I can get it.
Yesterday on our run, Ashley and I were talking about Kelly’s marathon training and how she says she hasn’t missed a workout yet.
Then I went on a date last night with a fellow runner, and we geeked out about marathons and PRs, etc, and I told him my goal (sub-3:50) and my current PR (3:56…three years ago.)
OH! You can totally do that, he said. “It won’t be easy, it will be hard work, but you’ve done it before.”
This morning, I had yoga on my schedule. I woke up with killer cramps and snoozed hard, and then just had an annoying morning — Bailey being a brat, got to work to find out our site had crashed and had to deal with unhappy customers on social media.
I left work with a soul (or skull?) crushing headache but with a class reserved at Laughing Lotus. I laid on my couch with my eyes closed for a few minutes and contemplated, again, bailing.
I thought of what this dude said. I thought of Kelly’s training. I thought about how successful race training is not just the running. I thought of how I told a friend the other day I really wanted to do more yoga. I thought of how it’s usually just easier to do the damn thing than to make excuses. I really want to meet my goal on November 12, and not wish I had trained harder/better.
And then I got my ass off the couch and went to yoga. I told myself I could leave if my head didn’t feel any better…but what do you know? About 1/3 of the way into class, my head started feeling better.
And I left class with a total yoga high and, per usual, wondering why I don’t yoga more.
Especially because, hello, my favorite studio HAS FLASH TATS.
What are the non-running things you do to help during race training? What do you do/tell yourself to psych yourself up?
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I felt the exact same way when I started training for my second marathon (I am now on week 8 of training!) and I couldn't figure out why I felt so uninspired... then a few weeks in I did a really hard workout and finally felt that feeling again of accomplishing something, and really being pushed! Running with my weekly marathon clinic has helped a lot too, hearing everyone's reasons for why they're running the marathon.
I'm about to start training for my 5th half marathon, and I definitely want to incorporate more yoga. Not just for flexibility, but for mindfulness too. I always tell myself durning or before workouts when I'm not feeling it that "it won't take that long" and "it'll be done soon!"