I did make it out the door on Sunday. For 2-miles. Two miles that were so slow that I couldn’t even add them to my BTT sidebar. But I did do something and I suppose that counts a little. On Monday I met Massoman at the Y and we ran the trails (while Massowoman slept in). It was a good 3-mile clip at a fairly decent pace for me – slow for Richard, I’m sure. And this morning, Cindy was kind enough to run with me for 3-miles, even though I know she was exhausted from her boot camps and weight lifting.
I have good friends, but eventually I’m going to have to learn to go it solo. It sounds weird, but training for the NYC Marathon alone is my goal. I won’t do all my runs alone, but I need to know that I can get my ass out the door and motivate myself. I like myself so I don’t know why running with just me is a problem.
Since I was needing a little motivation, I decided to re-read a few of my marathon archives. I read about my training for the Chicago 05 Marathon and how faithfully and diligent Karrie and I trained during the hottest summer months. We even ran one 27-mile run on a very sunny 96-degree day (by accident, but that’s a whole other blog post). Then I read my archives for the San Diego 06 Marathon. I read about my half-ass training and how I missed over half of my training runs only to decide that “just finishing” was my goal.
I finished the Chicago Marathon in 4:57. I finished the San Diego Marathon in 5:04. Seven. It’s only seven measly minutes between training really, really hard and not really training at all. ***Sigh***
And if you need another reason to never re-read your archives . . . I have a degree in English, and yet, obviously, I know not about this grammar thing, or spelling phenomenon. I frequently have misplaced apostrophes, run-on sentences; and a series of blatant grammatical errors that makes an elementary school drop out look like a whiz kid. Why do I let these things bother me so much?
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I am in abundance with grammatical errors as well. I always second guess myself as to whether I should use a comma, or, not, who really knows? I didn’t realize you were training for New York, sorry, I’ll pay better attention from now on.
I don’t think the comparison between Chicago and SD is fair. Most people improve significantly from their first marathon to their second – perhaps by a half hour. If you think of it that way, your lack of training probably cost you 37 minutes. On the bright side, with proper training your potential is that much better! (Calculate it yourself. A 2:04 half could be a 421 marathon.)
(forgot the “:” in “421″ just to go along with the whole grammar thing…)
Grammer? We don’t need no stinkin’ grammar.
ah feggedaboudit… grammah schmammah….
Just keep running – the rest will sort itself out. And why, exactly, do you need to train by yourself? My best marathon ever was the one I did with TNT where I trained with the group 3 times a week if not 4. It isn’t about whether or not you do it solo – it’s about whether or not you do it at all. As Danny says, with training you could have a marathon finish in some number of minutes under 5 hours. Now go for it!
That’s why I don’t have archives.
My grammar is in her 80s. (My spilling ain’t too bad either.)
The one year that I taught high school math, I made students write out, in detail, the steps necessary to solve algebra problems. It is part of my belief that understanding of how and why a method works is more important than mathematical accuracy. Math accuracy can be replaced by Excel or other programs. My problems was that I was more critical of their grammar than the English teachers. Teaching didn’t work out for me.
Anyway, we aren’t here for your grammar. Run on!
you’re in a glum run funk.
i’ll finish this post nekkid so you can have a giggle.
i’ve never altered my training much, but the results are all over the place. there’s a lot to be said about how you’re feeling that day or the weeks leading up to it. sick? happy at work? michael putting his shoes over your nice sink? these things add up.
i re-read my chicago ’05 training posts too recently and they depressed the hell out of me, because I’m not sure i can ever train that hard for a marathon ever again.
i agree – no more archive reading!
I can admit that I am not perfect when it comes to grammar.
Susan … when it is time to start the NYC training let me have your program and I will hold you to it in the most annoyingly pleasant way I can. And you can do the same for me.
I’m going with the 3x/week plan with an occasional extra day. It’s the FIRST plan available on runnersworld.com. It doesn’t start until after July 4 so now is the time to build up to that first 10 mile long run.
You can do it. It is amazing to me how slacking makes me blue but running picks me up. I just have to do it and you can too.
i AM training alone and it kinda sucks now as my mileage is going up…i hear ya on the need to know that you can motivate yourself to get out there though…
Katie nekkid! I didn’t need that.
Susan, if you got your training right, I think you’d surprise yourself what you might run for a marathon – much closer to 4 hours than 5.
Happy birthday for ‘whenever’. Is it really ‘the big one’?! Surely not!
hey friend, take it from who spells perfictly every tyhme. sum days=chicken, sum days=feathers. run on friday, sat, or sunday?