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#GoTheDist

I finally did something that I have been needing to do for my marathon training. I added my name to a list that I found through Twitter called #GoTheDist. Some of the people I follow on Twitter kept tweeting about it so I checked it out and found all of the info here on an awesome blog by Fat Girl vs.World. You should check it it out it is a great blog to read. Here is a summary of what #GoTheDist is all about:

What is #GoTheDist? It's you challenging yourself to meet a goal that is not measured by pounds or inches lost.  It is not measured against the distance of any other person (as we all have different abilities).  It is only measured by your ability to push yourself to meet the goals you set for yourself (we measure success by percentage of goal complete).  The community provides the support, motivation, and inspiration for you to reach your goal.
I wanted to sign up because it sounded like a lot of fun. Setting a goal or goals and charting your progress and being motivated by others to reach those goals. But what would be my goals? I have a printed piece of paper that tells me how much I need to run that day and I am a slave to my training program. I always do every mile and every workout and I do them 110%. I absolutely love training. So I don't really need to use that, right? What I really need is a way to keep up with how I can control my eating and how I can find more time for sleep. But those aren't options in this challenge. So what do I use?

The answer came to me Monday morning: I DO need to use my training program. But that is never the problem. I always give 110% to my training regimen. If I am supposed to run 10 miles, I run 10 miles. If I am supposed to lift weights and run an easy 3 miler, that is what I do. Until recently that is.

Right now I am training for a marathon. Right now I am about halfway through my training schedule. Right now I should be in full ass-kicking mode. Right now I am not.

Why?

One thing I have learned over the past 4 years that I have been a runner is that I have to be flexible with my running schedule. I have a wife and three kids that need attention. I have other things I need to be doing sometimes. So before this recent training schedule I would do all of those things and still get ALL of my training done. This time around, not so much. I don't have the intensity that I usually have. Where did it go?

I think the biggest problem has been the fact that I know this time around that the marathon is hard. Really hard. When I train for a 5k or a half marathon I have one thing in mind: PR. Every time I run a race I want to beat my best time. It doesn't happen every time but that is the plan.

I learned a lesson from my first marathon. I trained like crazy and was in the best shape of my life and it still kicked my ass. In hindsight I probably over trained. I ran everything faster than I needed to. I thought "this is gonna be easy". The morning before my race I even looked up the time I would need to run to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I actually thought I had an outside chance of making it.

I was wrong. Terribly wrong. All of this overconfidence I had led me to a start that was way to fast. I couldn't keep the pace going and started to fade at mile 17. By mile 20 my legs were cramping so bad that I had to run/walk the rest of the race. I was devastated.

This time I vowed to not over train. All I need to do is run the whole race. If I have to take it down a notch and run a slower pace then that is what I will do. All I need to do is get my miles up and stay healthy. I know how hard it is going to be so I want to put myself in a position to succeed. Sounds like a great plan, right?

It is actually. However, when I decided to take it down a notch I kinda took all the fun out of it. I haven't looked forward to each run. This time I was going to cross train even though I hate cross training. I haven't done one bit of cross training. Instead of making sure I got every workout done I have skipped some and chalked it up to my busy schedule.

I didn't really notice these things until Monday morning. My run Sunday was a 13 miler that had a lot of hills. I had run the same route two weeks earlier and felt ok. But this time I had a really hard time recovering. I literally felt like I had been hit by a car. Everything hurt. I could barely make it through pilates. I did some extra core workouts after class and decided I didn't like how I felt. I didn't have that same drive that I always have when I am training. Something had to change.

That is when I remembered the #GoTheDist I kept reading about. This is what I am going to do. I need something to jump start me and energize my training. And this is it!

I signed up that night and got my goals set for October. 150 miles running and 4 cross training sessions. Cross training being the eliptical, stationary bike or swimming. The eliptical is not much fun because you might as well just be running. The bike is a ball buster, literally. Apparently I have forgotten how to ride a bike because I can never get comfortable. As far as swimming goes, well, I probably look like I am drowning when I am doing it. My form is terrible. BUT, I am going to do this!

I will make sure that I attack each day with the same passion. I will still make sure to not run faster than I need to. I will still run slow on my slow days. I will just look forward to it every day. I have found my focus that I lost and now I am ready to ROCK!

Comments

  1. i LOVE the community you will find at #gothedist. good luck with your goal and make sure to use that support group!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks! I have already had a minor setback so I may need the support. That was one of the reasons I really wanted to join in the first place.

    ReplyDelete

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