My daughter decided last week she wanted to try running 2 miles before school as every time she said she’d do it afterwards, she would feel too overwhelmed by homework to do it. Last Monday was the first day she was going to head out in the morning and I said I might do it with her…but I was in the middle of a cold and not wanting to get up at 4am. Monday morning rolled around and I told her I hadn’t set my alarm when she came in at 4 to see if I was awake, and she admitted she was kinda too tired to run anyway so she went back to her bedroom and I got up to get some cold medicine. She found me in my room 10 minutes later and said, “I think I still want to try to go.”
“FINE. You twisted my arm. Give me until 5am to get my coffee down and we’ll go.”
AND THEN WE RAN AT 5 AM EVERY OTHER MORNING OF THE WEEK!
When we did our half-marathon training we were doing 2min-walk/1min-run intervals but last week we switched to 1min-walk/1min-run intervals for 2 miles which still gives her plenty of time to get ready before heading off to the bus. Some days I added one more mile for good measure since I’m supposed to “officially” start my half-marathon training today and I’ve actually been trying to run a bit more regularly to prepare for it.
So…when I pulled up my stats from Strava this morning I was shocked to see…WAIT. I HAVE BEEN DOING GREAT.
I mean, look at that! I ran 28.9 miles last week! Periodically I set out to try to run without taking walk breaks but for the most part, especially the runs I do with Nyoka, I’ve been doing 1-min walk/1-min run intervals. I like a 1-minute run interval because even if I end up going up a hill when my phone says, “Run for 1 minute” I find I can run for a minute even up a hill and I can push through that minute by saying, “YOU CAN DO ANYTHING FOR A MINUTE!” And then that walk minute is just BARELY enough for me to recover but not too much for me to settle into a stroll. I didn’t think I’d like the 1/1s but they’ve been working pretty great for me so far.
I’m still not brave enough to sign up for anything more than a half-marathon. This will be my third one since the last of my ultra-marathon days. Quite often I consider doing something bigger…usually a timed race. I like a race where the finish line comes to you. There’s a few 12-hour and 24-hour type races I sometimes consider, and those are really conducive to intervals or even straight-up walking but…I don’t know.
I still feel so burned from my attempt at my 100-miler a few years ago because I went into it thinking desire and will-power would make up for inadequate training. That didn’t end up working in my case and I have a hard time STILL not beating myself up about it. Donnie was remarking about a casual friend about how she used to run, “All the time!” and I was like, “I mean, no more than I did. I’ve done longer distances than her…I did a 110K!” And then he replied, “You also did 80 at ARFTA,” to which I rolled my eyes and said, “That doesn’t count.”
I never bring up that race and those 80 miles when I’m talking about past running achievements. I still look at that 48 hours as a failure and it’s so hard to get past that to think of anything beyond a half-marathon.
So for now I’ll just run half-marathons and try to get back into a consistent running groove. I don’t think my ultra-marathon days are over, they’re too fun and so many are interval friendly that there’s really no excuse to not try again at SOMETHING some day. But for now? I’ll just still to my 20-30 miles a week training for half-marathons and celebrate those victories when they come.
It is AMAZING to me that running 80 miles could be a failure in any way! This seems a lot like the things you often talk about – would you think someone else doing this was a failure? It seems amazingly impressive to me.
This is inspirational. I used to run regularly. (I’ve never gone farther than 9 miles though.) I stopped about a month before I got pregnant last year, so it’s been since last June since I ran. I didn’t stop because of the pregnancy, but rather because my knee was bothering me. Anyway, the baby will be six months this week, and I really want to start back running.
You ran EIGHTY f#$&^)g miles. That is a major major accomplishment. Be proud of yourself.IO don’t even like to drive 80 miles. If you ever try to do 100 again, set that as the dream and a lopwer number as the real goal. I also think that the fact that Ch did run 100 made it harder for you, even though you were proud of her. Her legs are nearly as long as your whole body. I bet you took more steps than her, by a long shot.
I’m currently doing 3/1 intervals when I run longer than 5k, but I may try 1/1. Of course I don’t run anything longer than a half marathon but in my mind I want to try one. I talked to Karen yesterday about doing Dizzy. I’ll take whatever advice/suggestions you have!!!!