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I'm so happy with how my running routine is going that I'm starting to feel optimistic enough to set some longer (than 10 weeks) goals again. I'm into week 8 of the training plan I've been following, with no pain, no injuries, no feelings of running with cement globs hanging off my legs, etc. I feel great. Touch wood, please! After this week, only 2 weeks more before I have to move on to something else. I am leery of running sans plan, so I did some googling and found this 19-week plan for building mileage, preparatory to beginning a marathon training plan. (So it's a plan to train for a training plan, basically--so meta!) It looks really good--perfect, actually. Slow and steady, yet still challenging, with tangible goals: just what I need. I think I'm going to finish the plan I'm doing now (duh), then spend 2 weeks repeating week 10 just to make sure my body is really-really-really OK with it, and then move on to the aforelinked mileage building plan. We'll see how that goes. If it goes poorly, I'll just keep plugging away at whatever mileage I can do without hurting myself. If it goes well, I will move on to a bona fide marathon training plan at the end of that 19-20 weeks. And if that goes well, I think I will run the Capitol City Marathon next May. It looks like a really cool course, and has the added benefits of being relatively small and close to home, but still with good water and energy support on the course. (I like that they use Gu rather than PowerGel or any energy bar.)
Hmmmmmm. We'll see. I have other goals for the coming year that may interfere--this would definitely just be the frosting on the cake I'm trying to bake.
I'm not normally very much into running races--I don't much like the whole race mentality, and haven't run very many races since I ran track in high school. However, there is something about the marathon that is an enduring draw for me. I've only run one before--the Vermont City Marathon, Y2K edition (same year my divorce was final and I finished my M.A.), which I finished (officially) in 3:58:23. Ooooh, and check it out: my results are still available online! (Enter my name into the search engine: Sharon Crowley.) [It would be kinda fun to travel there to run it again next year...but I think I would prefer to stay closer to home. I do miss Vermont, though...and would love to do that race again.] I love the challenge of running that far, that long. I didn't do it--and I won't do it now--for the "race" aspect, but rather for the challenge and the accomplishment, the incredible feeling (at least partly biochemical, I know--hello, endorphin high!) of keeping my body going for that long, and exhausting it so thoroughly, using up every ounce of reserve energy. It's best to do that kind of endurance running with good support, in my experience. And frankly, it's fun to have a festival atmosphere in which to do it, too.
But mostly, I'm finding tremendous joy in setting a long-term goal. I have felt so...adrift, over the last couple of years. Lost. Stuck. Blocked. Anxious. Those feelings are easing now, and I feel like I'm re-learning how to drive my own life, run in my own body (rather than a "wishful" body), speak and write in my own voice. How to be happy. How to enjoy where and who I am while also, occasionally, looking toward good things in the future. I know it's a weird historical moment to be experiencing optimism; nevertheless, I am, and I'm grateful for it.
Hmmmmmm. We'll see. I have other goals for the coming year that may interfere--this would definitely just be the frosting on the cake I'm trying to bake.
I'm not normally very much into running races--I don't much like the whole race mentality, and haven't run very many races since I ran track in high school. However, there is something about the marathon that is an enduring draw for me. I've only run one before--the Vermont City Marathon, Y2K edition (same year my divorce was final and I finished my M.A.), which I finished (officially) in 3:58:23. Ooooh, and check it out: my results are still available online! (Enter my name into the search engine: Sharon Crowley.) [It would be kinda fun to travel there to run it again next year...but I think I would prefer to stay closer to home. I do miss Vermont, though...and would love to do that race again.] I love the challenge of running that far, that long. I didn't do it--and I won't do it now--for the "race" aspect, but rather for the challenge and the accomplishment, the incredible feeling (at least partly biochemical, I know--hello, endorphin high!) of keeping my body going for that long, and exhausting it so thoroughly, using up every ounce of reserve energy. It's best to do that kind of endurance running with good support, in my experience. And frankly, it's fun to have a festival atmosphere in which to do it, too.
But mostly, I'm finding tremendous joy in setting a long-term goal. I have felt so...adrift, over the last couple of years. Lost. Stuck. Blocked. Anxious. Those feelings are easing now, and I feel like I'm re-learning how to drive my own life, run in my own body (rather than a "wishful" body), speak and write in my own voice. How to be happy. How to enjoy where and who I am while also, occasionally, looking toward good things in the future. I know it's a weird historical moment to be experiencing optimism; nevertheless, I am, and I'm grateful for it.
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