For people running the half, I'm wanting you to be able to run at least three easy miles without stopping. From what I've seen the past couple of weeks, you guys are putting in the work, and will be ready.
The runners intending to train for the full marathon should be able to run five to six nonstop. Now, a couple of you are banged-up right now, or not running as much as you were earlier in the summer, but your basic stamina and stuff are still there. I think you'll all be fine, as well.
You've all been doing a great job with your running, certainly at the workouts, and from what I can tell, most of you have been putting in the work on your own, too.
I don't want anyone to into either training program lightly. To get the most out of it, physically and otherwise, and to better keep yourself injury-free, takes a level of commitment. I ran my first half marathons, and even my first marathon, often just running the two organized workouts some weeks. I got through the distances, but definitely paid a higher price, physically. More importantly, I was just sort of running a distance - I didn't really grasp what running had to offer, until I made the larger commitment.
The true test of running to me is in the multitude of choices it presents us with, and those begin in training. Each time we're presented with a choice, it's a small battle, and we have control over whether we win it or not. Most of us will never win a race, or even our age group, but we face the same challenges as Spiridon or Pre did every time they prepared or lined up for a race.
You're going to have to commit to getting up on Saturday mornings. You can choose to do the run on your own later in the day (I was notorious for this), but then you're already giving up a little bit then, aren't you? You're deciding to let your will and motivation succomb to drowsiness, or even the multitude of beers you had the night before. When you choose to get up and do the run, especially when it's difficult, you'll know afterwards that you've won a battle.
Most of you are going to have to give up hard-lived Friday nights. Sometimes, you can show up for the run after three hours of sleep, with the taste of beer and cigarettes still in your mouth and the smell of Lovejoy's and death still hanging about you, but do it on a weekly basis, and you and your running will suffer. Self-sacrifice is a choice, and it's not a matter of choosing running over partying, it's a matter of choosing to be strong and committed. Every time you put down that remote or that last drink and get to bed, it's another battle won (and one that defuses that morning battle).
Our weeknight quality workouts are going to be hard. We all work, and whether you're on your feet of cramped behind a desk, I'd say that most days, going out and running hill repeats or 1000 meter repeats is not going to sound good. Many days, you're going to think you just can't do it at all. But unless you're sick, you can. You're going to feel worse at mile 11 of the half marathon, or mile 22 of the marathon. What choice would you make then? You start shaping how you'll face that choice by the choice you make on a hot, or a cold, or a rainy Tuesday or Wednesday evening. You go out there, you may not feel great, or be at your performing best, but you get out there, and it's a battle won.
The other days of the week, you don't have the concern of accountability, other than me asking if you've been running. These are some of the hardest choices, the tougher battles, to go out on your own to churn out three, four, six miles, alone, after a long day at work.
Few of us are going to win all these battles by consistently making the better choices, but I believe that the best reason to train is to consistently confront yourself with those choices, to persist in dropping yourself in the midst of those battles, to see how many you can win. When you run your race, it'll be more of the same, and just as important as the miles you've put in for six months will be the number of these battles you've won in that time. And, I believe that how we handle those choices don't just define us as runners, but really as individuals.
You've made the first choice by joining up and taking this thing on. You've got one win. If you've been coming out and running with us, each time has been a win. You already have a lot invested - don't let those wins go to waste.
When thinking about all this, I think, unfortunately, of the line from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves ("why a spoon?"), but also of the famous speech JFK gave at Rice University, almost exactly 45 years before we begin our own lofty endeavor:
But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment