Remember those warm fuzzies and cold pricklies from last week? It seems we fell off the wagon for a day. My son gave me a “warm fuzzy wuzzy” for my birthday — it was really cute — and then proceeded to muck up the entire rest of the day with his outbursts and lack of listening. Sigh…
In other news, I’m trying to reach a goal of 1,000 miles run in 2014. I think I can do it. It means I will have to run, on average, 17.8 miles per week. Totally doable. But in the meantime, I’m getting a little exhausted.
Last year my original goal was also 1,000 but quickly changed when I realized that would be next to impossible to achieve while pregnant and then having a newborn. I wasn’t as competitive with my running and nowhere near the mileage I needed to be in order to get to 1,000 miles. I changed it halfway through the year to 500 miles. I didn’t get there unfortunately. I think I topped out at 493 or so. It was so close yet still so far away. I’m really hoping this year goes better and I actually achieve my goal.
I’ve heard different views on this topic. The one I hear most often is, “you will have run X amount of miles. That’s no easy feat even if you don’t reach your goal!” The other one I hear is, “you can do it! 17.8 miles per week is easy!”
The problem with viewpoint #1 is that I was really bummed last year when I didn’t make my goal. Like, really bummed. So although I know that the 874 I’ve already run is a lot of miles, it’s not my goal. I’m not there yet.
The problem with viewpoint #2 is that it makes it seem like 1,000 miles is easy. A piece of cake. It’s in the bag. But it’s not in the bag — not by a long shot. I’m getting tired, people! I miss my sleep! Every morning I struggle with “do I wake up and go for a run, or do I turn off my alarm and go back to bed?” Most mornings I drag my butt out. Especially if it’s mild and not raining like it has been recently. I can’t stand to waste those days, particularly knowing the extended forecast looks to be in the 20s next week.
Which leads me to my next thought… if I’m this tired just from running a few miles five days a week, how tired will I be if I decide to tackle a marathon? My friend and I scoped out our preferred training plan for a full, and midweek runs ends up being around 8 miles. How will that even work logistically? I’ll have to wake up at 4:30 am just for a training run.
Truth be told, I’ve started looking into some nearby marathons for 2015. Turns out they’re really expensive. I completely, 100% blame my former OB/GYN for planting the marathon seed. During one of my prenatal office visits, she told me to put it on my bucket list. At the time I told her she was crazy and there’s no way I would ever consider running a marathon. Because let’s face it, that’s ludicrous. Who runs 26.2 miles for fun?! Who?! Or ultras… don’t get me started on those. Those people are nutty! (Who, you?) 😉
And now here we are. Seed planted. Seed germinating. Shoot growing. No flower yet. Not sure if there will be one. We’ll see.
Enough about me. Let’s talk about you… !
Have you done a full marathon? If so, how did you handle the midweek long runs?
Are you more or less motivated to run when you have a mileage goal to hit?
What is your preferred training plan, if any?
I’d love to hear some tips and tricks. Please share!
Have a great day, everyone.
xo
