*best Obi-Wan Kenobi voice* I don't seem to recall having a training journal. At least I haven't updated it since oh, before
@DopeyBadger ran a full marathon, set a PR, injured himself, took 2 weeks off running altogether, and starting running again before I updated this training journal.
But I digress. Actually, there's a very good reason at least in my mind for having such a long period between updates. Professionally, I am a tax accountant. So of all those people that were scrambling to get their tax returns filed this past Monday if they extended in April, a few of them were coming to me to get their returns. So between working late and trying to fit in BYU college football games in what spare time I did have, my training journal fell by the wayside.
However, the good news is that while my training journal paid the price for more hours put in at work, my training did not. In fact, my training, like Luke Skywalker flying his X-Wing down the trench in Star Wars, "stay(ed) on target."
So here's an update for the week beginning September 26th.
9/26/16 3.45 miles mostly at 15 minutes per mile
9/28/16 3.21 miles mostly at 15 minutes per mile
9/30/16 5.45 miles at 15 minutes per mile. This was an interesting run for me and in many ways validates my decision to train for 45 minutes in my maintenance runs. I use the Galloway training plans from runDisney. For all challenge events, he recommends 2 runs of 30-45 minutes each during the week with the long run on Saturday. Before signing up for my first Rebel Challenge in 2015, I had always ran for 30 minutes on those maintenance runs. However, acknowledging the addition endurance required by a multi race event, I decided to increase to 45 minutes running. For a while now, I've felt that the extra 15 minutes helped me, but I really feel like I saw it on this run.
Frankly, this run did not start very well. Maybe it was because there were other things I wanted to do more than run. Maybe it was because I knew I had to make the run a priority over the other fun things because I knew that the next day would be spent at work. Whatever the reason was, this run was a slog for quite a while. Like the first 35 minutes or so. But around that time, it's as if a second wind finally kicked in and I finished the run easily instead of arguing with myself over why I should do other "more fun" things.
Simply put, this is why I run. For years I had a gym membership. I went on occasion, but not as often as I "wanted to" and certainly not often enough to make a difference. There were many months and even years where I never set foot inside that gym. But the dues were very low, and I always threatened to go again, so I held onto it. Then I signed up for a race and that forced me to actually use that gym membership. For me, having some sort of final exam to see if I prepared properly for said exam does the trick. When I'm training for a race, every argument to not exercise and trains falls to the idea of what will happen if I don't train? Or what will happen if I throw in the towel early because "running is hard" and I would rather be sitting on the couch watching the football game or a movie?
The reality is that running has not taken those fun things away from me. Rather it causes me to evaluate my time and determine which football game is most important (hint, it's always BYU for me) and what other activities are either shortened or given up in the pursuit of something better. Jeffrey R. Holland is a former President of BYU and is now a leader for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (sometimes called the Mormons). He said something that applies wonderfully to so many aspects of our lives, not just running. "You can have what you want. Or you can have something better."
September miles: 45.91 miles all at my accepted race pace of 15 minutes per mile which means fast enough to finish, which is always my end goal. This is the first time I've actually kept a mileage log. I find that it helps me quite a bit. It's a way to force more accountability out of myself instead of writing down exercise on my list of daily goals and either checking off yes or checking off no. It also helps me see where I'm at and where I'm going.
Week of October 3rd:
In years past, I always used the excuse of the October work deadline as a reason to take running off or seriously cut down on it. I even did this in 2012 with the Wine & Dine a little over a month away. I've always paid the price for that time off when I resume training and this year, using last April as an example did not use extra work as an excuse not to run. Run later in the day, yes. Maybe cut back on the weight lifting a little bit, yes. But cut back on the runs? No. The challenges associated with the extra work means I had to do some back to back runs on a couple of consecutive days, but I also view this as baby steps toward the back to back runs that begin in earnest come November.
10/4/16: 3.45 miles at 15 minutes per mile
10/5/16: 3.45 miles at 15 minutes per mile
10/7/16: 3.45 miles at 15 minutes per mile
The last run marked something of a motivational triumph. When I went to start my run, I discovered that my gym bag was not in my car. I left it at home in the morning. So I had to go back home to get it. But instead of chalking up a missed run to forgetfulness, I refused to let that inconvenience derail my training. Incomplete, my training will not be. No excuses.
Week of October 10th:
10/11/16: 3.45 miles at 15 minutes per mile
10/12/16: 3.45 miles at 15 minutes per mile
10/14/16: 6.96 miles at 15 minutes per mile
This last run followed a similar pattern as my 5 mile run two weeks prior. But I refused to give in to the reasons not to run. Sometimes, I'm tempted to buy the "Destroy Excuses" Nike shirt. I wound up leaving work about 30-45 minutes later than I wanted. There was a BYU game on Friday night. But I don't want to make excuses now. So I missed the first half of the BYU game and got my run in. Like my 5 mile run a couple of weeks earlier, this one started off more difficult. But I just kept going. And around 35-40 minutes the second wind kicked in once again and everything went fine from there on out and I finished out strong.
The other big event of last week came when I finally wore my little sister down and persuaded her to sign up for the 1/2. When I ran my first
Disneyland 1/2 in 2011, it was this same little sister that persuaded me to stop making excuses and sign up. Both of us ran that first race and she has expressed interest in running a full marathon or maybe even the Goofy someday. She often calls me crazy for signing up for the Rebel Challenge and rightly blames me for her love of Ewoks and decision to attend BYU. Now I have a training partner to keep me motivated. I fully expect her to run substantially faster than me on race day. But I'm okay with that. For me, this journey is about finishing what I began. My lack of speed is not about accepting that I'm slow so much as it is about doing what pushing my limits to see what I'm capable of.