So yes, I missed the Great Strides Against Prostate Cancer 5K on Sunday morning because I had forgotten to sign up way back in August. I swear I have a master’s degree. Really. I went to a very good school. And yet here I sit, one race short for September. Well, next time I will have a system in place to prevent such a thing from happening. And I know that I have registered for the Baltimore Running Festival 5K because I have the confirmation e-mails saved as well as a Xerox of my entry application. So I’m set. I even got a phone call from the race director today telling me how excited he was that I was running. OK, so maybe the call was pre-recorded and went out to the other 14,000 or so runners who will descend on Baltimore next weekend. But hey! I registered just like everyone else. OK, so maybe I used Legg Mason’s sponsorship of the festival to get an exemption and be able to run the race for free. And I’ll probably do that next year when I run the full marathon. That’s right, the whole 26.2 miles. October 2008. I’ll be ready, you can count on it.
Which brings me to the topic of this post: short term limits versus long term possibilities. As the title implies (al a Tony Montana), you have to be willing to go all out in some things (most things, I would argue) in life to realize them. In other words, you have to have the balls to even consider something, but then you have to have the guts to go out and try it. That is how I look at my running, such as it is. While I may not be able to run a half marathon quite yet, I know I will be ready in a few months. And I know I can’t run a full marathon right now, but in a year, I’ll be crossing the finish line. Having that confidence in my abilities (or rather, my ability to develop and progress my abilities!) is critical in achieving anything. It’s very close to the process of visualization that many athletes use when competing.
For example, when you see Tiger Woods in a tournament, he always stands back and looks at the ball, then up the fairway to where he wants to hit it. If they show his face, he’s actually looking at the air, not at the ground, most of the time he does this. He’s seeing the ball flight and him hitting the ball in his mind, examining what will be required (club selection, swing type, strength of the swing, etc) to affect that shot. Only after doing that, followed by his pre-shot routine, does he even consider hitting the ball.
This is a good process for me to use in my running. I have no illusions about my abilities as compared to the elite runners in the world. Their daily job is to train for these races and to win them. My job is to sit at a desk and analyze performance for an asset manager. I run as a hobby and because I feel good after each run. I race because that’s fun too, and I like competing against myself and my limits. However, I always want to improve. I want to turn a 9:00/mile pace into a solid 8:00 and I want to feel better at the end of a run now than I did last week. Visualizing what I want out of myself helps me get there.
To that end, I want to start improving my speed. I think I am ready and I don’t want to hit a plateau, which I feel I am close to. To this point I have resisted starting speedwork, fartlek, and tempo runs into my routine because I wasn’t sure I was conditioned enough to make them worthwhile, and I wanted to get my mileage up a little before moving to that next level of training. Now, I feel that I’m ready, if not willing.
I’m not going to impose a strict training schedule on myself at this point since I don’t have an immediate race goal coming up. I think I am going to select the Wirefly National Half Marathon in D.C. (March 29, 2008) as my first half marathon. I’m up to 7 miles right now in my long runs, which is more than halfway there. I think in the intervening 6 months I can get up to over 13 miles and really cut some time off my pace too. Hence, my desire to start incorporating advanced workouts into my routine. Running in the National Half Marathon would be totally awesome because of the following reasons, in no particular order: a.) it’s in Washington, which would be a great place to run one’s first long distance race; b.) it’s relatively flat so my legs won’t break; c.) it’s close enough that Annie and I could drive down on Friday, stay in a hotel overnight and drive back home (assuming I have not destroyed my leg muscles) that Saturday evening; d.) most of my family could be coaxed into coming and seeing me willingly run myself into the ground for about 2 hours or so.
So, tomorrow I will do my first tempo run. I’m almost certain I will hate it and it will hurt, but that’s the way it goes. For today, I’m doing my usual 4 miles since I was off yesterday after the 7 miles I logged on Sunday. Next week I may increase my mileage from 4 miles and 7 miles (easy/long runs) to 4.5 and 8 miles. Depends on how I feel.
No comments:
Post a Comment