Back To Basics

Here I am again at my computer, hammering out some thoughts and hoping against hope that I can get them all put in order and published for my adoring public of approximately 12 faithful readers before my brain goes to mush and I forget what I wanted to say. As I write this I have approximately 3 or 4 posts that I started and never finished, simply because I have a tendency to write way too much. I always need to go through and edit, cut and polish before I feel ready to post, and while the writing part is not too hard, the editing part is where I get all bogged down. The good news is, if I ever hit a dry spell where I go for awhile without thinking of anything to write, I've got those posts already started and I can just go cannibalize them for ideas.  However, that day is not today, so off we go with the latest stuff swimming around in my brain.

I have written post after post about running, especially about my love for doing races, how much it all means to me and how it's helped me accomplish a lot towards my health. So it may come as a surprise to many that I've decided to take a break from racing for awhile, and to just focus on my training runs. I have several reasons for this, thus the ever wordy blog post.

A few weeks back, I ran another half marathon. It was my third half marathon this year. In addition to that, so far this year I've also run a full marathon and done a 5k walk thrown in for good measure. That's a whole lot crammed together in just over 5 months time. I have a whole wall covered with shiny, sparkly medals now, they hang by my bed to remind me of my accomplishments and how far I've come. So why the pause now? Because while I was able to complete each race in reasonable time, I know that I could have done better. Last year I ran a total of three half marathons, one 10k and two 5ks over the course of the entire year. Each time I raced a half, I had a nice fat PR to crow about over the previous one, for the simple reason that I had several months time in between each one to train.  This time around, I've still gotten a couple of PR's, but each only a minute or better than the previous best. While any runner would tell you that any PR is a good PR, in my case I am still a new runner and still moving up in my ability. I know that my progress should be more significant because I'm not anywhere near my peak yet.

So why did I run so many races the past few months? Simply put, I got excited. After all my personal victories last year, I started to feel just a teeny bit invincible. I wanted to keep feeling that wonderful feeling, so I signed up for every race I could that fit my personal criteria of challenging, but still fun and exciting. A race through the streets of Los Angeles at night. A race "with the stars" along Hollywood Blvd. A race where all the participants were women and we got to wear the most awesome pink outfits, where we all got tiaras and feather boas at the finish line, along with a giant medal handed to us by a handsome shirtless man who wore the pants of a Fireman, that we were all pretty sure wasn't really a Fireman but we didn't really care .  And then there was that marathon. I'd decided to do a marathon last summer, and I set my sights on the race that I'd run as my first half marathon the previous year as the same race I'd do for my first full. For sentimental reasons and all.

The marathon was in February, and I finished it in 6 hours and 27 minutes. I told myself I was happy because I had finished, but something about my time nagged at me. And it was simply the knowledge that I could have done better.  I had started training for the Surf City Marathon in October, after running the Long Beach Half Marathon. Up until that time I had never run more than 13.1 miles. I was scared, but with a pep talk from my other half, I got out there and ran 14 miles. The next week I did 16 miles, then 18. I was ready to get up to 20, but something happened and I had to miss a week or so of training. I can't remember what happened, could have been illness or injury or any number of things. For the next couple months I kept doing that 14, 16 and 18 miles, but couldn't get up to 20. Something always came up. Then winter and the holidays came along. I tried to run but it was cold, rainy, and there were lots of activities and trips that prevented me from sticking to my training plan. I still ran somewhat regularly, but was nowhere near the level I wanted to be.  When January rolled around, I still hadn't done a 20 miler, and there was just one month to the marathon. I ran a half marathon the first weekend in January, then set my sights on cramming in as much training as possible before the marathon. Two weeks before the race, I finally made it up to 20 miles. And after that, I didn't do another long run until the day of the race.

The marathon was tough. Well, duh. I don't think a marathon is easy for anyone. But it thoroughly kicked my butt. I came in like 2020th out of like 2090. I say "like" because I don't have the exact stats in front of me, but that's pretty darn close. Out of more than 2,000 people, I only beat about 70. Of course I was ecstatic to finish the darn thing and have a marathon medal to add to my collection and a new sticker to put on my car, but I just couldn't shake the nagging feeling that it was not what it could have been. So what went wrong? Too many distractions during training. I had tried to cram in a lot of training during the wrong time of year, and threw off my training by running another race too close to the big one. So after that, I figured I would get back into the swing of things with the next two races I had lined up, and that all that marathon training would translate into huge half marathon PRs. But that didn't happen either. Like the marathon, I did acceptably well, but not nearly as well as I'd hoped.  The races were so close together that I spent more time in tapering (before the race) and recovery (after the race) than I did in actual training. I did short maintenance runs, but couldn't get in those long training runs that I needed to build back up my endurance for the races.

So what's my plan now? I'm getting back to basics. For one thing, I still need to lose some weight. I've been chasing a sub 200 number on the scale since last July when I finally saw the exact number 200, and ever since then I've been see-sawing between 200 and 205, never dipping lower. I've gotta go back to how I started losing weight in the first place, evaluating what I'm eating and working on eliminating and replacing the problem foods until I reach my weight loss goal of Shall Not Be Named Until A Later Time.  Second, I need to go back to running for the sake of running, for the purpose of fitness and not just for adding shiny things to my wall.  I know that a regular, uninterrupted running routine will do wonders for my fitness goal because that's what worked before.  Finally, I have set a goal of running another full marathon next year, and to reach that goal I need to be training now, not waiting until just a few months before. This isn't the same case for all runners, but I have a lot of work to do so I'm determined to take the time to work my way up to the level where I will be comfortable to not only finish, but run the whole thing and take a nice, big chunk off my previous time.

I am not going to give up completely on running my beloved half marathons and other smaller races. But I've set some new standards for them. First of all, I will give myself adequate time between them. That means looking ahead and knowing I'm going to have to make some tough choices. There are some races that I've run that I have wonderful sentimental value for and will have a hard time giving up.  But I'd rather be able to show up prepared for the challenge, have a good time and feel satisfied with the result, than simply show up to finish and have another medal for my wall. When I look at my medals, I want to remember having a victorious experience for each one, and a celebration of the accomplishment of each race each time I see them. Some runners can run races on a regular basis and have that experience with each one, but at this point in my journey I'm not at that level yet.

So for now, it's back to basics for me. I'm already at a good place to start, I know that it's just a matter of taking time, and having focus, determination and faith to get me where I want to be. I'm ready to get started, and looking forward to seeing what the next few months will bring.

Thanks again for reading, and as usual, if you like what you read, please feel free to share! See you all next time!
-MaryAnne