Marathon Training Update

This is training week 8 of 16 of my marathon training. The halfway point. Let me tell you, the training looks a lot easier on paper. I have 5 more weeks until the taper. Two 20 mile runs and a 22 mile run with a 12 and a 16 peppered in for my long runs. I've reached the point where my daily runs are no less than 8 miles.

I am tired. Even worse, I'm bored. 2 hours is just grueling right now. It's not fun, it's not enjoyable, it's barely even tolerable. The good news is: I knew this was coming. The bad news is: I should of prevented it and I didn't. It's not the training plan that got me, it was all the running up to the training plan. I never gave myself a break. I've had my foot on the accelerator since June and I haven't let up. As a result, I haven't really enjoyed the last few races and the performance has been very sub par. The longer training runs are really testing my mental endurance. I'm running dangerously close to burn-out. Which scares me. I love running.

There is hope. There is light at the end of the tunnel and I'm going to focus on it. I entered the marathon not to finish it, but to race it. I have a set an aggressive first marathon goal for myself 3:45 or bust. My training and previous races tell me I should be able to do it in 3:30, I've left myself some room for the unexpected, but I'm going to push hard to reach that goal. Second, I'm planning a nice break from running after the marathon. It will be a time of recovery and planning. I want to share my love of running with even more people. I want to teach people how to run. Get people running that never thought they could. I have plans and ideas that need to be worked out. Some time off will help me focus on that. I look forward to all of these things and I will remind myself the next time I falter during a long run that there are multiple goals now.

I'm really sorry for painting such a horrible picture of marathon training. It really is different for everyone. The training program for someone looking to finish a marathon is still some work, but not as torturous as what I'm putting myself through.

My wife should be blogging her experience. She is training for the same marathon as I am, but because of injury set-backs earlier this year she wasn't able to run the volume of miles that I have or race many of the longer races. I've had 3 half marathons and 2 10 mile races. She just finished her first half marathon last weekend, which in turn was the longest distance she ever ran. Previous to this training her longest run was 6.2 miles. She logged 85 miles for October and this weekend she's going to log a 15 miler. She has done amazingly well and will no doubt have a strong marathon in January. She is my current inspiration. If she can come so far in such a short amount of time; what's my excuse?