It's over. I'm done.

The marathon is now only 8 weeks away. I am smack dab in the middle of my training and to be honest, I have been miserable. The training has taken away from my fall race goals. It has worn me out and made me tired. It has been gnawing away at me for the past 2 months. I trained every day last week without rest. Wrapped up the week with three 8 mile runs a 10K race on Saturday and an 8K race on Sunday. It's getting dark at 4pm. It looks like midnight when I get home at 5pm. I'm forced to run on poorly lit sidewalks and wait an eternity at multiple intersections for a walk signal in which I must incorporate all my senses as to not get run over even though I have the right of way. The weather is getting colder and it's likely to rain on many of my upcoming runs. So It's over. I'm done.

I'm done being a mamby pamby jackwagon in need of a tissue. My crybaby mantra of "It's too hard", "I'm too tired", and "I'm bored" is over. It's time for me to man up. I set a goal and I'm going to go after it. I'm all in! I'm going to go after it with the same drive and determination I went after my weight loss. There are many distractions that I'm going to have to deal with and overcome. Poor food choices and inadequate sleep being the top two. My goal of 3:45 just became sub-3:45. I'm going to hit the gym and weight train on my cross training days. I'm going to cut soda and coffee completely out of my diet. I'm going to follow my training plan and run slow when I'm supposed to run slow, and fast when I'm supposed to run fast and rest when I need rest.

I know it's going to be hard. Losing weight was hard. Quitting smoking was hard. Eating healthier was hard. Thanksgiving is coming up. That's going to be hard. I'll be going out of town and need to find a place and time to log some miles. That will be hard. I am all about defeating HARD. I already know that overcoming things that are hard is massively rewarding. I love the opportunities that come up where I get to talk about beating my situations. Talk about paying dividends. Nothing is more rewarding to me than inspiring someone else to positive change. You are my drive, you are my motivation. So it's over; I'm done with the negative path.

Run strong my friends,

Bob

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?