Preparing for the Program
5/6/2019
As soon as I found out that I was committed to this race, it both excited me and scared me shitless. It had been a bucket list goal of mine for at least a decade, and all those Facebook memories of me claiming that I’ll eventually enter the race were friendly reminders of what I had not yet accomplished. I was in disbelief; is this really happening? Am I ready for this? No way, I can’t run 26.2 miles. Of course I can run that far if non-athletic colleagues of mine were able to do so. I had an internal monologue like Jekyll and Hyde trying to tell me what to do, although I picture more of a friendly pair like Bert and Ernie.
In times of fear (if you’re not in immediate danger) you must assess what exactly you’re afraid of. My fear of extreme heights seems a little more rational than whatever is scaring me here. Slipping off a steep cliff to a potential paralysis or death is scarier than pure exhaustion. I’m not afraid of a little heavy breathing anymore, and I’ll do everything needed to prevent injury. I probably wouldn’t have a heart attack considering my healthy lifestyle and age...
I fear failure. Failure to me includes a crappy time of completion. What does that mean exactly? If I have to walk at any point, I will be disappointed. If I have to stop to tie shoes or use the bathroom, I’ll hate myself for wasting time. I want to prove to myself that I can endure any mental or physical block that lays ahead of me. So far I’ve only conquered up to half marathons, but there are miles of long distance races where your emotions take over and can flick on and off like a light. You could be on the verge of tears one minute and then get a runner’s high the next. This chemical reaction occurs regardless of any aches and pains I could physically feel. The marathon will especially be emotional this year since I’m running in honor of my late brother, who passed away in February. I knew that whatever pain I felt in my feet from blisters, tight muscles, and aches from dehydration would not compare to the pain he felt after coming home from the war.
However, though I know the training will be tough, I have to prepare for success. I’m a personal trainer by trade, so you’d think I know everything about preparing for such a large feat. Not exactly; a great coach is always learning, so I went to the sports section of Barnes and Noble and took a good 2 hours browsing books that would deem helpful to me. I found one for my training schedule, one regarding nutrition, and another for the mind. In essence, mind, body, and soul.
I generally know what to do, but I wanted to follow a program and have a strategy for success. In the past, I just ran whenever I could, but it was not always consistent and one excuse or another easily got in the way. So I want to stick to the game plan, trust the process, and see if what they say really works.
The first step, which is always the hardest part for me, is the nutrition piece. I read the book Racing Weight: How to Get Lean for Peak Performance by Matt Fitzgerald to learn about the correlation between better performance at a lower weight. It gave better guidelines on eating for performance than those stupid fashion magazines claiming that you’ll lose 20 pounds of fat in 20 days etc. It was a friendly reminder that food is fuel, and to eat when hungry. It’s simple enough, yet can easily be forgotten.
My next step is getting into the mindset. I tend to psych myself out before a training run. Every single time. I get hung up on doing my best time every time, even though progress is not always linear. I found any time I let my mind chill out and “just run” is when I get my fastest split times. I want to harbor that mindset every time I run, so I’m going to read up on how to do that.
I started a few sporadic runs, but I counted back the weeks from the race and determined that I’ll be going off an 18-week program and I need to officially start June 30 to time it properly for November 3. If my nutrition and mindset are tightened up, then by the time I need to start my program I just need to keep up with the training.
These prep weeks are important, and I’m making sure it all counts.