Little Victories

The thing that I love most about marathon training right now would be all of the little victories. I am at a point in my training right now where I am beginning to run farther than I've ever run before. If my training continues to go as planned, then each week will be a new little victory for me for the next several weeks. I headed into this morning's run with some mixed feelings about my current training. This was another week where I only had time to do two of my three scheduled short runs. The short run that I skipped this week was supposed to be 7 miles, but I figured that I would still be in good shape for my long run today. I did everything that I was supposed to do in order to get ready for today. I ate a lot of carbs and drank a lot of water and Gatorade yesterday. I let Friday and Saturday be rest days so that my legs would be good to go for my long run. I was supposed to run 15 miles next weekend, but next weekend I am running the Syracuse Half Marathon so I decided to get my 15 miler in today. I went to bed early last night, but just like the night before any race I had trouble falling asleep. I always get really nervous the night before a race because I am thinking about things like whether or not I did my training correctly, if I am going to set a personal record or if I am really ready for the race. Just thinking about my long run this morning felt like I was preparing for a race. I have never run more than 13.1 miles before and this morning my goal was to complete 15 miles.

I woke up this morning with mixed feelings about how today's run was going to go. I was not happy to see that the temperature was only 15 degrees when I woke up this morning. I know that part of the reason why I had such a successful 13.1 mile run last week was due to the beautiful weather. I was not happy to be wearing gloves and a headband instead of shorts and a t-shirt. After bundling up, I grabbed two water bottles and two packets of Gu for the run and a bottle of Gatorade and a granola bar for after the run. I was physically ready for my run this morning, but I was not sure that I was mentally prepared for the 15 miles. My usual running partners were sick so I knew that most of my run would probably end up being run alone. Luckily, Sandy and Annette both joined me for part of my long run so that made the 15 miles go much more quickly. My body felt really good for the entire run and my legs maintained a pretty consistent pace for the entire run. I also tried Gu for the first time ever today and refueling during a long run really made a huge difference. I figured that I needed to start trying some sort of supplement during long runs before the actual race. While I felt really good physically, there were many times that I wanted to quit during this run. When I say that I wanted to quit during this run, I mean that I kept getting bored during the run. I really do not enjoy running when I can see my breath or my hair freezes so needless to say there were not many other runners out. I think that beautiful temperatures and seeing plenty of other runners really helps motivate you during any kind of run. I know that the crowd will carry me through race day, but today's run just got so boring with so few people around.

I quickly kicked my bad attitude and thought about what a huge accomplishment today was going to be for me. I do not know many people who can say that they have ever run 15 miles before. There was a point in time several years ago where I struggled to run just 1 mile. If I look back over the past 4 years as a runner, I have had several little victories. I have completed many 5K's so then I moved onto completing 10K's. Before I knew it, I had completed not just one half marathon, but four half marathons. I am now 20 weeks into my marathon training plan, which is something that I never expected myself to achieve as a runner. I finished my 15 mile run in 2:33:57, which is a 10:15 min/mi pace. I was extremely happy with my time because I plan to run about a 10:30 min/mi pace for the Buffalo Marathon. When I finished today's run, I felt really good physically and I was extremely proud of myself for what I was able to accomplish today. 15 miles is the farthest that I have ever run before and that incredible 15 mile run is my first little victory in marathon training. I am feeling extremely confident about my running now and I am excited to keep having little victories over the next several weeks. I felt so good about my run today that I came home and finally registered for the Buffalo Marathon. I have been training for 20 weeks now, but today I finally convinced myself that I was ready to register for the race. Looking forward, I plan to keep the mileage pretty low for week 21 because I will be running the Syracuse Half Marathon next weekend. I now have 10 weeks left to finish preparing for the Buffalo Marathon. And here's a look at how week 20 went:
 
Week 20
3/12/13 - 3 miles in 28:03 (9:21 min/mi pace)
3/13/13 - 4 miles in 41:07 (10:17 min/mi pace)
3/17/13 - 15 miles in 2:33:57 (10:15 min/mi pace)

260.7 miles complete in 40:32:38 and only 69 days until conquering 26.2 miles!