Switching gears… I’m going headlong into marathon training for the next few months. Before this, I was intent on the half marathon up in Wisconsin (by the way, Half Marathon? November? Wisconsin??... what was I thinking??? oh yea… beer and lasagna afterwards… heh….). After that – some recovery time.
I meandered my way through the week after the half marathon doing a whole lot of nothing. Enjoying some time off from the swim/bike/run, getting a rebellious thrill out of actively ignoring training set down by my coach (though she gave me permission to do so … as a side note, does having permission make me less rebellious? Because I felt like a rebel when I made the decision to skip some of the training….), basically trying to enjoy my time off the way a normal person might.
And then, I looked at my training for this week. And I was scared. Really, really scared. The honeymoon, as it were, was over. Done. Finished.
I think up until this week, my coach has been taking it easy on me. We’ve only been working together since early this spring, and I had thought she was all nice and stuff. I couldn’t have been more wrong about that.
First up – the track workout. As I read through the intervals and paces for the intervals, I think my mouth was literally hanging open, trying to decide if this was some sort of over-the-top coach humor. I decided it wasn’t. So I’m all, “well, I like the track, I’ll just suck it up, and put it all out there, see what happens…”.
And then – the weekend long run with some tempo thrown in. Is she mad?! (my coach, that is) That many miles? All at the same time? And at those paces? Eeek. I’ll be sure to wear my RoadID so they’ll be able to identify me when the run renders me curled up in the fetal position in a ditch mumbling the words “just let me run in zone 1… I love zone 1… “.
And now – through the magic of technology and time – fast forward to AFTER the workouts:
I nailed it. Aced it. Hit my paces. Hurt like hell, but no matter – I love me a good track workout.
And I was surprised! When I finally started breaking down the track workout into what pace I’d have to hit for each 400m, I started to get my first glimmer of “hmmm… maybe I can do this… maybe Coach really isn’t on crack…”
So, after days of whining and dread and intimidation, I come out the other side feeling like I could fly. Feeling like I DID fly. And damn, that feels good.
And the long run? While not the unabashed success as the other workout, it’s training in the bank. Executed the workout exactly as written, and it wasn’t pretty, but it’s done – getting me ready for longer and even less pretty runs on the horizon.
The ice bath afterwards reminded me that good results require hard work and enduring some PAIN along the way. Of course, without the pain, everyone would do it, right? I mean, who said a marathon would be easy?? (what? No one said that? Hmmm… why did I decide to do this again..?)