Committing.

I always have a hard time committing my first month of marathon training. 

It’s kind of boring to me. Having run a bunch of halfs and fulls, ramping up my mileage doesn’t excite me until I get to past 13.1. Once I’ve run longer than a half, then it’s a little more exciting. 

So I’ll take inspiration wherever I can get it.

Yesterday on our run, Ashley and I were talking about Kelly’s marathon training and how she says she hasn’t missed a workout yet.

Then I went on a date last night with a fellow runner, and we geeked out about marathons and PRs, etc, and I told him my goal (sub-3:50) and my current PR (3:56…three years ago.) 

OH! You can totally do that, he said. “It won’t be easy, it will be hard work, but you’ve done it before.” 

This morning, I had yoga on my schedule. I woke up with killer cramps and snoozed hard, and then just had an annoying morning — Bailey being a brat, got to work to find out our site had crashed and had to deal with unhappy customers on social media.

I left work with a soul (or skull?) crushing headache but with a class reserved at Laughing Lotus. I laid on my couch with my eyes closed for a few minutes and contemplated, again, bailing.

I thought of what this dude said. I thought of Kelly’s training. I thought about how successful race training is not just the running. I thought of how I told a friend the other day I really wanted to do more yoga. I thought of how it’s usually just easier to do the damn thing than to make excuses. I really want to meet my goal on November 12, and not wish I had trained harder/better.

And then I got my ass off the couch and went to yoga. I told myself I could leave if my head didn’t feel any better…but what do you know? About 1/3 of the way into class, my head started feeling better.

And I left class with a total yoga high and, per usual, wondering why I don’t yoga more.

Especially because, hello, my favorite studio HAS FLASH TATS.

What are the non-running things you do to help during race training? What do you do/tell yourself to psych yourself up?

Related posts:

1. Tales of the Taper
2. More post-race thoughts
3. Can You Split Your Long Run?