The Comeback- Week 8
I have sixty-three days. Sixty-three days sounds like a lot, but for marathon training, it’s not that much. I lost a lot of days this year because of traveling and injury. This week I was able to log 40 miles finishing with 12 miles in the rain. The results were mediocre but the key was I was able to do it without any pain, slight discomfort but no pain. The next step is to try to crunch in some speed work for the next couple of weeks and hope that the build up on my endurance won’t be that big of an uphill climb. Eight weeks is just enough to try to fool myself into being ready for that first weekend in November.
I crossed two thresholds in the past two weeks. The first was getting myself back to 40 miles. The other was running seven days in a row and still feeling good. There was some tightness in my leg and a couple of moments of doubt, but I my body was ready to fight. I also got lucky with some cool mornings that felt like fall was coming a little early. When the weather turns crisper, it brings two things for me. First the relief from the summer humidity here in New York, when it feels like a spigot opens up, sweat pours out, and my legs get heavier that much quicker. The other part is the smell and feel of New York in the fall. It reminds of the marathon and more importantly the days leading up to it. I love New York (for the most part), but I can honestly say there are few better places than New York in October and November. Summer time in the City is lazy and slow, at least in contrast to how alive it comes when the weather gets a little cooler. The trees start changing colors, and the streets come back to life when all the vacations are over, the escape to the Hamptons end and the school starts again.
The short training began this week, but now I have to kick it up another notch. The next steps will be 50 miles comfortably and some speed sessions. The first I ran a marathon I trained with a fear loaded in me. I didn’t know if I could do it so if I missed a day, I would worry that it was that day and those miles that would hold me back on the day of the race. I was wrong of course, at least partially. The training is necessary, but you can miss a day. The following year the sadist in me decided to do both the Chicago Marathon and the New York City Marathon, three weeks apart. Again, I knew I could do one, but I had no idea whether I could do two in that short time frame. The training became even more religious that year because there was that insecurity that my body would break down. That ended up with me running Chicago in 3:20:38 and New York in 3:20:36.
Every marathon I do raises my confidence, but it is always a product of the training that goes into it. The confidence hasn’t given way to cockiness so I am always humbled by the challenge. I don’t think anyone who runs marathons would ever The first eight weeks have been disappointing so now I need to find my inspiration and my motivation. Hopefully, those 12 miles in the rain was the jumping point to make the final eight weeks mean something. But there is nothing wrong with letting a little fear and insecurity push me a little harder during September and October.
