8 days
8 days. Sigh. 8 days. I'm ready, but I'm also giving trying to taper and not run as much.
Work is stressing me out. It's time for my review. I'd like to be excited about doing my review but I'm a little cynical about being here. The experience of the past couple of months has been pretty discouraging at times.
Essentially a performance review should be a highlight reel of the past year and it should say I'm excited about contributing to this company and making it better in the coming months.
I'm not excited about anything but running a marathon, a goal I never thought I would achieve. And now I'm so close.
For both the professional review and the marathon, I struggle with goals. Enough about work though.
What goals for the marathon?
To finish, of course. But what about time. Early on I read some things and decided that simply finishing was goal enough. I think that was smart, especially with the way my job has gone.
But I'm struggling with the idea of doing a 5 hour marathon. That almost feels below-average. Should I shoot for 4:30? My last half-marathon was 2:10.
But the marathon is a mystery. It is far different than a half-marathon. What have I gotten myself into? I don't know how that question comes across? I feel physically ready, but not necessarily mentally ready yet. But how ready can you be when there's so much you can't know until you do it?
8 days.
Work is stressing me out. It's time for my review. I'd like to be excited about doing my review but I'm a little cynical about being here. The experience of the past couple of months has been pretty discouraging at times.
Essentially a performance review should be a highlight reel of the past year and it should say I'm excited about contributing to this company and making it better in the coming months.
I'm not excited about anything but running a marathon, a goal I never thought I would achieve. And now I'm so close.
For both the professional review and the marathon, I struggle with goals. Enough about work though.
What goals for the marathon?
To finish, of course. But what about time. Early on I read some things and decided that simply finishing was goal enough. I think that was smart, especially with the way my job has gone.
But I'm struggling with the idea of doing a 5 hour marathon. That almost feels below-average. Should I shoot for 4:30? My last half-marathon was 2:10.
But the marathon is a mystery. It is far different than a half-marathon. What have I gotten myself into? I don't know how that question comes across? I feel physically ready, but not necessarily mentally ready yet. But how ready can you be when there's so much you can't know until you do it?
8 days.
posted by bl at 7:23 am
2 Comments:
Just be ready for what you don't know. Open. Responsive. Every race is different.
How comfortable was the 2:10 half? If that was running all-out, it might not be the pace you want for the full marathon. You want to get to the halfway mark feeling like you can run forever. The most important thing is knowing what pace is comfortable for you, and sticking to it.
I don't know. I ran LA in 4:31, was well-trained, and felt really good about it. It was a pretty consistent pace throughout.
In Vegas, I had a terrible time pacing the first few miles, because Kyler wasn't with me, I didn't have a watch, and I didn't see any of the first few mile markers. For about 10 miles, I ran with a guy who was doing 10-minute miles, but after the third time my shoelace came untied, I just couldn't catch up with him again, and while I could see him about the same distance ahead through about mile 18, eventually I slowed down... and was pretty darn slow after mile 20. I don't know what the moral of the story is--double-tie your shoes, I guess. The Vegas marathon felt horrible compared to LA, though... I hated knowing I was slowing down and just not being able to do much about it.
So, I guess, run at a pace where you can feel good the whole time you're running. Vegas, overall, my time wasn't that much worse than LA, but I didn't have nearly as good of a time while I was running... and no matter what time you finish in, 5 hours, 4:30, or 2:07, you don't want to feel miserable about it.
You're right. I need to focus more on having fun and not get caught up in ego or speed.
I've trained to complete a marathon and with all that's gone on in my life in the last few months, this should be a wonderful accomplishment.
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