Training - It's Not Just a Theory

I wrote last time about my lack of motivation and my pitiful training. I've reset my goals and hope that by requiring less of myself, I'll be able to deliver. And then, I can gradually ramp things up. For too long, I've been running so many races that I didn't really NEED to train in between them in order to maintain my endurance. I could go out and finish a marathon any day you asked me. The problem was that I couldn't do it fast, certainly not anywhere near my best, and my general fitness also suffered from lack of training.

But I made it out to Alexandria VA's Bell Haven Park & Marina last Saturday to run 9 miles on the Mount Vernon Trail with my training group (Friends & Fitness). Amy picked me up and we carpooled together. It was an overcast day with little sun, and a decent temperature, but quite a bit of humidity. At the beginning of the season, I was trying to do these training runs at a 10:00/mile pace, but my body was so used to a slower marathon pace that I was having trouble maintaining 10:00 for very long. I will get there (and I will get even faster), but not until I am running fewer marathons and I improve my overall fitness. So, on this day I was expecting to run with Kathy's 11:00 pace group. However, they were planning to take it a little slower and run 11:30. That was fine with me, as just finishing the 9 miles was my primary goal after not running in a couple weeks. There was a small turnout of runners this week anyway, so my only other options were 9:00 (too fast) or 12:00 (too much in my comfort zone), or to run alone.

Some of the Friends & Fitness runners at the almost halfway mark; time to raid the cooler for cold water and Gatorade back at Belle Haven

Starting at Belle Haven, we ran north for 2 miles, then back to start, then south for 2.5 miles, then back to start

We set out along the Potomac doing 6:1 run:walk intervals. I felt really good at the start of the run and enjoyed seeing some new scenery. I've run many parts of the Mount Vernon Trail, but had never run the bit that goes under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which connects Virginia and Maryland across the Potomac River. Who knew there was a park area (Jones Point Park), complete with bathrooms and basketball courts, under the bridge? Well, obviously some people knew…but I didn't. We ran under the bridge twice on our out & back route.

There was a WWI shipyard at Jones Point, and this is a rudder from that time period
I was still feeling strong early in the second leg of our run, where we went through the marshlands and over several wooden bridges. But then we encountered some hills. One of them was fairly long and steep, and I had to walk part of it. Apparently, I wasn't the only one. The 11:30 and 12:00 pace groups didn't stay intact through this hilly portion. The good news is that my 4-person pack got back in sync after the hills.

Cloudy day looking across the Potomac; that's the Wilson Bridge on the left and National Harbor on the right
We were all happy to be finished. It was not the most difficult course, and it was not the hottest day, but the humidity made it really tough to cool down. Amy's air conditioning on the drive home felt great. I was proud of myself for not missing this training run. Then on Wednesday, I showed up for the evening track workout. We had to stop early due to lightning, but every day that I don't make an excuse is a success lately. When I got home, I did my BodyBlade workout and ate a healthy salad. Another success. Let's see if I can keep it up!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2019 Hong Kong Marathon Race Report

Image
I registered for the Hong Kong Marathon  on a whim. I was already going to Asia to attend my friend Christine’s wedding in Thailand and then run the Tokyo Marathon the following weekend. My friend Dave posted on Facebook about the Hong Kong Marathon, which was a week before the wedding. I entered the lottery not expecting to be selected, but I was. It was going to be a two-country-marathon adventure.  It’s the year of the pig (or boar) and we got this medallion in our race packet.  I was woefully under-prepared for the Hong Kong Marathon. My training suffered through the winter, but knowing I had a 6-hour time limit for the marathon, I wasn’t terribly worried - until I got sick. At the end of January I caught a severe cold that I’m still not fully over, three weeks later. I was weak, slept little, and worked out zero times in all of February. But the Asia trip was coming anyway, and being a realist, I gave myself permission to DNS (did not start) or DNF (did n...
Read more

2017 Hefei International Marathon Race Report

Image
Most of my regular followers will know that I was selected as part of a team of five to represent Columbus, Ohio at the marathon of our sister city Hefei, China. I blogged about the announcement here and here , and about my team's fundraiser here . On November 8, 2017, we set off to the Far East, arriving in Hefei, China late evening on November 9th. We spent five days in Hefei, after which everyone went separate directions. My travels took me to Bangkok, Thailand, and then back to China to spend time in and around Beijing. But this post is about Hefei and the marathon I ran there. Post marathon with Courtney, Bernard, me, Echo and Lily in back The Hefei International Marathon is a large event, with tens of thousands of participants across all race distances (marathon, half marathon, 5K and 10K). The marathon had the smallest race field of all events, but included some very competitive elite runners. The Lead-Up Through the sister city marathon exchange, our team o...
Read more

2018 Running Recap

Image
I haven't blogged all year. In fact, I didn't even finish my 2017 race reports. What happened? I still ran. In fact, I ran several races, and did meet some of my annual running goals. But I also focused on other areas of my life that needed attention. I dropped the ball on some things, and I missed some of my other running goals. Right now I'm not going to write new running goals, because I'm not ready. I will, however, state one broad goal, and that is this: I will post a running-related story once per month in 2019. So, here's the 2018 recap: My 2018 Goals I will lead the 11:00 pace group for CWRC. CWRC is the Columbus Westside Running Club , which I joined after moving to Columbus, and this goal was about the winter/spring training program leading up to spring races. I started this, but I didn't finish. Very early on it became clear to me that I was not in the game mentally and not prepared to lead others on a weekly basis. A January training run ...
Read more