Mo Jo: Wait, the Marathon Is in Eight Weeks?

Distance: 12 miles
Pace: Slow
Attitude: Better

I have a confession, loyal readers of ROW. I decided to quit. I tried to run 12 and quit at 9. I was OVER it. I was over the boredom, the low-level pain, the sweat. No audio book could save my mood. I did the walk of running shame back to my car and decided, eff it, I am not doing this marathon. Who wants to run 26.2 miles without music anyway?

Plus the long runs are an absolute killer to an otherwise good Sunday. I come home, eat, drink Gatorade, take a lovely shower, and then lie on the couch the rest of the day like a slug. I think, "Boy, I'd sure like more water, but the kitchen seems so far away..." This is not how I want to spend every Sunday for months and months. I quit.

But I'm afraid to tell TST. So I hint to her that I am now seriously undertrained and probably need to drop out, thinking she'll say, "Oh, that's totally understandable!" TST is not having any of it. "You still have ten weeks!" she says chirpily. Hmm. She's not really letting me off the hook.

So, not wanting to let my marathon partner down, I lace up my shoes and start over. Short runs, slower pace. Try to remember why I like running. Do some fives and sevens at tempo, feel fine. Then I even run twelve and do not die of boredom, despite my chosen audio book trying to kill me with teenage angst. I was trying to listen to The Maze Runner, but sometimes YA fiction just has to be read, not listened to, so you can skim the adolescent "oh, let's examine how I'm feeling for three pages" BS. I changed back to Amy Poehler's book Yes Please for the last four miles, and that helped a lot. Laughing is good for running.

(What is bad for running is gross construction workers that feel the need to pause all work and just stare at female runners as they go by. This is in no way flattering. It is uncomfortable, and I don't want anyone focusing on my ass in running pants--anyone. I had to change my route because I was running a loop and didn't need to provide another sideshow. Makes me want to carry a Taser.)

The other thing that helped--and TST's last post was interesting on this point--was slowing down! I have been working on bringing up my pace to a less turtle-like speed, and so naturally I didn't think I should be doing my long runs at my former, glacial pace. I was, for some reason, putting some low tens in there. But long runs are supposed to be slower than race pace, according to the gospel of Hal Higdon, and it is much harder to recover from long runs if you go faster. You get the physiological benefit of the long-run training from the slow workout. I think both TST and I are feeling stronger this year, so we're making new training mistakes based on our assumptions we can do more.

So, we still have eight weeks or so. I can do this! Just need to get a quick 14 out of the way tomorrow and I'm back on track. I mean, a slow 14. 14 miles? Yes please.