Friday, February 18, 2011

Holding pattern

I have really struggled with what I want to do next, in terms of racing. My initial plan was to run the Albany Marathon in 2 weeks and give the sub 3:40:00 a second shot. Three hard-run marathons within 8 weeks sounds stupid, and it is, but that's how my mind works.

My wife offered some much needed wisdom this morning, however. She is a wonderful, wonderful woman and very rarely offers anything other than support for me in my half-baked, hair-brained racing and training plans. But this morning she laid it on the line and told me this:
I don't think you need to run Albany in two weeks. It's too soon and you're not close to fully recovered from the last two marathons. If you run Albany and crash, you're going to be even more frustrated than you were after Birmingham, and it's not likely you can go out there, half-recovered and run a PR race. It's a small percentage chance. 
As is the case 99.9999% of the time, she was absolutely right. She is my rudder of wisdom when I stop being able to see beyond my own unrealistic ambitions and plans. Believe me, I didn't want to hear what she said, but I needed to hear it because she was spot-on right.

So, I will forgo Albany, and begin concentrating on the Sweet H20 50k in April and the Twisted Ankle Trail Marathon in May. Both of these races are going to be very, very challenging and really do require my full attention during training.

In the meantime, I"m running again now without any problem. I ran a nice 8 miler last evening and am heading out the door for another 8 miles or so now. I feel great, and I'm slowly getting over my B'ham misfortunes/mistakes. I'm trying to bring everything back into focus and concentrate on the fact I was able to improve my PR by nearly 9 minutes at Disney. Not a shabby Winter racing season at all...

I keep telling myself that anyway.. ;)

6 comments:

  1. SweetH20 is where it's at!!!!! I am looking forward to that race as last year's running was my first ultra.

    You will be fully recovered and will "enjoy" a couple trips to Top of the World!

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  2. Good call! Listen to your wife.

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  3. That wife of yours is a smart one ;)

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  4. Sorry about missing the race but you know what they say "If at first you don't succeed try doing it the way your wife said in the first place" Recovery is an important part of training that a lot of people like to "cut out" Enjoy your upcoming runs/races.

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  5. It's great that you have a nice, objective voice-of-reason to weigh-in on the training plan. :)

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  6. Glad the wife was able to talk sense in to you. It's good to recovery more and focus on the next big races. It'll be good for the body and the mind and let you refocus and regenerate!

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