My last few weeks of half marathon training before I taper have been a challenge! Will’s school teachers caught a nasty cold virus that led to respiratory problems, and they were short-staffed enough to close for two days last week… so I unexpectedly missed a long run that I’d scheduled for Friday morning. I moved it to Saturday, but didn’t get out of bed in time, so decided I’d go Sunday. Sunday rolled around and there were thunderstorms when I was supposed to be running 10 miles outside, so I ran 2 miles on the treadmill and folded laundry and cleaned the house while the babysitter was there instead. I needed to get caught up, because Greg was gone on business and wouldn’t be back until late Tuesday night! On top of having him gone, Will’s school had reopened but Will and Andrew had colds and couldn’t go. No running Monday morning, either.
I could have done better at shifting my schedule to accommodate these changes than I did. But it’s hard to spend all my free time running, and watch the house deteriorate around me, and my resiliency fade because I’m running when I could be sleeping.
It was exhilarating, exciting, and challenging when I made these types of sacrifices to train for my first half marathon. It’s draining and unsustainable making these sacrifices month after month to train for my fourth half marathon.
I’m not ANYWHERE close to giving up running, but I think there’s a strong chance that I’ll train for a 10k next fall, instead. Or perhaps run just the Chilly Half Marathon in November, which would give me a little extra time in the fall while the boys are in school to prepare.
I post these thoughts not to complain, but because it’s worth examining whether running half marathons is something that works well and adds value to my life right now. I’m not sure it is. I think fitting an hour long run in instead of a two hour run makes a huge difference to the amount of time required. It’s the difference between making it back in time to join the boys for breakfast on a weekend, or squeezing the run in while they’re at school and still having time to grocery shop. It’s not inconsequential.
I talked to another mother runner about this recently, and she actually trained for a MARATHON after her first child was born. She was nursing at the time, so she would run 10-12 miles, come back, nurse her daughter, and then run 5 more miles on the treadmill. It was an amazing accomplishment, and she’s an incredible woman! But she said that afterwards, it was a relief to be off a training schedule.
When you’re training for something, you’re supposed to run speed workouts on a specific day, you schedule your long run for when you can do it, which might not be when you WANT to do it.
She said it was a huge relief after the race to once again be able to decide what she’d do after putting her running shoes on. What do I feel like doing today? Speed workouts? A few miles easy to clear my head? The freedom to just keep going and turn a 5 mile run into an 8 mile run because you FEEL like it sounds amazing.
I’ve never run 8 miles because I felt like it. I’ve always run those miles because I was training for an event and the schedule told me to.
Maybe I just wouldn’t do it… but I’d love to think I would, and it’d be for me, not for the race, and it’d be beautiful.
In the meantime, I’m squeezing in whatever mileage I can, and taking full advantage of the beautiful fall weather to get the boys outside, doing some exercising of their own! Long walks, biking in the driveway, and hiking through the local trails. Doesn’t get better than that!
Think about your race schedule. Is it motivating you, or taking over your life? If you’re also having trouble training for distance events, a 5k or a 10k might be a good solution for you, too. After all, people run 50 miles per week training for 5ks if they’re going for speed! But you can manage a 5k running only 10 miles a week. It allows you to do as much or as little as brings you joy, starting with a base that’s enough miles to keep you healthy, and going above that when you have the time or it brings you pleasure.
Because anything above 10 – 15 miles a week isn’t really necessary for good health… so make sure you’re enjoying it!
I get what you’re saying. I am running more now than ever and it is because of my training schedule. I’ve been able to fit in most of my runs – work travel has been light, my husband is in school and my kids are grown. I’ve learned that I can do these longer runs on my own without them being a 10k that I signed up for – that is an accomplishment for me and if I hadn’t signed up for the half I would not have figured that out. No way will I sign up for a full marathon and I’ll sign up for a half again (I hope) if I make it through this first one and my schedule cooperates. But I also have aging parents that are requiring more of my time too…
I agree that without signing up for the half marathon for the first time I never would have known the distance running I was capable of! It was incredible to grow my long runs from 5 miles to 10. I don’t want to let that ability go… but I don’t want to feel obligated to complete double digit runs every weekend, either! It’s hard to find the right balance, for sure.
Again, spot on. I needed this. 🙂
🙂