It's not that I'm not used to the pain. When you first become a distance runner it can be glaringly clear at times that it's not easy discovering what you're capable of. I guess all of life is like that to some degree. Nobody's born with prior experience or innate ability to do new things. It takes time and practice to be able to do something well. Good genetics can definitely make that journey easier. Especially in distance running. But at some point you're going to be standing there wondering why the hell you do this to yourself for fun?
Over the last 12 years I've had many of those "Why the hell?" moments. I remember the first time that I ran 13 miles. I remember the panic in my wife's voice as she discovered me laying on the floor in front of our bathroom. I wasn't in any kind of trouble. It just felt glorious to lay there on the cold tile felt and it was so convenient to be that close to the toilet. To this day I still get stomach issues when I run really far. It's got something to do with your body pumping extra blood to your legs and away from your organs.
I remember the first time that I discovered chaffing. There you are having the time of your life running mileage that ordinary people drive in their car. You're on top of the world and feel completely bad ass. Then you start noticing some stinging in all the wrong places. Then comes the blood. But you really don't get the full effect until after the race when your in the shower. You discover places on your body that you never even knew existed, let alone that could chafe. I remember reveling in joy when I found that the small circular band aids diabetics use to cover up their injection points also worked perfectly to protect my nipples during my marathons.
I remember trusting the race directors of my very first marathon that there will be everything that they said there would be at all of the water stations. They had everything covered. It's nice to know that I can run 26.2 miles on nothing more than plain water and one cherry popsicle. Everything was long gone by the time I got to those stops. I've never been so hungry in my life. I remember being so starved that I could've eaten dirt.
There's countless other things that have challenged me over 12 years of running. But as those years grew in number, the number of challenges decreased. With experience your body learns to adjust to running for hours. You buy stock in anti-chafing products like Bodyglide and Squeaky Cheeks. You bring a race belt to your event stocked with all the things that you'll need. You learn what works for you and what doesn't. Over time you can become quite good at this running thing. But also quite comfortable. You forget about the hunger that you had in the early days to be better. You're already running enough that ordinary people think you're an Olympian. Why do anymore hard work?
I found myself at that point a few years ago. I decided that I wanted a change. I wanted that hunger back. I changed my eating habits, lost a lot of weight, broke four hours in a marathon and ran 366 consecutive days. It felt good to be challenged again and feel like I was growing.
Over the last 12 years I've tried many different running plans and tweaked all of them into a marathon training plan that's gotten me good results. I've been using my homemade plan and running the marathon distance so long that I know it by heart. Days aren't labeled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. But instead Strength Run day, Cross-Training day and Easy Run day. I run marathons. I could do them in my sleep.
With this new ultra marathon challenge before me I've had to change my training all together. Forge ahead with a new training plan into territory that was familiar but unknown as well. My training's been going well up until this week. My 18 mile long run felt like a complete disaster. I only had one day off this week. Which meant the only time that I could fit this run in was on a hot and humid day. Sunscreen left me blinded by mile three, I forgot my cellphone and I walked about a third of the distance. It felt more like torture than training.
It's in workouts like these when you experience the whole spectrum of emotions. Elation to despair. You think about so many crazy different things. Your life, your family your future. The voice of doubt is louder than usual. The end of that run left me feeling like a fool to think that I could ever go further than 26.2 miles. But looking back, I did what I do best, put one foot in front of the other. I didn't stop.
Finding yourself shouldn't be something that stops when you reach adulthood. It does for some people. But for those who dare to continually search for the amazing things that lay within us it's not about the end result. It's about the journey. After some thought and a lot of pep-talk messages, thank you, that long run wasn't a disaster. It was an opportunity for my body to remember a hunger that's been forgotten. The training's only going to keep getting harder, the miles longer. I'm going to be a very hungry man in another 11 weeks!
Thank you for going on this journey with me. Hope your week was good and your future's looking bright. Let me know if I can do anything for you! Ride that lightning my friends...
I remember trusting the race directors of my very first marathon that there will be everything that they said there would be at all of the water stations. They had everything covered. It's nice to know that I can run 26.2 miles on nothing more than plain water and one cherry popsicle. Everything was long gone by the time I got to those stops. I've never been so hungry in my life. I remember being so starved that I could've eaten dirt.
There's countless other things that have challenged me over 12 years of running. But as those years grew in number, the number of challenges decreased. With experience your body learns to adjust to running for hours. You buy stock in anti-chafing products like Bodyglide and Squeaky Cheeks. You bring a race belt to your event stocked with all the things that you'll need. You learn what works for you and what doesn't. Over time you can become quite good at this running thing. But also quite comfortable. You forget about the hunger that you had in the early days to be better. You're already running enough that ordinary people think you're an Olympian. Why do anymore hard work?
I found myself at that point a few years ago. I decided that I wanted a change. I wanted that hunger back. I changed my eating habits, lost a lot of weight, broke four hours in a marathon and ran 366 consecutive days. It felt good to be challenged again and feel like I was growing.
Over the last 12 years I've tried many different running plans and tweaked all of them into a marathon training plan that's gotten me good results. I've been using my homemade plan and running the marathon distance so long that I know it by heart. Days aren't labeled Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. But instead Strength Run day, Cross-Training day and Easy Run day. I run marathons. I could do them in my sleep.
With this new ultra marathon challenge before me I've had to change my training all together. Forge ahead with a new training plan into territory that was familiar but unknown as well. My training's been going well up until this week. My 18 mile long run felt like a complete disaster. I only had one day off this week. Which meant the only time that I could fit this run in was on a hot and humid day. Sunscreen left me blinded by mile three, I forgot my cellphone and I walked about a third of the distance. It felt more like torture than training.
It's in workouts like these when you experience the whole spectrum of emotions. Elation to despair. You think about so many crazy different things. Your life, your family your future. The voice of doubt is louder than usual. The end of that run left me feeling like a fool to think that I could ever go further than 26.2 miles. But looking back, I did what I do best, put one foot in front of the other. I didn't stop.
Finding yourself shouldn't be something that stops when you reach adulthood. It does for some people. But for those who dare to continually search for the amazing things that lay within us it's not about the end result. It's about the journey. After some thought and a lot of pep-talk messages, thank you, that long run wasn't a disaster. It was an opportunity for my body to remember a hunger that's been forgotten. The training's only going to keep getting harder, the miles longer. I'm going to be a very hungry man in another 11 weeks!
Thank you for going on this journey with me. Hope your week was good and your future's looking bright. Let me know if I can do anything for you! Ride that lightning my friends...
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