giving up on goals
Well, the bursitis is gone, but Mother Nature has now taken the throne as queen of my running problems. As of this morning, the forecast for Burlington on Sunday is 80 degrees and sunny. In other words, hell on earth.
When I initially decided to run a spring marathon, I had thought of it as something to do just for fun, to keep my training up between NYC and running Chicago in the fall. The strategy worked well - it kept my running up during the otherwise unmotivational winter months, and increased my level of performance. Indeed, I've had personal bests in every race distance I've attempted since the end of January, even surprising myself with my own success rate, from a 20:11 5K, to a 1:31:33 half marathon.
Somewhere along the way I got caught up in goal-setting. By the time April rolled around, I realised that not only could I be able to PR in this marathon, but a sub-3:20 was not unrealistic. After my success at the Queens Half, I was urged by myself and my running mates to shoot for the Boston Qualifier at Vermont instead of Chicago. I sat down with a dozen different online calculators and crunched the numbers. Nearly all of them gave me a range of 3:10 to 3:15, and I need a sub-3:15 to qualify for Boston. It looked like I was well on my way.
When you convince yourself that a goal is within reach, and get your heart set on obtaining that goal, it's difficult to go back. After my recent daily obsessing over the forecast, I've finally accepted the fact that it's just not going to get any better. I'm now trying to approach this marathon as a "fun run" again, although I'm not sure how much fun one can have running 26 miles in the sweltering heat. I jogged 3 miles at 8:00 this morning. It was 64 degrees and sunny, and after the first mile, I was already hot. Can I PR in weather like this? Maybe. My NYC'05 marathon PR is 3:32, and the course is supposed to be easier, less hilly. It appears that the weather will be similar, but unlike NYC training, which took place over the summer, I'm not used to hot weather running, so there might be more walking involved with this marathon. I have to prepare myself for the possible reality that I might not even break 3:32.
Yes, I'm disappointed, frustrated, and trying to figure out some kind of a "Plan B". All the work I've done training, all is for naught, or so it seems anyway. If I didn't have a plane ticket and a hotel booked, I'd probably drop out.
I'm trying to find a bright side to this - the scenery will be nice, there will be a lot of crowd support in the nice weather, and regardless of my performance, it's still good training experience for Chicago. Besides, there's reported to be free Ben & Jerry's at the end of the race, and hell, I'd run 26.2 miles for ice cream any day.
When I initially decided to run a spring marathon, I had thought of it as something to do just for fun, to keep my training up between NYC and running Chicago in the fall. The strategy worked well - it kept my running up during the otherwise unmotivational winter months, and increased my level of performance. Indeed, I've had personal bests in every race distance I've attempted since the end of January, even surprising myself with my own success rate, from a 20:11 5K, to a 1:31:33 half marathon.
Somewhere along the way I got caught up in goal-setting. By the time April rolled around, I realised that not only could I be able to PR in this marathon, but a sub-3:20 was not unrealistic. After my success at the Queens Half, I was urged by myself and my running mates to shoot for the Boston Qualifier at Vermont instead of Chicago. I sat down with a dozen different online calculators and crunched the numbers. Nearly all of them gave me a range of 3:10 to 3:15, and I need a sub-3:15 to qualify for Boston. It looked like I was well on my way.
When you convince yourself that a goal is within reach, and get your heart set on obtaining that goal, it's difficult to go back. After my recent daily obsessing over the forecast, I've finally accepted the fact that it's just not going to get any better. I'm now trying to approach this marathon as a "fun run" again, although I'm not sure how much fun one can have running 26 miles in the sweltering heat. I jogged 3 miles at 8:00 this morning. It was 64 degrees and sunny, and after the first mile, I was already hot. Can I PR in weather like this? Maybe. My NYC'05 marathon PR is 3:32, and the course is supposed to be easier, less hilly. It appears that the weather will be similar, but unlike NYC training, which took place over the summer, I'm not used to hot weather running, so there might be more walking involved with this marathon. I have to prepare myself for the possible reality that I might not even break 3:32.
Yes, I'm disappointed, frustrated, and trying to figure out some kind of a "Plan B". All the work I've done training, all is for naught, or so it seems anyway. If I didn't have a plane ticket and a hotel booked, I'd probably drop out.
I'm trying to find a bright side to this - the scenery will be nice, there will be a lot of crowd support in the nice weather, and regardless of my performance, it's still good training experience for Chicago. Besides, there's reported to be free Ben & Jerry's at the end of the race, and hell, I'd run 26.2 miles for ice cream any day.
posted by Skylight at 11:21 AM
4 Comments:
Ugh. Sucks. I know how that feels. I'm trying to think of ways to structure my training so that I'm not always putting my eggs in one basket. Periodization with huge buildups to a big race might be fine for elite athletes who are doing races like Olympic trials, or world championships, but personally, I need more opportunities to see improvement.
What's wrong with having PRs at all race distances you're done since January?!
jbl is right-your training was not all for nothing, as a result of it, you did reset a whole $hitload of PR's this spring :)
as for the weather, play it by ear. yeah, you may have to adjust your goals a little, but don't count a PR out just yet.
good luck sunday!
I'm not going to repeat myself at length, but I really do believe that whatever the outcome, gaining more experience as a marathoner is never wasted. You've already got more tools in the toolbox for the next one and it'll pay off down the road.
jbl - yes, it's definitely an eggs-in-one-basket problem, and it's purely a personal perception issue. The PRs have been great, but I've always perceived them as a means to an end, not the goals alone. Yep, I should be happy with them.
nyflygirl, I do still hope for a PR in this race, but I was just hoping to shoot for a much more abitious goal.
And sistersmile, yes we've talked about this extensively. The point of my post is just to express, not that this race is a waste of time (although it feels that way sometimes), but that sometimes you have to give up on goals because of things that are out of your control. And that, my friend, is just plain hard to do.
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