Kicking It Off!

I’ve decided to go rogue. Everyone else is starting their spring marathon and half marathon training plans, with their speed work, long runs and recovery runs. For me, it is the beginning of my training for the Minneapolis Half Marathon on June 6th. Oh, there is nothing I like better than printing out a brand new training schedule and then following it religiously. The training schedule has been my task master and I’ve always done exactly as it dictates.

Not any more. I’m going off-road, going onto my own path for this round of training.  The words I’m going write next are shocking, so prepare yourself. I’m not going to do any speed work. That’s right. I’ll miss the track, but we must part ways for now. Why? Because, while I love you track, your tough love hurts sometimes.

NYC Marathon is my goal this season. End of story. That means my goal race is 8 months away, which means I have 8 months to hurt myself. Pessimistic? I would say realistic. Another reality for me is that a ten minute mile is about as fast as I can go. I’ve been running consistently for 5 years now. I ran about that speed when I started, and that’s how fast I run now. I would love to run a 9 minute mile, but 2 seasons of speed work  haven’t made that happen. I’ve come to accept the 10 minute mile. It is my friend. Even the 10:30 mile and I are on friendly terms. They are lovely paces and they make race day math easy.

The last 6 months or so, I’ve also been friends with “the pain free run”. We haven’t been friends very long, but I would like to make this a long term relationship. The track workouts and the pain free run have not gone hand in hand for me. If you saw me run in person, you would know why. My feet barely leave the ground and I pretty much gimp along. Maybe I was reaching when I thought that the track would be nice to me. Don’t get me wrong, I like the track. It’s just that over time, it wears me down.

With no speed work, it makes my training for this race pretty straight forward. I’ll run 4 days a week, with one run being between 8 and 11 miles. That’s it. The other days I’ll run between 4 and 7 miles, depending on how I’m feeling. I’m going to actually attempt to listen to my body and run more when I feel good and run less when I feel like I’m starting to hurt. I have never done that before. I’ve always been a slave to the schedule, afraid that if I didn’t do exactly what it said that I wouldn’t be able to finish the race. Well, Mr. Half Marathon, I’m not afraid of you anymore. I’ve done enough of you now that I’m not going to let you frighten me. I’ve got my eye on the NYC Marathon goal, and you will not distract me. My friends 10 Minute Mile, Pain Free Run and I are a team now. We’ve got 10 and a Half Minute Mile on the bench if we need him, and we are not afraid to use him. Let’s go!