Marathon Training 1
Why does anyone decide to run a marathon? I think Edmund Hillary said something like “because it is there”. I don’t feel the need to climb Mount Everest. Sometimes you have to have a goal to head towards. Running a marathon is something that challenges your physical and mental limits. And the plan is to break through them, because they are self imposed.
I am not a runner. Childhood arthritis means I have crappy joints. Crappy joints means I have some tight muscles in some places and looser ones in other places. I have a good 10 (ok 15) kilos too many for my ideal running weight. It comes a time in your life when you have to face up to all these beliefs and change you perception of them and yourself.
So on the 29th August 2010, I am running down Oceanic Drive towards the beach having completed the City to Surf fun run. That is the picture in my mind anyway.
I am in week two of my training regime. I am researching websites. Got the programme from one website. I am reading books. The Non-runner’s Marathon Guide for Women by Dawn Dais and The One – Day Way by Chantel Hobbs. Both of these women were not runners and managed to run marathons. So why can’t I? Strange thing is one lost 80 kg and the other did not loose an ounce. Go figure.
Everyone seems to talk about the pain. Why does it have to hurt so much? Apparently ice packs will be my best friend. Up until today I have done 6 runs for the regime. At the moment they have all ranged between 30 and 45 minutes. For anyone who doesn’t run, I could run 30 minutes before I started this. Without a goal though, I would stumble along do my Cliff Young shuffle. (By the way Cliff Young was a great ultramarathoning potato farmer who had a particularly distinctive gait. Where as I can shuffle for 30 minutes, Cliff would shuffle for days. We met Cliff once in Darwin. He was soaking his feet in the seawater at Fanny Bay)
Who would have known I am competitive. With myself only though. Today was a thirty minute run and I gather the point of these, because they happen twice a week for the next 30 weeks, is to increase speed. So I have to beat my turn around spot every time – don’t I? I did that today by 100 metres. Problem was I probably put a bit too much in early and peaked prematurely. Bugger! My back 15 minutes was slower. How can time be slower? What I mean is it took me 17 minutes to get back to the start.
This is the first of many blogs for the 30 week. I will be written straight after my run when the sweat if fresh. For those who are anally retentive about spelling and grammer, please excuse any mistakes or confused rantings. I am either in some post run endorphin bliss or so exhausted, can’t keep my brain and typing fingers coordinated.
Cheers from
Pelusey’s Pounding the Pavement