Let me set the stage. It’s Saturday, February 18, 2017. Week 7, Day 6 of training for the Boston Marathon. The day before this, my coach Yogi Triathlete, asked me if I would be game for a double long run. I believe my exact words were, “I’m game!” That’s me, always game, willing to try something new in life and training. The next thing I know, a workout for the next day was uploaded to the TrainingPeaks app my coach and I use.
Run #1: 90 minute progression
Warm up: 30 minutes to HR 150-160
20 minutes @ 9:30 pace
20 minutes @ 9:15 pace
20 minutes @ 8:45 pace
I started out at 8:00 am. Weather was mostly sunny, 26 degrees. I chose an out and back route I like to do. There’s a little climb during first 1.5 miles and then a nice downhill to flat and rolling through the turn around point. I knew the challenge would be heading back home. It’s a climb with three decent hills. I do this purposefully. I know that Boston hills hit you between mile 17 and 21. Trying to train to be ready for them. Even though I am cursing those hills every single time. And I am waiting every single time for them to get easier. Ha!
With Bird Beats in my ears, I rocked this run. Dug deep on the hills coming back but I was riding high from this run both physically and mentally. Hit my paces and now needed to fuel and rest before the next one. I made myself coffee, of course, and continued drinking my water with NUUN. The key I learned is not to eat too many carbs before running again. Now I wait, rest and roll out.
I really did feel good both mentally and physically, at least up to about an hour before my next run. As the day continued I started feeling tired. My legs started getting tight. Oh crap. I have another run to do. The good news, it was warmer out, gorgeous. No layers needed. The bad news, I was starting to feel fatigued.
Run #2: Same as Run #1 (or as close to it as I could get)
This run became mentally challenging from the first step. With more Bird Beats in my ears, I headed out at 2:30 pm into the bright sunshine and warm wind of this February afternoon. As I started to run, my legs (especially my right leg) started to protest. I believe they thought they were done for the day. Boy were they wrong. I focused on taking each step and my breathing. Then 15 minutes in, I had to turn around and head back to use the bathroom. Tried not to use energy by becoming frustrated and angry. Just did what I had to do and continued on the run.
The next challenge was delivered by my Garmin which decided to go off the workout I had programmed. You see, this morning I had entered this progression run as a workout into my Garmin so I wouldn’t have to think about it while running each time. It would buzz on my wrist and let me know what I needed to be doing. Instead it reverted back to when I set it for a normal run. I didn’t lose what I had done so far, it just wasn’t in the workout mode anymore. Crap! In this moment, I remembered what Siri Lindley said on the Yogi Triathlete Podcast #39. She talked about how you can visualize everything going right in your run/race but you can’t forget about visualizing what you are going to do when things go wrong. Who are you going to be? In this moment I realized I needed to focus on running another 90 minutes and do the best I could. Whether or not I hit the paces from before or not. All effort matters.
I really thought I was going to rock this second run too. Thought I did everything right. Run #2 was more mental than physical. That’s the point sometimes. Not that I meet the paces set before me but what am I going to do when it starts to fall apart. Am I going to quit and turn around and go home or am I going to take a breath and remind myself that every effort matters and keep moving forward. This is the part where I absolutely love running. When running intersects with life. Challenges are going to come. Crap happens. But we keep going. Step by step.
The picture above my husband took. It was a moment where I realized I ran 18.64 miles in total. Me. I had to dig really, really deep on this second run. I did it. I finished. I didn’t quit.