Without a lot of ceremony, a new training cycle begins! Initially I thought I might sign up for a travel race this spring with fingers crossed all things would be a go, but increasingly it became clear I wouldn’t feel comfortable traveling yet (even if the race I chose managed to not get cancelled). Instead, I registered for nearby Carmel Marathon, in part because of proximity, but also because the race director has run a few events and I’ve heard he’s doing a good job of safety precautions from people I trust.
I decided to pull the trigger right at the end of December, and with the race slated for April 3rd, I rolled right into training. Side note: I learned how important having a definitive training start date and some prep time before is to me. I really missed small ceremonies like choosing a running book to read and taking an extra restful week right before training kicks off.
That aside, after a whole year of not really training for a marathon (just the many starts and stops for that one virtual race), I was ready to get at it. Like most of us, I’ve been cooped up in the house much of the time, and even as a dancer at heart, the spontaneous kitchen dance party eventually loses its allure. I craved longer, harder efforts and had this taper level energy that was really helpful on workout and long run days, but got kind of annoying otherwise.
Given uncertainties about the world, I didn’t wanted to set the bar too high. Settling on any marathon PR (5 seconds – cool. 5 minutes, also cool.) seemed like the way to go. This was my mindset as I started getting into my workouts, and yet week after week I was surpassing my marathon pace work with ease. By :10, then :20, then :30 per mile. I hadn’t wanted to swing big, and yet my body was going for it anyway.
When I told my coach the workouts were coming this easy, she said: Strike while the iron is hot. I resisted changing my goal pace at first. I tried adding hills first to make the workouts harder, and still breezed through. I finally decided it was time to embrace a bigger goal. The next few workouts seemed to confirm that this was the right choice.
This week has been a different story. Earlier in the week I struggled through 1K repeats at 10K pace. While I hit my times, I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth each repeat, and felt like I only hit pace because of extra rests due to avoiding icy patches.
Yesterday, I had a workout I normally love. Two mile warm up, followed by six miles at marathon pace. Conditions weren’t the absolute worst (I found a really good route with zero ice at least!), but not exactly ideal either. 31 degrees with a feels-like temp of 21, plus 13.7 mile per hour winds. I never quite hit goal marathon pace and I further slowed a few seconds per mile in the final repeats.
It wasn’t a disaster, just not the easy, breezy situation of the last month of workouts. And it the first workout this cycle where I wasn’t sure I could bang out another mile. I actually even took a rest and stretch break (oh, hi, left side, with your familiar crankiness) before my cool down miles.
I was expecting workouts like this to bring me back down to earth. I have a bad habit of minimizing hard things in a way that does not serve me. Marathon training isn’t easy, even when the goals are modest. I kind of needed this so I didn’t get too cozy.
40 minutes of yoga and a good night’s sleep have me feeling better, and I’m not letting two tough workouts bring me down. Overall, this has been a pretty dreamy initial training block, and it gave me the confidence to aim high, see what I’m made of. I’m still going for the big swing. Undeterred.