Tuesday, August 01, 2006

I Can't Control Everything

We slept, we drank tons of water, we ate, we were mentally ready to run. Excited to get out there and be speedy.

Then we get outside at 10:30am.

Then we run 2 miles.

And started melting.

It was 95 degrees when we left for our run. I'm not a strong enough runner to be able to lactate any kind of threshold in that kind of weather. There is nothing I can do about the time when we run because that is the schedule this week. I can't change it. I can't make it be 70 degrees instead of 95.

But I can be smarter that I have been in the past two weeks. I can realize that the 10 miles is never going to happen because it's getting dangerous. We decided to just run 6 miles at whatever pace we could get through.

And you know what? It's ok. It's not going to keep me from running the marathon. It's all I can do in this weather. We ended up having a nice run together and not bickering or bitching at each other ("Just go ahead of me, I suck" "No I'm staying with you" No I am a loser and I suck just go the fuck ahead of me" "I don't want to." "JUST DO IT") for the first time in awhile while out there running . We had a really fun last mile getting a little speedy and running funny and playing tag (really).

Making the realization that I can't control every piece of my life and so some of these training runs are going to have to change a bit depending on my schedule and the weather and so on, I think will help my mental/training state and make the training more fun (THIS IS KEY!). Maybe next year I won't be in such a ridiculous state of scheduling hell and can follow the plan to a T, but that's not this year. I'm going to get most of the miles in, I'm going to finish the marathon in some amount of time.......and

IT'S OK!!!

I'M GOING TO HAVE FUN! I AM GOING TO GET THROUGH THE TRAINING CAUSE AT THE END....I GET TO RUN THE CHICAGO MARATHON. HERE'S TO A GOOD REST OF THE SUMMER TRAINING WISE AND MOVING WISE AND WORK WISE AND DRIVING WISE AND READING WISE. WE HAVE TO REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN!

10 comments:

Carrie said...

Good Attitude! I'm sure once this weather breaks we are all going to feel a whole lot better! I would love to be able to run in the afternoon sometimes again, instead of right before the sun comes up every stinkin' time! I really enjoy your blog and look forward to the new entry's. It looks great too, I wish mine could look this good. Keep up the good work!

Carrie

MNFirefly said...

Attitude is the key. Positive attitude is important. Stay positive and go with the flow. That's all you can do.

Triseverance said...

Way to stay positive Leah. Today was rough.

mouse said...

holy hell was it awful out today. I did my entire workout on the treadmill because there was no stinkin' way I was going out in this. just stepping out of my car to get gas, the heat was so oppressive I thought I was going to pass out. I am way impressed that you guys braved the heat and made the most of the crappy conditions. honestly, it's stuff like that that's going to count the most on race day... the fact that you didn't bail on getting a good workout in when there was really nothing you could do about mother nature throwing a curveball your way. you'll have other chances to get speedier runs in during the next 12 weeks or so anyways. GREAT JOB!

Haight said...

Exactamente!!!

If you can't enjoy it (and this goes for anything), why bother doing it?

Michele said...

Great job making the most out of the run and actually making it FUN!
I will be thinking about this post on my next long run.

Dave said...

Nice job on the run. Whatever it take to get through the run. Relief is in sight for the weekend...

Josh Dysart said...

Great post. You are so right about enjoying yourself while training, but at the same time, making sure to do it safely. (Is that a word, safely?) Here's to fun!

Full Metal Lunchbox said...

Let me just say once again I really admire you guys!

Afternoon Tea With Oranges said...

Great perspective, Leah. I totally agree. There's some things you can't control, so why beat yourself up over it? I say you guys are going to do GREAT anyways. You all are SO focused!!