Just One Marathon

Messy

And if I was a bed,

I’d be an unmade bed.

Tom Waits, “Baby Gonna Leave Me”

 

Why do other people’s lives always seem so tidy? Me, I’m always forgetting my lunch, putting my car keys in the wrong place, and misplacing important documents. I go to work wearing one navy shoe and one black, often sporting a post-it note in my hair or a static-y stocking on the back of my sweater.

 

When it comes to running, I’m similarly disorganized. Sure, I make plans. I loooove to make plans. I create a training program, print it, post it on my fridge and, for the first few weeks, check off all my long runs religiously. Then life gets messy. I need to work late, or drive a kid to hockey practice, or I just get lazy. That neat little plan starts to look ridiculous when applied to a messy Reluctant Runner.

 

What helps? Structure. That’s why I’ve joined a running class to train for the hypothermic half marathon in Ottawa on January 24. I have a love-hate thing going with the group run. On one hand, it’s nice to be my own boss – run whenever I want to, at whatever pace I feel like, listening to my music. On the other hand, I really appreciate having someone set up a training schedule, map routes and supply running buddies.

 

During group runs, the running class divides into “pods”, based on our goal times for completing a half marathon. Not surprisingly, finding the right running pod has been, for me, a messy process. I started out with the two hour group. After all, that is my goal and I ran one half marathon in just under two hours. However, it’s been 15 months – and countless skipped runs – since I ran that sub-two half. These days, I can’t keep up. So, my next choice is the 2:15 group. Unfortunately, that pace feels a bit leisurely, since my slowest half marathon ever was about 3 minutes faster than 2:15. Mind you, it’s very enjoyable to run at that pace.

 

So, in my typical sloppy fashion, I’ve been alternating between the two groups. Last week, the clinic leader started a 2:07 group – yay! I ran with them on Sunday and it still feels like I’m holding back. Oh well. I’ll just keep muddling along, enjoying the company, and recognizing that this training schedule doesn’t fit into a neat little package.  

The Trouble With Intervals

For about the last 6 months, I’ve been following a training schedule that has me running intervals once a week: 400 metre intervals one week, 800s the next and 1600s (or 1 mile) the following week.

I love the 400s and can manage the 800s. But the 1600s? Hell.

 

I simply cannot run really fast for that long. Today, for example, I started my first 1600m interval running at a slightly-faster-than-usual pace (maybe 30 seconds/km faster than my normal pace) and felt pretty tired at the end. I ran the second one a little slower (not by choice). Then I just gave up and made an effort to finish my run at a decent pace. There seemed to be little point in running a 1600m interval when I knew I couldn’t sustain the  pace for that long.

 

Anyone else have this problem? How did you handle it? Maybe I should moderate my “faster” pace more? Or rest longer in between? Or build up to 1600s? Or maybe I’m just being a lazy candy-ass who needs to suck it up and go faster. If so, just tell me. I can take it. 

 

Post-script: Even though my 1600s barely qualify as interval training, this approach works! I have significantly increased my speed over the last six months Speed being a relative term.