Saturday, March 26, 2011

A New Role

This week commenced with a 14 mile run and picked up a dog...again. Bill had stayed up most of the night with his job so he stayed in bed and didn't join us. It was extremely cold and windy, straight out of the north. We did an extended Ethanol Loop with an extra mile west and an extra 3 miles north. Rachael was having yet another bad run. Later that day Bill wanted to get out for 8 miles so I took the bike out and road alongside him. The winds were sooo strong I didn't think I could do it. It was a lot of work to keep the bike moving forward, especially going north back into town. My thighs were really getting a workout, not to mention I was on Rachael's bike with low tires and a bad seat.

I have found myself catapulted into the role of not only parent, but also mentor and coach. Rachael has had some really difficult runs lately that she just wants to quit. I find myself encouraging her and giving her strategies to use during the runs to feel better and get through the mental game of the endurance. This becomes challenging for me as a parent because I see her hurting and wanting more than anything to stop. I question her about her pain to be sure she isn't getting an injury rather than just endurance pain from the long run. She always feels awesome at the end of the runs and can get herself together again for the last half or so of the run. Side aches have been her biggest physical obstacle.

Her mental obstacles are the normal ones that the book is helping her get through and reinforced with what I have been telling her. She has reached the point where she is in awe over how far she can really run and I think that keeps her going. She is so proud at the end of the run to say, "I ran FOURTEEN miles today!" She even mentioned toward the beginning of the run that she is only 4 miles from her longest training run. This is exciting to her!

During the week I completed another 4 and 7 miles. Rachael ran with me for the 4 miles, but school work got her too busy to do the last run. I always told her that school comes first! My shins have really been getting to me lately so I start out going really slow and then get into my "groove" to complete it. I always figure if I can't get my groove and am hurting too much, I'll just stop and take a few days off. So far, I have been able to keep my minimum 2 weekly runs and the long weekend run. That was my goal from the start so I'm feeling pretty good about that. My other goal was not to drug myself before a run. I only did this once because I was getting a nasty cold and didn't want to come home with a snotty shirt. I also had a nasty headache so took some Tylenol for that. The 7 mile run I actually thought I had 8 miles, as originally planned, but when I mapped it out, it was only 7. Dang! Oh well, it was probably better in the end.

I mapped out the calendar through the marathon the other day. It's a week later than I originally thought it would be and I intentionally started earlier in case I had to take some time off. Our training will be "done", including the taper, and we'll have about a month left before the marathon. I'm thinking about doing a couple 20 mile runs. Seems like I was mentally devastated when I reached 18 miles. I crossed that line in the road and mentally shut down. I knew that was the longest I had ever run and I still had about 50% more to complete. Last summer I ran a 20 mile run a week before I got hurt and somehow being able to get into the 20s was a big mental jump for me. So, even if Rachael doesn't go that far, I may do it anyway just for the mental hurdle.

This week we watched "The Long Green Line". Vardotrichic, this is another good, inspirational movie to watch! http://www.hulu.com/watch/125305/the-long-green-line

Total weekly training mileage: 25 miles + 8 miles cross training :)

1 comment:

  1. When I had my best marathon, I had 4 20+ mile runs built into my training calendar. It was great from a mental stand point during the marathon :) If you have the time available, I would recommend doing more than one 20+ miler!!

    I will definitely look into "The Long Green Line".

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