A friend used to say she looked forward to the training more than the actual race. These days I tend to agree. Some of my best memories have been on training runs with friends or when something went completely wrong like running out of water or getting lost.
A race, relatively speaking, is over in a blink of an eye.
Through the many weeks and months of training, you find out who you are as a runner. Are you consistent? Are you stepping out of your comfort zone? Are you stronger than your excuses?
As I tried not to slip on the ice on the Bow River pathway, I thought about this. Do I really need to be out in this semi-blizzard with snow up to my knees? My first race this year is five months away. Surely this slow-moving 8-kilometre run is not going to make a difference in July?
Excuses are easy to come by February in Alberta. I had a longer run planned for the day in the mountains but a snowstorm and whiteouts kept me in the city. The snow was still coming down with a vengeance as I put on my mask and walked through the doors of the gym.
Training for long-distance races takes patience and discipline. More than anything it takes flexibility and a sense of humour. I switched to Plan B – short run and leg strength at the gym. (Aside: I don’t know what it is – likely a mental thing – but I can’t psych myself up to run 20K alone on the city trails.)
Slightly short in my mileage for the week, I don’t feel bummed out or guilty. Strength and mobility is continuing to be a bigger part of my training this year. On Saturday I got in a 22-kilometre run with some vert so all was not lost. To be honest, it wasn’t just a run of mill run in the mountains. Mostly it sucked.
I ran out of water within a couple hours. Not sure why I was guzzling so much water but there I was completely dry with a few more hours to go. It was not my finest moment but I had to laugh at my rookie mistake and poor planning. I was never in any real danger because there was snow everywhere and I was on a busy trail. Sense of humour? Check.
Are you sticking to your training plan? Do you enjoy the training more than the actual race? I would love to hear from you in the comments below.
I don’t know how you get anything done when you have nature like that! absolutely stunning!
I also prefer the training over the competitions. There is something about competing with myself that I truly enjoy and prefer over competing against others. Every 3 months, I assess the previous quarters’ performance and celebrate every time I beat myself.
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I love the training phase! Actually, I love planning a training phase out, seeing progress, and then also love race day or setting off on a big challenge. But they are all different – same as I enjoy the challenge of 5km on the track or 50km on the trails and pretty much anything in between. One of the best things about running (to me at least!) is that for something that seems so simple and repetitive, there is a huge amount of variety!
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