Missing

There's always something to be said for keeping yourself accountable.

In my case, today that thing is "whoops."

I grant that I haven't been very dedicated to this life goal of mine the last few months. Sure, I ran a marathon a couple weeks ago, but I wasn't trained. I wasn't blogging. There was very little about me that said "runner" through this summer. And it didn't help that I was involved in one gargantuan of a show, followed by directing another, which brought its own set of sleepless nights.

But now, the show has opened, and that means that after work, I get to go home. It doesn't sound like much, but it means a great deal when you're used to getting home after 10:00 every night. Tonight, it meant that, even though I did not run this morning, I still had daylight after work in which to complete a workout. And so I did.

With all this excitement and adrenaline, I dove back into my training spreadsheet with all the nerdy excitement that I could. I did a speed workout tonight, so I remembered my old speed work tracking sheet. I switched over to it and entered the date. Then I looked at the previous date. May 17th. Whoops.

Whether it was legitimate lack of time, injury, or just plain laziness, I have not been training. I have not been working toward my ultimate goal, and that is something that I need to do. Tonight, I'll go to bed early. I'll move my alarm away from my bed and go for a nice, easy, recovery run in the morning. I want to rededicate myself once again, but that never seems to work. For today, I'll promise myself that I will run tomorrow.

We'll deal with Wednesday when we get there.

Back. Again.

You’d think I would have learned the first time.

I really should not do a marathon without training.

Quick version of catching up to today: as you may recall (or read from the last couple posts), I was injured through my marathon in South Bend, and started taking some time off from running. Some time became a lot of time, which became pretty much not running at all. These things happen.

Unfortunately, I had already paid my entry into the Chicago Marathon, including airfare, and I wasn’t about to forfeit that, so I assumed that my youthful invincibility would continue to carry me, and I ran it last week.

Now, I hurt.

Oddly enough, though, I don’t hurt in any of the places that were previously injured. My heel feels better than it has in months, my knees aren’t giving me too much trouble, and all the little bothersome irritants have faded into the background of the INCREDIBLE pain that is shooting through my quads.

But it’s all okay. Why, you ask?

Because this morning, the wife and I went out for a nice little 1.5-mile run. Because I completed Sunday’s Chicago Marathon (race review soon to follow) in a time that allowed me to really enjoy the race itself. I didn’t stress about my time. When I needed to walk, I walked. I made jokes and high-fived kids and celebrated like crazy when I came across the line, and I felt something I hadn’t felt in the last three months of sleeping in an extra forty minutes every morning.

I felt strong.

The fire’s been re-lit. Yes, again. I’ve got a new training plan put together that mimics what I was doing when I was so successful for the first three months of this year. I’m running the Austin Marathon again in February in order to qualify for Boston. I will do so this time.

And all it took was one little marathon…

Mileage:

Today: 1.42

This season: 1.42

This year: 1,050.62