Ramblings

My training plan calls for my long run to be on Saturdays. That gives me 2 full days off running until I run again on Tuesday. Since I finished my run around 5:30pm on Sunday I knew I did not have enough recovery time when it was time to get up this morning. I went into work early since I was already up and plan to run after work. That gives me then minimum of 48 hours of recovery. I like to follow the 48-72 hour rule for weight and my long runs.

26.2 miles is my goal. I went thru a 12 week program from August to November full of motivation and strictness to my diet. Then I hit a wall mentally and pigged out for 3 weeks. It started as "carb loading" the week before my first Half marathon then it turned into laziness, then my Uncle died and I became aware for the first time I am an emotional eater. Once my legs were recovered I got back on the saddle on November 19th. Since November 21st I have been training/working out 6 days a week and only missed 1 workout. That mean I am in Week 12 and the mental battle is starting back up. My half training was a short honeymoon phase with distance running. Now I HAVE to put in the miles to get to my goal. My goal is what is keeping me going. If I ask why I want to then all the voices get in the way. My answer, "Because I said so."

How do I stop the yo-yo in my motivation/training?
At the end of my Honeymoon I weighed in at 186 7-7-2011
At the end of Half training I weight in at 173 10-27-11
At the end of my emotional binge and break from running 182 on 11-18-11
Right now I am 171-172ish.

I think the answer is to just keep going. I can't handle "Free days" and I can't handle "active rest." When I finish my marathon I will call it something else. During the 4 Recovery weeks I will cycle ALOT and weight lift more than my current 2 days a week.

I am too stubborn to give up. I am crossing into unknown territory and it is a healthy fear. I want to come out the other side stronger. Running a marathon is a goal because it scares me. I mean even the name is based on Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens, Greece to announce the Greek victory over Persia. He announced, "We have won!" then died from exhaustion.

I will stick to my plan to block out the voices of doubt and fear. I only have 9 week left. That means only 6 week until my highest volume week that ends with a 20 miler on March 24th. Then 3 weeks of shorter runs before the race. I guess the idea is I will be in peak training and maintain it to avoid injury. Still have the goal of 163 pounds (8-9 to go) in the next 6 weeks.

This is the first week I have gotten worked up about a training run. It was also a 2 mile increase in distance. This coming weekend is only 1 mile more and that seems less of an obstacle. Then on February 25th I am running another Half Marathon (I tweaked my program to fit it in).