Words of Motivation

Occasionally I find something in an article or advertisement that really motivates me. When I’m training hard and question why I’m doing this, I look back at these words and remember why.

This first one I can think of was from a magazine ad for Adidas (I think). I hung it up on my refrigerator when I was training for my first marathon some 15 years ago. I wish I had kept the ad but it went something like this:

I used to think that guys who ran in the rain were nuts.
When I started doing that
I decided that guys who ran at dawn were nuts.
When I started doing that
I decided that guys who ran marathons were nuts.
So here I am getting up at 5am to train for a marathon and it’s snowing.


Another was from a Running Times article:

Boston Marathon qualifiers don’t sign sneaker deals. Coaches don’t push them through their workouts, and fans don’t line up for their autographs. They will never break a world record, or mug for the cameras, or take a victory lap.

Boston Marathon qualifiers aren’t great runners.

But they are very, very good.

The Olympic Trials and Boston are the only two races in the country that require a qualifying time. The top few runners aim for the Trials. Everyone else shoots for Boston. The runners who make it achieve a status somewhere between the Olympian and the weekend warrior. Somewhere between Superman and the everyman.

GPS

I was looking for a good heart rate monitor that I could run with. I was one made by Garmin that has a GPS device. I have now convinced myself that I need that. The thing I hate the most about running outside is I can't monitor my speed and can only guess how far I've run. Running with a GPS device will tell me not only my current pace but also how far I've run.

The only model that I can find in the stores is the forerunner 305 which is pretty bulky on to wear on your wrist. The new 405 model is out but I can't find it anywhere.

I know if I get the 305 now I won’t be happy with it so I will probably wait.

2008 Race Schedule

I plan to run in the following races this year. All are repeats from last year except the Chicago Marathon. I would like to find a couple more 5k races this spring but so far I haven’t seen too much out there that I would like to run.

2/23 – Bolt Run 5k (Tampa)
3/16 – St Pats 5k (Brandon)
4/12 – Seminole Stampede 5k or 10k
5/3 – May Classic 5k (Tampa)
6/7 – Spring into Summer 5k (Tampa)
10/12 – Chicago Marathon
12/6 – OUC Half-Marathon (Orlando)

New PR in Gasparilla Half

I just missed my goal of sub 1:36 but I still finished the Gasparilla half in a new PR of 1:37:15. I had something left at the end but I’m not sure it was enough to have run 1:15 faster. I still have a long way to go but when I set a PR after almost every race I know I’m doing something right.

Overall it was another well run race. The start temp was in the low 50’s which is about perfect for me. There was a little headwind when running north on Bayshore to the finish but it probably didn’t affect my time more than a few seconds.

It’s now time to start focusing on 5k’s for a few months.

Pre race training dilemma

I still struggle with how much training I should do the week before a race (half to full marathon). Prior to last month’s marathon, I ran a moderate 10.5 miles on Saturday (8 days before the race) and an easy 7 miles on Tuesday. That left 4 days off before the race. By race day my legs felt great and I had a great run.

This week I tried running a little harder mostly because I am only running a half but also I wanted to try a different approach.
Last Saturday I ran 12.5 miles (5 easy, 7.5 at race pace).
Monday I ran 4.5 miles most of it near 5k pace.
Tuesday I intended to take it easy but that turned into an 8 mile run (last 5 at race pace)
Thursday I ran an easy 5. I was still feeling the effects of Tuesdays run though.

I have two full days of rest before Sunday’s race so I will see then if my hard running was a good thing or bad.

I run alone

I am one of those people that likes to run alone. It’s my escape from the rest of the day where I can be alone with my thoughts. It allows me to run when I want, where I want and at what pace I want to run.

I am fairly self motivated and do not need someone else pushing me to run that day or to run father or harder.

But by not having running partners I miss out on the opportunity to talk about my training runs, my goals, lessons learned, my excitement for upcoming races. I miss out on starting a race with people I know or talking about details during the race with someone who shared the same or similar experience.

My partner, who does not run, will listen when I ramble on about a great race. But it’s really just a one-way conversation about something that I know he would have no interest in if it wasn’t for me talking.

I have realized that if I’m ever going to have an outlet then it will be online. I haven’t found much at this point outside of blogs like this where one person is sharing their thoughts. Ideally I would like to find an active message board with local competitive runners. If this doesn’t exist then maybe I need to be the one to get a site up and running.

Gasparilla Half

A few more days until my next big race. I didn't plan to run yesterday but I put in a strong 4.5 miles.
I'm a little torm between getting ready for Sunday's half and starting to train for 5k's. I don't think speedwork will hurt my race and even though yesterdays run was good I have a long way to go before I'm ready to break the 20 minute 5k barrier.
I will probably continue with my plan to run today and tomorrow. I need to make sure I take a few days off before the race though.