This is not a dwelling-on-Richmond post. In fact, I feel like it’s the opposite.
In my lack of really doing a race report (not sure what else I’d really say) and following it up with a list of random things), this is my first serious post about what I’ve realized this week and why I may actually will run another marathon sooner rather than a few years from now. Much more on that later.
1. What are you doing after the marathon?
Such a common question others would ask me. My answer was taking a break. I don’t want to run for a while. I think I said that so much that I started shutting things down way too early.
It’s not that I had too many bad training runs at the end, but I got too complacent. I was too comfortable with my training, thinking that they hay was in the barn and all that was left was 26.2 miles. I really screwed that up, more mentally than anything else.
2. Go to bed, go to bed, go to bed.
Olympics. Debates. Election night. I’m a sports junkie and a news junkie. These events are why I loved working in a newsroom for 7 years. And this year on too many occasions I stayed up until 11 or later, getting just 6-7 hours of sleep. Some people can do that. I really can’t.
At the end of all this, I ran too many miles tired; I didn’t sleep well the week of the marathon; I’m pretty sure I only had about a half tank of gas in my system, thus the falling apart in the second half of this race.
3. Have fun.
It’s the ultimate end goal for me. Most of those 4+ hours were not fun Saturday. Neither was much of my experience in the Cleveland Half earlier this year.
I know how to have fun in a race whether I’m on pace to hit my goal or not. Of anything that went wrong, I’m more mad at myself for that and more determined to not let that mind frame slip back again.
Now, about this other marathon …
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Oh, man, you hit the nail on the head with the late nights… I ramped up with the Tour de France and never stopped! Waiting to hear what’s next for you.
News and sports junkie here too - I’ve been wondering what the minimal sleep is doing to my running.
Curious to hear what’s next for you.
It’s hard not to think about what to do after the marathon.. for me anyway. I think that mentally shutting down is something I do too “Yay training is over!” .. That’s a good point. I’ll have to try and remember that for the future.
Fun is hard to force.. If it’s not fun, it just isn’t. I think when I’ve been in that not-fun-bonk situation in the past I try to just be thankful that I’m running at all.
Sleep is absolutely not negotiable for me when training for a marathon…I sleep a ridiculous amount and can’t imagine not doing that. I think it’s great you are reflecting on how to do things differently next go around. You’ll get it figured out!
One thing that was very different for this year compared to last year was that the majority of my runs were early morning. Last year most of my runs during the week were at work during lunch. I easily had 30-45 minutes more per sleep in that time. I never even thought about that until this week. Strange realization that I’ll deal with next time.
Good items to learn! Sleep is a monster issue, and I agree with the mental aspect of shutting it down. I had a similar impact running a race I knew I was just doing simply because I wanted to fill it in.
Enjoy a little break!!
If it ain’t fun to run it just ain’t right.
Hey David,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I experienced some pain at Marine Corps that I have never felt but within a few hours I was already trying to figure out how I could improve. Enjoy your break - looking forward to see what is next!
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