When I decided on January 1st to make the Detroit Marathon my first full, I thought I had plenty of time. I was trained for a half and how much harder would it be to double the miles? BOY, I was completely wrong about that.
Before today I had done three 18 mile runs. One of them was even an amazing training run downtown using the last 18 miles of the marathon course put on by RunDetroit (I will post about that in another post). Today was the last long run before it was taper time. I had originally planned to go out to Kensington to take part in the 20 mile run out there put on by Running Fit since the one downtown was so awesome. I got up this morning and got ready and all packed up and then looked outside. FOG, not bad here but enough. Then I talked to my mom and I decided the 40 minute drive without fog just wasn't worth it. I decide I could bang out the 20 miles here around the house and be done earlier than going out there and adding 1.5 of drive time.
Again, totally wrong. 20 miles alone is tough. I am not sure if it is because of the half I ran last weekend, the just getting over the cold, the being completely alone or just because it was 20 miles but it was the hardest thing I have ever done. I was not fast but I kept reminding myself that Jeff Galloway says over and over in his books (and when I talked to him) that the pace on training runs does not matter, it is the distance.
I do feel slightly guilty though. When I met JG at the Disneyland expo he urged me to make it to 24 miles at a minimum. I just couldn't do it. I did take the kids and walk to get a Gatorade which got me another 1.5 miles so my maximum distance before Detroit is 21.5. More than some training plans but a lot less than Galloway suggests.
I am nervous. I am respecting the distance but right now the distance is scaring me!
22 days from now and my first Full Marathon will be over. At this point I am unsure if I will do another one. I enjoy the halves I have done and the training for a full is hard and I have not even given it as much as I should be giving.
No comments:
Post a Comment