Yoga Pants Life

As I’m getting myself back on the training track for the Chicago Marathon, I’ve realized that in order to maintain sanity and my running confidence, I need to rethink my original goals for the marathon.

I’m not sure I ever had hard-core goals (guess I should go back and re-read my blog) but I know I wanted a time I could be proud of telling strangers, especially since I’m spending so much time and money on the endeavor (though, I still contend that regardless of outcome, a marathon is hands-down one of the best ways to tour a city.) For me, that time would be any time with a 4 in front. Ideally, I was hoping to get as close to 4:30 as possible. I already know that’s not going to happen.

So, instead, I’m hoping to cross the finish line in the 5 hour range, injury free (I guess nobody says ‘hey, I want to hobble across the finish-line totally injured, but I digress.) This goal feels much more realistic and is taking some of the self-imposed pressure off.

Rethinking my original goal isn’t easy, especially when I look at what people are accomplishing marathon training-wise on social media. It’s hard not to compare myself and I find myself in tears when I see all of these people knocking out a 20 mile run in 2.5 hours like it was nothing.

It’s too soon to say, but I have a feeling this really be my last marathon attempt. If I do attempt another one, I will be in tip-top shape before I start training and it will likely be a more local race (less money, less pressure.) I’m not sure what 2017 will hold, but I’d like to work on getting my half-marathon time under 2 hours and really work on speed and strength training.

In the meantime, I just need to remember that my long runs are just ‘runs’ and that bad long runs should not completely derail my training.  I also need to remember that depression is rough and some days just getting out of bed and going to work or visiting friends is a big deal.