A long time ago, I heard a quote that has stuck with me through the years, and I'm just now realizing really applies to marathon training: "At the end of the day, you have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze."
Let me tell you, today I was squeezed. We ran the west side highway again, only downtown this week. It was technically a decent run... But the thing about new yorkers is that they're so freakin intense. Everyone is so concerned with how fast or slow they're going, what the exact mileage is, who's running in which pace group, etc. It can be a little stressful! This one girl in my pace group saw some of her friends running with the pace group immediately in front of us and that stressed her out, because her friends typically run 2 pace groups behind us. She assumed we were running too slowly, and she began to really push the pace. Then there's this crazy old lady Dot (in her 60s or 70s) who always pushes the pace, so we ended up running 30 seconds per mile faster than normal. After about 3 miles I could feel it pushing me too fast, and it's easy to get discouraged when you're breathing harder than you know you should be and harder than you want to be.
Thank god for Coach Dari - she came up behind me and we talked about how I was feeling and I told her I wanted to drop back to our actual pace. It turns out she and my pace group leader Noah both wanted to run our normal pace, so we dropped back and Dari coached me through the whole way. We ran 11.12 miles, which is a really great accomplishment, but I wish I felt better about it. Noah tends to run really erratic paces, which is frustrating because I know my running ability and I'd like to keep at my true 'conversational' pace. And if I'm being completely honest with myself, some parts of my personality are so Type A, and not being consistent bothers me. I felt very squeezed overall.
I think it's important to not always be comfortable throughout this process though. If you're 100% comfortable, you're not going to grow. You aren't pushing yourself, you aren't going through any self discovery, and you aren't learning what you really are capable of. You won't get the juice. And I have to say, the euphoria I feel at the end of the run, coupled with the sense of accomplishment I have a few minutes later, and knowing this is all for an incredible cause, is 100% worth the squeeze.
When I got home I took an ice bath. Yes you read that correctly, a bath full of ice. It really speeds up recovery time after long runs, and is a crucial part of training - Coach Mike takes them with a beer, so I followed his advice (as always) and I'd say it was a success!
When I first got in though... I've never wanted to pee so bad in my life, just to get WARM, if for no other reason. I didn't, but what a weird sensation. I do feel really great now and hopefully won't be too sore tomorrow. I'm not sure if the ice bath is part of the juice or part of the squeeze... the jury's still out on that one :)
Let me tell you, today I was squeezed. We ran the west side highway again, only downtown this week. It was technically a decent run... But the thing about new yorkers is that they're so freakin intense. Everyone is so concerned with how fast or slow they're going, what the exact mileage is, who's running in which pace group, etc. It can be a little stressful! This one girl in my pace group saw some of her friends running with the pace group immediately in front of us and that stressed her out, because her friends typically run 2 pace groups behind us. She assumed we were running too slowly, and she began to really push the pace. Then there's this crazy old lady Dot (in her 60s or 70s) who always pushes the pace, so we ended up running 30 seconds per mile faster than normal. After about 3 miles I could feel it pushing me too fast, and it's easy to get discouraged when you're breathing harder than you know you should be and harder than you want to be.
Thank god for Coach Dari - she came up behind me and we talked about how I was feeling and I told her I wanted to drop back to our actual pace. It turns out she and my pace group leader Noah both wanted to run our normal pace, so we dropped back and Dari coached me through the whole way. We ran 11.12 miles, which is a really great accomplishment, but I wish I felt better about it. Noah tends to run really erratic paces, which is frustrating because I know my running ability and I'd like to keep at my true 'conversational' pace. And if I'm being completely honest with myself, some parts of my personality are so Type A, and not being consistent bothers me. I felt very squeezed overall.
I think it's important to not always be comfortable throughout this process though. If you're 100% comfortable, you're not going to grow. You aren't pushing yourself, you aren't going through any self discovery, and you aren't learning what you really are capable of. You won't get the juice. And I have to say, the euphoria I feel at the end of the run, coupled with the sense of accomplishment I have a few minutes later, and knowing this is all for an incredible cause, is 100% worth the squeeze.
When I got home I took an ice bath. Yes you read that correctly, a bath full of ice. It really speeds up recovery time after long runs, and is a crucial part of training - Coach Mike takes them with a beer, so I followed his advice (as always) and I'd say it was a success!
When I first got in though... I've never wanted to pee so bad in my life, just to get WARM, if for no other reason. I didn't, but what a weird sensation. I do feel really great now and hopefully won't be too sore tomorrow. I'm not sure if the ice bath is part of the juice or part of the squeeze... the jury's still out on that one :)
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