21.11.07

Training, Day 22: Six miles or Bust!

Until marathon day in April I thought every once in a while I could chronicle how my training is going for the big day--the frustrations and particularly the little achievements. I figured it would be a neat way to look back at my journey to complete this thing. So anyway here goes:

Well we're nearly 3 weeks into running again after Morocco and it feels like a lifetime. The weather has been cold and dark. Can I emphasize the word dark? Because it gets dark so early now 95% of our running is after the sun has gone down. Our run on Monday was in the pouring rain and whilst I was completely soaked running in the mud and freezing, I kept asking myself now why am I doing this? If it wasn't for James' relentless positive outlook and motivation I honestly think I'd still be curled up in bed on a Saturday morning.

We're up to 6 miles per run, about 3-4 times a week (the other days per week we do yoga or weight training). Last week we did about 15 miles. As we get closer and closer to the time we'll be doing about 40-50 miles a week to train--about 15-20+ miles per run. From what I understand from James and his dad (who've both done marathons) this torture to my body is necessary so that the 26.2 miles won't be such a shock to my system.

At the moment, getting over this six mile mark is a huge psychological barrier for me. I've never run more than 6 miles at a time in my life. The longest race I've done is a 10k and I can feel my body being pushed in ways that its frankly just not used to both mentally and physically. I think mentally this race will be very hard because when you hit that wall of sheer physical exhaustion its the mental that has to carry you through to the finish. I know that it will be a huge barrier to get over especially with my history of self-doubt. I'm up for the challenge though and have wanted to do a marathon for so long. I was always the fat kid growing up and I want to do it to get over this stereotype and finally loose that last little bit of weight. With the amount of running I'll be doing and the calories it burns I'm sure I'll finally do it!

So---Watch this space and hopefully by my next 'training' entry I'll be over the six mile hump!