I signed up for a half-marathon training group this summer. I've been thinking for a few years now about doing a half-marathon. Hmm, let me think about the ways this idea has gone wrong to date: first I was going to run one with a friend, but she is faster than me and I injured myself (and stressed myself out in a big way) trying to meet unrealistic pace goals in training. At some point I tried to use a training plan from the Another Mother Runner ladies that was way too demanding and I wound up injured again. In 2014 I couldn't get the long runs in during the winter and so I did a 10K instead. Last summer I thought I'd do a fall half-marathon, but OH MAN running 8 miles alone in the baking Midwestern heat is not my idea of fun.
At the triathlon last month I ran into someone from work who had done a triathlon training program organized by a local running shop. (Remember Bad Cop Julie? BCJ quit her teaching job to start this running store with her husband.) When I ran into Good Cop Jill at the kids' museum a couple of weeks later, she mentioned that she was going to be a mentor for one of the summer programs. "Hmm," I said to myself. "Hmm."
So I signed up, and it's going okay. It's not the simply happy experience of the summer running group I was part of from 2012 through 2015. But it's okay.
Part of the problem is that it's just really hard to run 5 miles in the heat. I mean, okay, hard is relative. It's not like I'm mining coal or even detasseling corn. Even though we started early today, temperatures were already in the mid-80s when we finished. This picture needs a thought bubble: "If you were not snapping my picture right now, I would totally be walking this miserable broiling shadeless stretch of trail."
Part of the problem is that there's this unexpected cognitive load for me in planning a summertime longish run. That sounds silly now that I've typed it out, but here's what I mean: do I have the gadgets I mean to take with me? Are they charged? Have I taken the meds I need? Have I eaten enough carbs for glycogen repletion, given that my usual diet is fairly low in carbs? Have I drunk enough water but not too much, given that a person who has borne 5 children might not want to be overhydrated? (Sorry, TMI there.) Should I take fluids along, and if so, how? Is it worse to skip sunscreen or to have sunscreen dripping down into my eyes when I get really sweaty? Darn it, I forgot my yoga mat AGAIN and now they want me to lie down in the parking lot to do these hip-strengthening exercises after the run. (Oh, man, they are painful. My legs are like, "Did we not just run 5 miles for you in the scorching heat? What is your problem here that you want us to do EVEN MORE things?")
I wouldn't get fussed about a 5-mile treadmill run, and so it's been strange for this to feel so different. It might not surprise you to learn that I tend to devote too much space in my head to what-ifs -- BUT I MIGHT NEED A BATHROOM AND WHAT THEN? That's part of the trouble.
Today I was thinking to myself, "I should write down the reasons why this feels hard. Maybe it will seem less hard, or maybe it will just be a way for me to mark progress when I get it figured out." So here I go, writing it down.
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