Hey guys, its been a while. Like many of you, I have spent the last few months at home, staying safe in the days of COVID-19. It has been a weird new normal, and even though I am sleeping more than ever, it has been emotionally exhausting. My metaphorical cup has been too empty lately to feel like I can pour anything from it to create, so I have been quieter than usual on the social media front. The closest I have come to creating has been sewing dozens on masks, which is immensely stressful at times, and I worry myself ragged that I am not doing enough to help keep people safe. But here I am at long last, hopefully a few of you are still out there, doing okay as you read my ramblings.
First and foremost, I’ll start by saying this: I KNOW there are far more pressing matters these days. There are more important things than races coming back to running - us runners are still getting out there and logging miles without them.
There are plenty of more serious, concerning, and frankly, stressful issues than races. Perhaps that is why I keep fixating on the question of my fall races - it’s almost a nice daydream at times, to imagine running through the streets of Chicago or New York.
I know from a logistics standpoint, it’s unrealistic to believe that these major cities will be able to accommodate hordes of runners taking over their streets to run a marathon – every resource from the police presence to the clean-up crew is strained at the moment, so I am trying to manage my expectations. As of right now, I am registered to run the Chicago Marathon in October, and the New York City Marathon in November.
As the days tick off on the calendar, one after another spent working from home, I have started to think about training for these races. For the first six weeks of quarantine, I aimed to run about 30 miles a week, with a long run every other weekend. Then after a week of less than stellar runs, I decided to cut back for a week, only running once, on the day that would have been the Brooklyn Half marathon. My friends and I had been looking forward to running it together, so we each logged 13.1 miles on our own, and then had a virtual Zoom brunch to celebrate.
Last year when I first started training for the Chicago marathon (that ultimately did not happen for me because of a knee injury), I built my training plan from the “Hanson’s marathon method.” I really liked the training, and it made me faster, but so many miles lead to me slacking on the strength training front. It is an intense, high mileage program, and the thought of jumping into right now, when my races may not even happen, is super intimidating.
I still have a few weeks before any 18-week training program needs to start, so I decided to try something new – the Peloton Marathon training plan. Now, from looking at the schedule the mileage seems low, so I am planning on using it as a “lead in” to marathon training, in the weeks leading up to my actual training schedule, to get used to following a plan again.
I was first introduced to the peloton about a year and a half ago, when my parents purchased a bike (after I moved out too – rude). But since I sometimes headed over to their house to ride the bike, I had a peloton subscription, which allowed me to take classes through the peloton app. For the last few months I have been taking advantage of this, doing everything from core workouts to bootcamps. My husband, who is much more into biking than I am, approached me about the idea of getting our own peloton bike – my response was along the lines of “If you’re looking for someone to say no, you came to the wrong person.”
So now, we have our own bike, and it has been great for cross training and getting workouts in during quarantine.
Back to marathon training – this week I started following the training schedule that the Peloton team offers for training, and it has 4 runs in the first week, and two days of strength training. So far I have completed the first tempo run, which was pleasantly challenging, and one day of strength training. The guided runs are audio based, so I can listen to them on the road, or on the treadmill, which I like the flexibility of.
It is still early, but as of now I like being on a schedule again. It has me feeling motivated, and like I am working towards a goal again. I had been starting to feel stuck in quarantine, but this has me feeling like I have forward momentum, for the time being at least.
So, I hope that this post has found you well. That maybe it has inspired you to shake up whatever routine that you have fallen into, and to look for something that will make you feel like you’re moving forward once more.
And I hope that after all this, I will have a fall marathon to run – because a virtual MARATHON just sounds like a bit much to me.