Road to Copenhagen: 11 weeks to go
This week I crossed off the second week of my training schedule and that means that there’s only 11 weeks to go until my first marathon! The countdown on the homepage of my website informs me that there’s only 77 days left in my preparation. Time is going só fast!
I am closing this week with a neat 45km. Even though I have ran multiple half marathons, I usually didn’t exceed the 35km per week when I was training. I notice that the training schedule I received from my coach is quite different from the way I used to train (more on that in another blog soon!) and that also leads to more mileage.
Running the distance, feeding the injury?
In addition to that, I have run 242km this year and it’s only the first of March. My Strava tells me that February ended with 133.3km, exciting! Before I picked up training again in January, I took 7 weeks of rest from running to let the tendons in my right foot heal. It’s the first serious running injury I ever had and it’s been playing tricks with my mind. I analyse every training and I continuously write down ‘maybe I feel the tendon in my right foot, I am not sure. Is it my mind or am I overdoing it?’.
For now, I trust the training and even though I do feel some minor pain here and there, it is very well possible that my body is just still getting used to the increased tax of my training. My foam roller and tennis ball are my best friends at the moment! Luckily I also have a good physiotherapist that I can visit once every two weeks if necessary.
Mental training
Now that I am reading up on marathon training and following even more marathon runners, my Instagram is also filled with running posts (YAY). I came across a post from someone talking about the hardship of putting in the effort and the hours. Marathon preparation is mostly YOU against YOU. Oh boy that is true sometimes! My training on Saturday, and also the one today, wasn’t easy. I didn’t get into a nice flow and I was totally fed up with the never ending storms that seems to take up every weekend. I kept asking myself ‘why do I want to do this? And will it really ruin everything if I walk for a few minutes to catch my breath?’.
The answer is, of course it wouldn’t ruin everything. Up to six days of rest will not negatively influence your performance. But the question for me is, do I want to stop because my body or mind really needs a break, or because it’s hard and I am just not feeling like pushing through? I realised I didn’t really need the break, I needed to work on my mind and its thoughts. Because in 77 days, I will also be the only one to keep me going when I don’t feel like continuing. So I kept going, and now I can happily cross off the training from the schedule. Good for me!
Next week
I feel some minor nerves looking at next week! When I checked the March schedule for my track sessions next week, I noticed they are quite okay. Not too hard, too fast or too long regarding distances. Most of the group is running a 10k or half marathon this weekend in The Hague during the CPC. I am running the half marathon plus some km’s as a warming up and cooling down. It will be my longest run so far and I don’t know if I’m ready. The pace I am currently training with (and feel quite comfortable with) would mean that I come close to my PR. For now, we await if the Coronavirus (or yet another storm) will cancel the race altogether. With all the canceled events so far, I think chances are high of that happening. So, nerves, for now…
Running Ella 