The spring edition of Race Pace Training Diaries follows Jackie, a Race Pace Runner, on her journey of acheiving a big half marathon PR this spring. Learn more about Jackie and her goals here.
I love social media like Instagram and Twitter, but I tend to share only the good parts of my life online and leave out the bad parts. I’ll post pictures of fancy restaurant dinners and my dog being cute and cuddly, but I won’t mention the frozen pizza I ate for dinner last night or how my dog barks like a maniac at the mailman. I know I’m not alone in this practice of presenting the best version of my life online. Then again, only sharing the good stuff means sugarcoating reality, and when it comes to training for this half marathon, I feel like I need to come clean and admit that it isn’t all smiles and runner’s highs for me.
Week 3 was incredibly frustrating, and I felt like nothing was going my way. I came down with a cold, so I missed one of my runs. Work was stressful, my schoolwork started to pile up, and my energy level was just dragging all week. Finally, on Sunday about halfway through my long run, I completely hit the wall. It was a beautiful sunny day so I tried to just enjoy the spring weather and run at an easy pace, but I felt pretty defeated by the end and afterwards my legs were completely dead. I started wondering how I was ever going to get through 13.1 miles when 7 miles seemed so impossible. Thankfully, Jess reminded me that I still have a lot of training weeks to go, so I’m trying my best to push all those evil whispers of self-doubt out of my mind.
Then, something magical happened: week 4 went pretty well! I did all the workouts I had planned at the pace I wanted to run, even if that meant bundling up in a ton of layers to run outside in 11-degree weather! For my long run, I did the exact same route as last week, but this time around I felt so much better overall. I ran a little faster, my legs didn’t cramp up so much, and I felt tired but happy afterwards. The biggest thing I did differently this week was refuel midway with a chocolate goo. I always bring a goo or bar with me when I go on long bike rides, but I’ve never really worried about refueling during runs. I guess I’ll have to start thinking about fuel more if I’m going to survive these long runs! Now the trick will be to find energy foods that both taste good and help me beat the bonk.
8 weeks to go!
There are some runs that are going to be rough. But you can always try again the day and what used to feel hard will become easier. That’s progress! The key is just to be patient with yourself.