believing in myself
I posted a message on my triathlon email group looking for feedback on my idea of doing a half marathon in February. Most people said go for it, your training is fine for what you want to do. But a few advised me not to rush it but rather to give myself more time to build up slowly. I got defensive and wrote:
Am I foolishly risking injury? That is the danger, but I'm trying to be careful and will drop the idea if I start to have problems in my training. I think I can probably do it safely if I don't push myself too much. Am I interfering with the seriousness of the event for real runners? I will be careful to start in the back and not get in anyone's way, and if the race organizers specify a 4 hour cutoff, I assume I won't be the only slow one. I want to do it because it would be fun and exciting and inspiring and I would be immensely proud of myself, no matter how slow I am. I don't have to be good at this (even relative to my age) to have fun and to be proud of myself.Several people pointed out to me backchannel that I am a real runner. Oops, that was a revealing slip.
And then I went to the race site and the cutoff is now listed as three hours and I temporarily lost my confidence. There are programs that predict your time at one distance from another, and those predict from my best 5K time a half marathon time of about 2:50, but I'm not going to expect to be able to do that with less than ideal training. However, I know these race directors are very friendly about people finishing after the cutoff.
I did a three mile run this morning and it felt good and I got my confidence back. Maybe I just need to keep telling myself I am a real runner. If my knee and hip hold out and I do the half marathon I will do it more in the spirit of an organized century bicycle ride than of a race, but I will feel I have accomplished something big, and that is what it is all about.
You are going to do GREAT in that half marathon. I have total confidence in you training sensibly and meeting your goal - with flying colors!!
ReplyDeleteSome of the people on that list are coming from a MUCH different perspective. At least, it will always be much different than from where I sit!!! :-)
I think you should go for it! As long as you've got time and inclination to ramp up the training distance, so you don't risk injury by shocking your body with a super-long run, what is there to lose?
ReplyDeleteMy training plan is to increase my long run by 1/2 mile each week, which gives me 10 miles as my longest run. My other two runs each week will be three miles.
ReplyDeleteI am not really an expert about running, but I would think that would put you in good position to finish without injury. Or maybe you would consider raising your long run by a mile one or two times so that you can get closer to the whole distance before the race? That way the ramping up to 13 might be more gradual.
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