Marathon Musings

I spent first few weeks this year planning my marathon spree but the inaction since then has been killing me. The plan was to build stamina for a marthon and not throw it all away like 2006. For 2007, I had planned a 6 month series full of a 5k, 10k, half marathon and then marathon. Once I got to the full marathon, I would get to blow some steam and then start the same cycle again. In this way I hoped to achieve 3 cool things: maintain stamina, keep fit year round and see new places that I go to run at. This was a good plan, all it needed was execution.

I kickstarted the preparation on 9th March: 1 hour of pilates followed by 3 rounds of the park. 1.5 miles in 20-25 minutes was not good at all but it was day one, so anything goes! I followed it up with running 2-3 miles everyday. Gradually, I was up to 11 minute mile runs.

However, I missed on my 1st goal - the Napa Valley 5K! Like an amateur, I ran the evening before and pulled my left thigh muscles. I planned with hope the night before for everything and even got up at the ungodly hour of 4 am so I could drive to Napa and run but alas the pull was still there in the morning. So I made the executive decision of not going for the run! It totally killed my spirit. Sheer dissapointment, I had even postponed a vacation around the 5k date; all that for nothing.

But I took it in stride, continued running and successfully finished the 5K fun run at work in April. In fact, I improved my timing to 37 mins, which is 1 min better compared to the fun run in August 2006, I guess thats something positive to be proud of.

Since then I have had binges of Forrest Gump days when I ran like crazy till my lungs literally were out of air and exceptionally stellar regular running weeks. But due to evening classes, work and a hundred other excuses I have not been able to run for more than 2 weeks nonstop.

At this point I haven't built the stamina or kept fit - basically I am failing miserably at my plan. My root cause analysis pinpoints that determination is not the problem here, its discipline. I lack self-discipline. So I must find a coaching program that helps me train rigorously and regularly. Hopefully, I can still make up for lost time and meet my fitness goals before 2007 is up!