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January 22, 2010 06:48:49
Posted By gregwagner
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So I am preparing to do a 3-hr run tomorrow. My 2-hr run yesterday was still mentally numbing, but I have to get used to it if my goal is to run another marathon again. I’ve set the bar for myself and if I am going to go out and run another one, man, I am going to show up with a bang and leave an impression everyone will remember.
See, since I started running, I have always had the ability to go out and run 5-10 miles without even the littlest bit of stress…but I always stressed. I’ve already proven that I can run 26.2 miles. Better than that, I’ve proven I can dominate it. Now is when I have to decide what is good enough for me. I didn’t get my 3:30 last time in Boston. I know I can run it and I’m going to get it.
Being internally motivated is the only way I'll be able to condition myself to run it. It takes religious practice and desire. My goal is to run a 3:30. That’s an 8-min mile pace…for 26.2 miles. It’s a great feat, but not only do I question if I’m holding myself back from a possibly better capable performance I find myself more stressed over not falling short from a goal that has been in my sights for 2 years now.
Each time I start a run, my mind is flooded with questions. Am I on pace? Am I running too slow? Am I not pushing myself hard enough? Will others be proud of me? Am I doing enough for them? Ultimately, am I challenging myself to the utmost of my ability? As if running a marathon isn’t daunting enough, I found myself, even still, with this self-imposed pressure to push beyond my limits. I won the mobility-impaired division at Boston. It’s an incredible honor, but it’s also an incredible burden to live up to next time. I already reached the pedestal.
I came in first. I can only match that feat next time. There's no way to improve standing-wise. Standing-wise, I can only fall. That is why it's psychologically so much easier to find yourself pacing behind the leader. If you can maintain their pace, you can catch them inch-by-inch. The only pace the lead runner can go by is pressed by his internal motivation and willpower. How badly does he or she want it? The lead runner is solely driven by that internal motivation. As soon as you worry about who is behind you or anyone other than yourself, your race is lost. You have to have the confidence that you will win and act on that drive with each progressive stride.
Being in first place, I know how badly I want it. I know that I have the ability to run a 3:30 marathon. What’s stopping me from running a 3:05? Is it possible for me to run a 3:05? 3:30 is a better time than I finished with in 2008, but what’s to stop somebody else from running a 3:17? I know that training for a 3 hr 30 min marathon is an achievable goal between now and race day on April 19, but am I pushing myself enough?
I have always pushed myself to the limit. Nothing will stop me from throwing myself into that temporary anxiety. It’s instinct, and subconsciously I know it’ll disappear after I run my first mile. As soon as I hit my stride and I feel like I’m running on air, all my “what if” questions evaporate. It’s me and the course. That’s what I’m building to with my 3-hour run tomorrow.
By race day, that confidence will be instinctive. I will stress every day about reaching my 3:30 goal until I read my time as I cross the finish line at Boston. I stress about it, but I know I’m running a 3:30. I know I’m running whatever time I need to defend my title. I’m confident…and nothing is waning that determination. The eye of the tiger is permanent. I can’t be beat. The only person who can beat me is me.
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January 20, 2010 04:52:42
Posted By gregwagner
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I ran for 2 hours on Monday. My legs got worn out at various parts of the run, but they always found a way to recover. I always found a second wind. Instinctively, I would check my watch on a regular basis. Two hours is a long time to be running, and monitoring my time every few minutes makes it even more mentally exhausting.
Starting out my run, I’m fine. I’m energized and my mind is alert. I can go 20 minutes or longer without checking my watch. The longer I’m running, the more susceptible I am to checking my watch because fatigue sets in. After doing nothing but put one foot in front of the other for 90 minutes, I find myself checking my watch every few minutes. My mental state changes from “I’m going out to run for 2 hours” to “When are these 2 hours going to end?!”
I finished though. I was so exhausted while running, but my body felt perfectly fine when I finished the run. Sure, I was tired and sore, but not as tired as I felt while running. The mental exhaustion from running magnified my body’s fatigue. They work together, and clearly affect each other. My saving grace is that they also get strengthened together, as well.
Now I would have posted about this on Tuesday, but my friend had a free bus ticket to New York. I’m not one to pass something free—especially a trip to New York. Any opportunity to break out of my small town is fine by me. Besides, after running for 2 hours the day before, Tuesday was an off day anyways. What better way to spend an off day than having a little day trip?
While New York was fun, it does take 5 hours to get to and from New York from where I live. I could’ve slept on the bus, but I printed out all my prep materials for my Determination program I had created thus far. Five hours to New York and five hours back gave me all the time I needed to finalize my program.
In that trip alone I reviewed my Uncharted Life package for publishers, which includes an introductory letter, my bio, my business card, a book synopsis and 2 chapters from my book. I also reviewed a half dozen standard package materials including a short paper explaining why I’m striving to do what I’m trying to do, a basic speaking program, a mission statement and full bulletin for when I try to make Determination a non-profit and other various notes and reminders.
I decided to take that standard speaking program I created and customize programs for various audiences including patients at hospitals, family and parents of the patients, doctors, donors and corporate America in general. To go along with these programs, I created a letter directed to hospitals, in hopes of being brought in to speak to the audiences I listed, and another letter intended for news stations, in hopes of getting press coverage for my marathon run and the Determination program as a whole.
It took me about the full 10 hours to compile everything and fine-tune it. I had a great trip to New York though, and, upon returning, all the prep work I needed to get done to successfully market my dream is completed.
Now I’m prepared to start reaching…and we all know that is the best part.
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January 18, 2010 09:40:21
Posted By gregwagner
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It’s a different training regimen than I am used to doing, but where is the fun if it always stays the same? We get bored when things become monotonous. We find joy in the pursuit. We find joy in figuring things out and working towards that end destination. For me, I’ve already reached the 26.2-mile marker four times. I know the destination, but now I have to figure out how to get there in a different way.
It’s stressful, but it’s good stress. Motivation is sparked when you have to figure out how to get from point A to point B. What we view as stress is our drive that pushes us from point A to point B. So really the more you “stress”, the more successful you’re going to be in reaching your destination.
This is a new journey for me. Just you wait until I cross the finish line. It’s going to make that 3:30 feel so much sweeter and more rewarding. I can taste it now.
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January 18, 2010 09:32:55
Posted By gregwagner
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So…here’s where we stand. Cardiovascular strength is good. Speed is fine. 2 out of the 3 key elements I need to run a marathon are accounted for. Unfortunately, I’m missing the biggest piece. Having all the cardiovascular strength and speed in the world won’t do me any good without the stamina to last the entire race.
So, I started thinking back to how I was able to build up to running 5 miles and how my 5-mile runs transformed into 10-mile runs. Then, I remembered that when I first started running, I didn’t run for distance, I ran for time.
Before I even started running mile distances, I ran for specified lengths of time. If I can run for 40 minutes consecutively today, what is stopping me from running for 45 or 50 minutes tomorrow? I know I can run for 40 minutes, so let’s see how far beyond 40 minutes I can run.
That’s when I began going out for hour-long runs. It doesn’t matter the speed I go because I know I can run a 7-minute mile easily. What good is running a 7-minute mile if I don’t have the endurance to run for 20 minutes?
As soon as I stopped worrying about running my 8-minute mile pace and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, I had run for an hour before I knew it.
When I worried about my pace, I found that I pushed myself to get under my 8-minute pace because I didn’t want to fall behind. When I didn’t focus on my pace, I actually wasn’t that far over my marathon pace. I wasn’t hitting my pace, but if I can consistently run for 2 hours or 3 hours consecutively and repeat the 2 or 3 hour runs from now until April, there is no way I won’t build stamina. Then, if I throw in a couple 4 or 5 hour runs in a month, I’m going to be golden by the time April 19th comes around. It’s mind numbing by the time you have been running for over an hour, but it’s the sacrifice that has to be made if my body is going to be physically able to run a marathon in 3 months. My mind will recover within minutes of finishing the run.
Each run may be progressively monotonous for my brain. However, with each mind numbing run my body gets that much stronger. No matter how many times you repeat a run, there is no way to remove the mental exhaustion of that run. However, each time I go out, it physically becomes easier to complete that run. It becomes that much easier to get up and go out the next day to do it again. And actually, being physically conditioned relieves my mind. The longer I can run without physically being exhausted means less mental strain put on my brain.
So, even though I want nothing more than to go out and run 15 miles at an 8-minute pace, I know I’m not ready to do that yet. However, I can run for 2 hours at a time—I’ve done it. The more 2 to 3 hour runs I accumulate over the next month or two months is going to make my timed 15-mile run all the easier. 15 miles at an 8-minute mile pace comes out to a 2 hour 6 minute run. If I can run for 3 hours, or more, non-stop and do so repeatedly over the next month or two, just imagine how easy, and how quickly that run is going to pass.
It may be mentally exhausting now, but 15-mile runs and beyond have always been mentally excruciating for me. Who knows? Maybe all I needed was to slow down and see how long I could run for. Maybe I can run for 4 hours. I’m going to try for five. I figure if I can run for 4-5 consecutive hours, a 3 hour 30 minute marathon is going to feel like nothing.
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January 16, 2010 10:44:03
Posted By gregwagner
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I did not or do anything strength-wise with my legs until November 2009—9 months of complete rest. I had started jogging from the metro station to my job and I was feeling great. I was ready to start running my training courses and getting ready for the next marathon run. At least that’s how it should be.
My course is very hilly. My first hill extends for at least a half-mile on at least a 30-degree incline. A mile after that hill, I have a series of 4 hills ranging between 30 and 40 degrees that are spaced over a 2-mile distance.
I was feeling good. My knee wasn’t hurting. My IT band, as best as I could tell, was loose and back to normal. I only forgot one thing. I rely on my leg strength to carry me on my runs…and I hadn’t been doing anything to strengthen my legs for 9 months.
When I ran my first marathons, I was leg pressing 900 pounds 3 days a week. It sounds strenuous, but it’s easy for me. You do something long enough and it eventually becomes easy. I ran 5 miles for 6 months, so I figured why not try and run 10?
I felt great each time I would start my runs. I’d be a little winded when I reached my first hill, but I figured it was because it was a combination of the colder wind and the fact that my adrenaline had me running a 7-minute mile to start. That momentum carried me up my first hill, but before I even reached the base of my 2-mile stretch of hills, my right leg wasn’t just tired it was physically shot.
My quad stiffened up, my butt was exhausted and I had never felt this before. Prior to now, the only time I had run long distances was while I was leg pressing and continually building my strength. Across 2009, I wasn’t even maintaining my strength. I had gone into complete lockdown.
Now that I was trying to rev up to the intensity I had always been used to training at, my body cannot keep pace because my conditioning has waned. I still appeared physically strong because of how active I was lifting my upper body at the gym and how well I maintained my diet. Once I started engaging my lower body again, I realized how important my full workout routine had been to my stamina.
Obviously I knew I had to start leg pressing again, but clearly my training had to be adjusted. Even by the middle of the second week of this January, I still hadn’t made it up my second hill. Two and a half miles in and my body was exhausted. How am I possibly going to run a marathon in 3 months when I can’t even run one-tenth of that distance without being utterly exhausted?
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