When I started this
12 week schedule back in December I thought it was going to be a bit aggressive for me. I was thinking that it would hit me hard after about the 4th week. That turned out not to be true, it wasn't until the 8th week. Some of those runs got pretty hard for me. I wasn't sure I could do the distances. I wasn't sure I could run 6 days a week. I had 2 long days, Friday and Sunday, I was unsure about that. All the unknowns were just from a basic lack of confidence and the unknown of never doing this before.
Now that I've made it through I look back and think about the days I was very tired and sore and think "hey, that wasn't so bad." I haven't pushed myself like that in a long time. Well really not in my adult life have I worked that hard at my physical conditioning. I had some pretty tough days, especially some of those 440/880 days. I can tell my fitness has really improved over these 12 weeks.
Well what do I do now? I haven't really decided on another schedule. I would be happy with just starting over with the one I just finished but I would like to keep pushing just a bit harder. I've got a
5k on April 10th and an
8k on May 1st. I would love to see some improvement in race times. I want to run at least one race a month for the rest of the year. At the beginning of the year I told myself that I needed to start running a few 10k races but haven't decided on any just yet. Of course there is the Cotton Row. I could run that, I just haven't committed. Now that I look at the calendars of local racing clubs I don't see very many local 10k races for the rest of the year. I'll get to one of them.
One thing I did learn: DO NOT go to long on a pair of shoes. I went almost 500 miles and almost 8 months on one pair. My legs were getting sore, really sore, after every run. Got a new pair and the soreness stopped. Maybe every 3 months would be better or even sooner now that I'm doing more miles per week.
Another thing learned: If you just try you can get it done. That's my biggest hold up. I talk myself out of things before starting because I don't want to fail. Seems kind of silly I know. It's one of those character flaws that just gets tougher the older I get. How do you know you'll fail if you've never tried? Yes, yes, I know. One thing I do know is that I've conquered a few fears/anxieties with my running so far and have a few more to go.
Posted via email from Lance Perry
