I say this for 2 reasons. 1) The training is starting to get interesting now. Long runs take me out for most of the day: the morning is spent running and the rest of the day is split between sleeping and eating. Medium length runs are now what I would have considered a long run a month ago. It's gotten to the point where I've started taking a couple hours off work once a week to squeeze in that 'medium' length run on a weekday. Add to that, the fact that every couple of weeks I have to do back-to-back long runs. Essentially what I'm saying is that running is taking over my life. 2) It's supposed to be 35 degrees on Saturday. For a high. And snow might happen. Ugh.
So what's a girl to do when she's staring down the barrel of a couple long runs in the middle of winter and she's kind of over it? Get inspired, of course. So here's what I've been up to lately.
Read "My Year of Running Dangerously" by Tom Foreman. This book follows CNN correspondent Foreman as he goes from fairly sedentary suburban family man to marathoner to ultramarathoner. He eloquently describes how he fit in crazy long runs and what it felt like to run for hours and regularly get lost doing it. As I read the sections where he describes 30+ mile runs, it made me think I'm really glad I only have 18 miles to do this weekend. And also that I'm a slacker.
Watched "Spirit of the Marathon II". Years ago when I ran my last full marathon, I watched "Spirit of the Marathon" and it was so inspiring. The documentary follows a handful of people as they train for the Chicago Marathon. This second installment follows a group of runners as they prepare to run the Rome Marathon. I've been wanting to watch this movie for a while now and I finally made the time to do it. I didn't like it as much as the original but it's still a heartwarming set of stories that make you excited to run again.
Reading "Born to Run". I know I'm late to the party on this one. Most runners have already read this book. For whatever reason, it just didn't appeal to me until now. I'm about 2/3 the way through it now and am finding it hard to put down. Like the earlier book I mentioned, there is a lot of discussion about running an obscene amount of miles at a time. Reading about people who regularly run 100 miles at time kinda makes my training look like preschool.
Ordered a copy of "Spirit of the Marathon". I loved the original movie so much I decided I needed to watch it again. When I saw I could get it on Amazon for less than $10, I decided to buy it so I could get inspired whenever I want to. As I mentioned earlier, the original installment of the documentary follows runners as they train for the Chicago Marathon. Since my first marathon was Chicago, watching this the first time brought back a lot of memories. Seeing the featured runners putting the work in to realize their dream really made me want to get back out there and get a run in.
So I've done my part to inspire myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It definitely takes a village though, so in the next couple of weeks, any extra inspiring or encouraging messages would be appreciated. This is where things start to get real.
No comments:
Post a Comment