Find Your Motivation

Let me start by saying this.  ANYONE can run.  (I'll say it again.)  Anyone can run.  The beauty of running is that you don't have to be some super athlete to do it.  Chances are, you aren't going to win whichever race you sign up for, so pressure's off.

Signing up for a race can be motivating by itself.  But what will get you out the door each day for training?  Now there's the key to your running success.  What pushes you to put in the miles?  What pushes you to want to do better, be better?  And, on race day, what pushes you to cross that finish line, no matter what obstacles you encounter along the way?

I can't give you the answer to this, because it's really up to you.  I don't think the desire to finish is really enough, personally.  Or at least for me, it isn't.  There are loads of reasons that I run....

• I like it.
• It gets me out of the house with time to think.
• It's an hour or more a day when absolutely no one needs me immediately (for the rest of you moms, you can relate).
• I always feel like I'm working towards something.
• I hope it inspires my daughter to want to be better.

I do a lot of thinking while running.  I tell myself, when the miles get really hard, that I could have stayed in bed, but I didn't.  And that says something about me.  Whatever that something is motivates me to keep going.  I like to run early in the morning, so I think about what all the people who aren't out doing what I'm doing, and that motivates me to keep going.  I also think about people who can't do what I'm doing, but want to.  

Living in Boston afforded me the opportunity to witness one of the most inspirational duos of all time.  Marathon Monday is a big deal in Boston.  It's a bizarre New England holiday (Patriot's Day), so a lot of people are off work, the city pretty much closes down for the marathon.  My first apartment was directly on the marathon course, at mile 22.  My second place was just a few blocks over at about mile 23.  If you haven't heard of Team Hoyt, take a few minutes and watch this:

There are plenty of other videos about Team Hoyt out there, more on their story, etc.

The question is what will you do with your able body?  How far will you push yourself?  A father did this out of love for his child, out of want for his son to never miss an opportunity.  If they can achieve this, then you really have no excuse.  Look deep.  Seek outside motivation, like Team Hoyt, if that helps you.  Whatever it is, don't just assume you can't.  

As Rick Hoyt would say, "CAN."  

And One More Thing

In my last post, I alluded to my preference to run in the cooler months than during the summer.  Truth be told, I love a good winter run.  Nothing like pulling on tights, long sleeves, gloves, and a hat, cold shoes, and stepping out into the quiet of a winter morning.  Besides, people who only suspected you might be crazy before this now know it to be truth.

I have two funny stories about winter training.

First, we had a fairly big snow the night before, that resulted in our road needing to be plowed.  It had been cleared once and I headed out even though there was some residual snow on the ground.  On my run, the plow came by again.  With nowhere else to go, I had to step off the road and into the pile of snow created by the first pass of the plow.  As the guy came slowly down the road, clearly wondering what on earth I was doing out there in the first place, I could feel the pile giving way beneath my feet.  About the time he was even with me, I sank hip-deep into the snow back with both feet.  I was cracking up.  The driver stopped to ask if I was alright, which was nice, but having a three minute conversation while I was buried in snow in skimpy running tights was not the way to keep cold muscles from getting stiff.

Second, while training for my first Flying Pig, circumstances called for me to be working two jobs.  I was fitting in training runs at all kinds of odd hours, and on this particular day, I headed out at about 9:00 at night, and in complete darkness.  It was a short run that day, only about 3 miles, I think.  Again, we had received some snow that had melted and then refroze on the roads.  I headed to the safety of my parents' driveway down the road (they live back a long, long paved drive) in order to be off an icy road in the middle of the night.  Since it was a short run, I didn't take my phone.  About a mile and half into the run, and after having safely navigated a particular treacherous place in the drive once, I came to it a second time.  I stopped paying attention just long enough for my feet to fly straight up in the air in front of me and just like that I was laying in the middle of the icy driveway, in the complete dark, on my back.  I didn't hit my head, luckily, but I temporarily lost my headlamp.  I had actually landed on my hip (now I can't even remember which one) and shoulder, and got the wind knocked out of me.  I was about a mile from home, with no phone (big mistake, and the second time I actually made it....more on that one later).  I stayed on the ground trying to assess what I had broken for a few minutes, got up and found my lamp, then limped my way through the last mile home.  Funny in hindsight, and the first of two pretty nasty falls I have taken while running, and a valuable lesson in choosing your training routes and safety equipment wisely.

Nevertheless, I'll take snow and ice over heat and humidity any day.

On to another goal.  It sort of goes hand in hand with running.  At the peak of my training, I am hungry pretty much all the time, and since long runs require so much energy, I don't limit what I eat, but I do try to make mostly healthy choices.  That said, I am a junk food junkie.  If it is candy or ice cream, or soda, I love it.  I especially  love soda when I don't feel good.  And since I've felt pretty rotten for, oh about 35 weeks, I've consumed more soda than I normally would.  It's time to kick the habit.  It's really not good for me, and it causes me to forgo healthier options.  The point is, I've been soda-free for 5 days.  I can't say that I feel better, but I don't feel worse, so that's a good thing.  I could really go for a cherry coke right about now, though...

How to Pick a Race

Last week I posted a long wish list of races I'd like to do next year, and I promised to follow up with how I go about picking which races to run.  The first, and most important, thing to consider is your current level of fitness.  Secondly, you'll want to decide what your goal for completion is.  So, for example, I had mentioned wanting to do another marathon next year.  It takes a minimum of 18 weeks to train for a full marathon, and that's with a base level of fitness.  Since I'm basically starting from scratch as far as running goes, I'll need lots more time to build back up to even running 5 miles at a stretch.

After taking into account the time you'll need to train, the next most important thing for me is the time of year.  If I could think of a stronger word than loathe, detest, despise, flat out hate, I would use it to describe my general sentiment towards summer.  Hot weather and I are just not meant to be one.  So, naturally running in heat and humidity feels much more like a chore than a beloved past time.  For me, picking a summer race is a major no-no unless the start times are generally pretty early and I know enough about the course to know what kind of support there is along the way,  Further, for a fall marathon specifically, all my training will have to be done over the summer.  As you might be putting together, that doesn't really fit with my race schedule for next year.  No, not really.

I have thrown in a few shorter races over the summer, to keep my fitness up and to keep me motivated to keep training for a fall race.  Secondly, I'm really banking on next summer being a little more mild than this one.  A little gamble with mother nature, I suppose.

Finally, I like to consider things like travel distance.  This is a biggie for me, especially with a small child.  Also, most expos for picking up your race packet are the day before.  Some races allow packet pick-up the day of the race, but that means you'll have to be there even earlier and you might have to wait in a long line before you run.  I also like to read reviews about the organization of the race if I haven't done it before.  The race website should offer you information such as a course map, elevation map, information on aid stations, etc.  These are all important things to consider.  The course is important if you are someone who relies on crowd support during your run, or if you want to tailor your training (i.e. running hills or flat stretches, trails, etc).

I like to try races every year.  That's part of the fun.  I do nearly all my training on the same 9 mile loop, which I'll explain more about in later posts, with only some variation to add hills and speed work.  Running is a great way to see a new part of town or a new city.  There are two races that I've done that I would not ever do again, and though I'm glad I did them, it did also help teach me about myself as a runner, what I look for in a race, and what I like to avoid...

Not recommended race #1: Air Force Marathon

I'm sad that I didn't like this race at all.  I wanted to, I really, really did.  It was a really organized race overall, with a lot of hype since it has a military theme.  There were a lot of current servicemen participating, which was motivating, and throughout the day there were several flyovers by different planes.  That said, the course is BORING!!  It takes place almost exclusively on Wright Patterson Air Force Base.  So there is almost no fan support, except for a fantastic town that is off base at about mile 10 (I spent most of the last 6 miles wondering why they didn't invert the course so that you could run through that town closer to the end of the race).  Additionally, I am not exaggerating when I say that I had a mile walk from the parking area to the race start line.  At least.  It was so far.  It was annoying before the race, and even more annoying after the race.  I bet it took me 30 or more minutes to make that walk afterwards.

Not recommended race #2: Indianpolis Monumental 1/2 Marathon

My goal during this race was to set a PR in the 1/2 marathon, which I did, but it was a real challenge.  The course was tight, only one side of the road was open most of the way through downtown Indy, and it was jammed with tons of walkers and slower runners who refused to line up by their estimated per mile pace (this is a huge annoyance of mine, a problem I blame both on uninformed participants and poor race organizers--use start corrals, people!).  Anyway, besides the race being too big for the course they had, it was a pretty course and it takes place at a nice time of year for running--late fall.  It was in November last year.   From what I heard, the marathon course was a lot better, because nearly all the runners cleared out after the half broke off to head for the finish.  But, the damage is done.  I'll not do this race again just because of the size of the field and the narrow course.

I find races by word of mouth, personal experience, websites like this one: Marathon Guide.  Visiting your local running specialty store is also a great way to get connected to smaller races around.  Also, there are no less than a zillion 5ks that take place for various causes throughout, mostly the summer.  Some of those are really fun races to run, because they're such a smaller scale and usually are for something fun like church picnics, small charities, schools, local festivals, you name it.

Happy race hunting!  If I can help you pick a race, let me know, I'd be happy to help if I can.