I’m a fair-weather runner. I know a lot of people who face the challenge of cold, wind, icy conditions and persevere. Not me, my goal is to run the distance, not necessarily to add to that challenge. I’m one of those weird people who doesn’t mind running inside on a treadmill. I have a job (Airport Director) that is anything but monotonous, so a little bit of monotony isn’t bad. However, running inside took a different twist this week. Nobody likes getting sick, but I’m not worried about getting the coronavirus and getting sick myself…I’m very worried about getting sick and passing it along to my wife. As I’ve blogged earlier, she had a stem cell transplant five years ago and a heart transplant 1½ years ago, so picture a 5-year-old immune system that is being suppressed and you can understand why. So, I’m re-thinking running outside and skipping the comfort of the indoors (and proximity to others). We’ll see.
So last time I blogged I was ready to be starting my training program, and today I finished week four. The training has so far been good. I had previously said that I’m reading and following The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer. The authors of the training guide began teaching a marathon class at the University of Northern Iowa in 1985. At the end of the course, the students participated in the Drake Relays Marathon in Des Moines, Iowa. Due to the popularity of the class, the idea of the book was born. The training program only requires running 4 days per week. That may not seem like a lot of running compared to other training programs, but the goal of the program is to prepare first-time marathoners to finish, and that is my goal, at age 55, to finish. And the authors have a pretty good success record. My runs are Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and my long run on Sunday. Here is what it has looked like so far: 3, 4, 3, and 5 miles week one; 3, 4, 3, and 6 miles week two; 3, 4, 3 (miss), and 7 miles week three; and 3, 4, 3, and 8 miles week four. The first three runs of the week are a bit shorter than what I typically run, so not much problem there. I could have started at longer distances, but my goal is to finish and follow the program exactly, which brings up the miss. I missed running one day, my wife’s birthday. I should have ran before we went out to dinner, and didn’t run after. I planned to run the next morning (Friday) before work but was tired, and the same thing that evening. While accomplishing 15 out of 16 runs may sound good, I need to be better disciplined, particularly as the distances get longer (the next four weeks, Sundays will be 10, 11, 12, and 14 miles). I had mentioned before that me sticking to the training program was going to be as much an accomplishment as actually running 26.2 miles. No excuses!
For all the runners, stay safe and healthy.