Sunday, March 29, 2009

Have You Found My Mojo?

Because if you have, I'd like it back. Woke up this morning at 5:00 to prepare for my 20 miler. Around 6:00 I took a peek outside and it was raining pretty steadily. I've blogged about running in the rain before, so needless to say I took off my running clothes and went back to bed.

When I woke up again at 7:30 it wasn't raining. For some reason I just couldn't get my ass in gear an get out the door. My wife kept asking me, why don't go run, not 20 miles, but for an hour just to get it out of your system. I kept making one excuse after another, I have to buy groceries, I have to pack (more on this in a minute), with my luck it'll start raining the minute I get going. Simply put, I had no motivation to get out the door.

This is not the way I want to be feeling 5 weeks before the NJ Marathon. My plan was to get 3 20 milers, now I'll be lucky if I second one in. See, next Sunday is the Sunday before Passover. My family is going away next Tuesday (April 7) to my parents' place in Boca Raton, Fl. My wife needs to come back during the intermediate days for work. So we have to clean the house to make sure it is chamtez free. I also need to buy her some kosher for Passover food so she has what not to eat while she's home. I was hoping not to run 20 next Sunday so I can be home all day to help prepare. Since I didn't run 20 today, I have one of 3 choices: 1) run 20 next week, 2) run 20 on April 12. I'll be in Florida, and since it's Passover, I can't drink Powerade or take gels. That presents a whole nutrition and hydration problem. or 3) this is out of the box, but I could run from my house to work on Friday. It's just about 20 miles. The problem with this idea is I would have to leave my house no later than 5:00 a.m. Which means I would have to wake at 4:00 to give myself an hour to wake up and prepare. Even if I go with option 3, I still might run 20 on April 12.

I know this sounds very complicated for someone who is not familiar with the laws of Passover. If you are interested in learning more, I'd be happy to explain. Let me just say that there are days where I do not run because I'm observant. Throw in the travel days and there aren't many chances for me to run while I'm down there. All of the confidence I had went out the door today because I missed my run. I need a plan to get it back.

3 comments:

Robert James Reese said...

Plus, running in the Florida humidity is not a whole lot of fun. I say you should try to get in the run to work on Friday. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

When I was training for my marathon in Feb, the cold weather this winter severely hampered my long runs. I skipped 1 long run altogether and shortened 2 others. At the time, I was really upset about the missed long run, and instead, stepped up the shorter distances in the week following to make sure I got the miles in.

In the long run (no pun intended!), the missed long run did not hurt me so much. I was able to get two 20 milers in before the marathon, and still felt very well prepared when my race day came.

Don't worry about missing one of your long runs. I would step up the miles on your shorter runs, to the extent possible, over the next 2 weeks.

If you've already done one 20 miler, and have another planned for later in April, then I think you'll be fine.

I couldn't imagine running 20 miles to work in the morning, and then working all day.

Triateagl said...

Ari I would like to give you two other options. Do 2x 10 miles in one day. Your body is not going to know the difference and you could fit one session in the normal morning time you run. Then do the second one after work, since it is staying lighter later. Option 2: ZBike to work. You'll get there quicker, hence you don't have to get up extra early and your legs will still get the turn over time, with less impact. If you want to mimic the same muscles as running try to sit out of the saddle (stand)during a portion of the ride.