By Katie Cordova
OPW Staff Writer
k.cordova@officialplayerwatch.com

Running week in recap

Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine
and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to
your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody
is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't how hard you hit; it's about how
hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and
keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what
you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be
willing to take the hit, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where
you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't
you. You're better than that!
Rocky Balboa
Speaking to his son in Rocky Balboa (2006)


This week was kind of funky with my training because last week I was in the
hospital. I am following Hal Higdon's Intermediate
1<http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/MaraIntermediate1.html> training
schedule for this marathon. It has me running 5 days a week and cross
training 1 day a week and resting the other. I am horrible at following
training plans, and I always skip runs here or do something else there. I
like to JUST RUN. I assume that is why I got injured during my last
marathon training, never got to run more then an 18, and had to walk 2.5
miles of the race course near the end. (shudders when I think about it)
Injury is just about the worst thing that can happen to an athlete. We
don't WANT to be injured. We want to keep playing, keep running, keep
pushing ourselves, but we physically cant. Or if we do we know we can put
our selves out for even longer. Injury usually turns into a mind game
because you end up beating yourself up about it even though there is
nothing you can do but "stay off of it for a while." Who wants to hear
those words!


One of my new years resolutions is to push myself. Me and my husband love
to watch football, and the way those players push themselves amazes me. I
used to be such a whimp when it came to pushing myself with running (which
is weird cause I know what my body can handle after going through
bootcamp). It first started with me never wanting to run 2 days in a row. I
don't know why I thought I would tire myself out if I ran on consecutive
days, but its probably the reason I was never able to break a 10 minute
mile for so many years.  Now I have a problem with not wanting to "over do
it". But its pretty hard to over do it as long as you treat yourself right.
Our bodies are amazing things, meant to adapt to what we place upon them.
So if I place running everyday on my body, and I rest and recover it well,
I know I can become so much greater then I already have become. Cause
that's the goal with all kinds of athletes, right?

I had to move my 9 miler from the previous Saturday over to last weeks run,
so what was supposed to be 3/5/3/5/6, turned into 9/4.5/4/5. Which ended up
being the same amount of miles. I'm not even gonna think about the week
priors miles, I am moving forward and onward. Yesterday was a great example
of "I dont want to over do it" syndrome. I was supposed to run a 6 miler,
for my long run on my step back week (every two weeks you take your long
run back a few miles to recover your body), but I was worried it would be
too much since I had already had a long run that week. But 6 isn't long, so
I don't know why I put it in my head that it may mess me up. I didn't want
to make myself tired since I was stepping up this weeks mileage with
a permanent 4 mile increase. Basically all of my 5 mile runs are now 6 mile
runs in my training, and my long run, 11, is 2 miles longer then the last
long run, and they wont go back down.

It can be a tired and trying thing when your weekly mileage starts to
increase. Running is easy when your runs are easy. When you just have to
head down the street for a quick jog, or when you are back in from your run
as soon as it seems that you had stepped out for it. Those are the good
days. But things get real when your runs start to get more real. When your
weekday mileage starts to reach 15+, 20+ and on, and your long runs start
to push past a half every weekend. That's when the running starts to get
REALLY good. Thats the time in marathon training that you really can see
who you are and what you are made of. People talk about it all the time,
its not the result, but they journey you took getting there. We will always
remember the races we ran, and think about all the good things and bad
things about them, but we will always remember them as just days in a long
life. But the training for each one is what really makes us who we are. We
remember the training as phases in our lives. The training where you were
going through that horrible break up, or that winter where you had to run
in 2 feet of snow most days. Or that race that you signed up for with a new
group of people and you made some of the best friends of your life. Or that
one time you decided that you were going to push yourself beyond your
limits and see if your body really could find what "over doing it" meant
and how that was the season where you really became an amazing runner.

Katie's past articles.
Personal blog www.addicttorunner.blogspot.com