[passed this on my walk to work today. if a random street on the UWS says I got this, then I got this!]
The Chicago marathon is 5 days away. At this point in the game, there is nothing left to do fitness-wise except keep it light, easy and get some rest. We’re way beyond the point of doing anything to get stronger or to make myself more prepared for the 26.2 miles ahead of me. Tapering can be tough, you feel like you’re losing your fitness peak because after months of hard workouts, you’re backing off and essentially resting. It’s hard to remember that working out hard at this point will be detrimental to performance on race day and it’s better to simply chill out.
Because I can’t focus on physical fitness this close to the race, I’m focusing on my mental game. The mental portion of a marathon is huge, if your head is not in it, it’s going to be a rough few hours hitting the pavement. Up until this point I haven’t thought too much about my mental focus going into this race but because we’re getting close, let’s get down to business.
In typical Amanda-training-fashion, I made a beautiful schedule, looked at it daily, then skipped a lot of items. However, just like training for my first marathon in 2013, I didn’t skip any of the long runs and even if I was passing over some of the shorter runs, I was definitely keeping up with my fitness. I did cycling 3 times a week, ran at least 1 time per week and usually threw in a conditioning class as well, maybe even a yoga class here and there. Overall, I worked out about 6 times a week, always dedicated at least one day to rest, and some weeks two days. So while I didn’t get in those 3 runs a week I was supposed to, I’m still ready.
My half ironman this summer seriously cut into my training time, giving me only 8 weeks to dedicate to marathon training. But let’s not forget, training for that half ironman was also getting me prepped for the marathon.
Having said all of this (am I rambling? yes), here’s what I’m telling myself so that when I hit that start line on Sunday and when I hit mile 20 and want to stop, I will keep going and I will keep going strong:
- I am fit
- I completed training runs that were 18 miles, 19 miles and 20 miles
- I’ve run a marathon before
- If I ran one before and decided to do another, it can’t be that bad, right?
- I’ve run a bunch of half marathons, some with zero training
- I did a half ironman which meant I ran 13.1 miles after swimming for 45 minutes and biking for 3.5 hours. In this race all I have to do is run 13.1 miles after running 13.1 miles, no biggie!
- Some people run marathons without even training (hi college version of MM!)
- Running is fun!
- Marathons are super fun!
- I’ll be running a new route so the entire race will be a surprise
- Marathons aren’t supposed to be easy. If I’m in pain, that’s normal. Everyone else is dealing with pains of some sort, so get over it and keep moving.
I’m going to repeat these items over and over, pre race and during the race. I CAN DO THIS.
What do you do to get mentally prepped for a big race?
