To Race or Not To Race?

Another stressful day!!! But I keep reminding myself that this is motivation to follow my dreams!



Anyway! Yesterday, as I shared, I started my new P90X3 workouts for the last week of Phase I. I completed the Warrior, which was not at all what I expected. Since I began P90X3, I was doing a modified schedule for their "mass" program. Since I have been marathon training, I did my best to fish out all their cardio and use those as my running days. The remaining would be specifically their muscle building workouts. Although the Warrior does incorporate squats, lunges, push-ups, and core work, there was a good bit of cardio involved. Shew! Not what I was looking for at 5am! But I stuck it out because I was not going to quit mid-workout. No point!



Now let's move on to a more serious topic. Uh ohhh! Things are about to get real people!

Late last year, my husband signed up his first marathon: the Rock N Roll USA. To be the supportive wife that I am *flashy smile*, I decided that I would sign up, train, and run it with him. It sounded easy enough at the time, but it didn't take long to discover that this would prove more challenging than we originally thought.

We both have hit numerous roadblocks, which were mainly injury related. And although they have since healed, Peter now has Bronchitis. So a question has been presented to us: Do we or do we not participate?



We have until March 12th to get marathon ready. However, Peter hasn't been able to get a long run over 13 mile. With the snow we had experienced last weekend, he skipped his 15 miler since he got his workout shoveling us out for HOURS.


Then, he came down with bronchitis and had to skip his long run yet again. So now my concern is that with two skipped long runs, will he be able to get his mileage up with only 5 more weekends to go?

It's not that I don't have complete faith in him, but I want to be able to allow us both a 2 week taper, which then gives us only 3 weeks to get his long runs up. I have no doubt that trying to pull 15 miles after 2 weeks of missed long runs is going to be a challenge. I also don't want him to force in miles when his body may not be up for it after having bronchitis. I mean, you kind of need healthy lungs to run, right?

After my run on Sunday, I blantantly told Peter, "If you don't want to do this marathon, that is fine by me." First, I don't want him to push his body far beyond what he should after having an illness. That is something I would do and I would never recommend it. You'd end up being sick forever!

Also, I am not feeling marathon training. I don't know if I am just over racing since the JFK 50, but I am not feeling long distance. Sure, I feel awesome when I finish out and have that glorious feeling of "AH! I did it!" But this training has been rushed and that makes it more of a chore than playtime.

I will continue pushing as long as Peter does, but if can't do it, I don't mind bailing. I may feel a bit of guilt (that's just my personality), but why force yourself to race when you aren't enjoying the journey? I'd much rather take a break from training and hold off for another marathon. But knowing me, I'll change my mind 16 million times beforehand.

Have you ever bailed out of race training?

If you were helping someone train for their first marathon and they couldn't end up running, would you still participate?

Do you think I should still run?

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