The Challenge

So a dear friend comes up to me yesterday and let’s me know she read my blog.  I get all excited cause it is nice to know someone took the time to read what I have written.  Then she throws down the gauntlet, “I am running the Phoenix marathon in March.  Come run it with me.  There is time to train and when you run a marathon you will know you can do the Ironman.”  I know she was being supportive, but I took it more like a dare.

I tend to operate on dares.  I was dared by someone at the start of my mission to not shave my legs the whole 18 months I was gone…I came home with super hairy legs (kind of grosses me out to think about it).  Even ickier than that was that the first time I did shave those furry things, I shaved them in stripes (I was dared to).  Heebee geebies!  Anyway I really don’t like backing down from a “dare” so I spent the afternoon trying to decide how I felt about running a marathon in March.

I know I could finish.  One time I ran an entire 10K race after only two weeks of “training” (having not exercised for a year beforehand) and in my training the longest I was able to run was a mile and a half.  I told myself at the beginning of the 6.2 miles that I wanted to run the first 2 miles, and then I could walk.  I felt so accomplished when I passed the 2 miles and ended up running the whole thing.

But a marathon is a little bit more than that.  I don’t want my first marathon to be something I do just because I can cross the finish line, I could go walk 26.2 miles right now, it would take me a while and I would be tired after…but…not the way for me.  I think that has been a big factor to my not-quite-successes.  I know I can complete something so I set a huge goal for myself, reach for the stars right?  But I never really make a realistic plan to get there.

This is where I went wrong with my half-ironman this year.  I knew I could go out and cover the 70.3 miles to finish, I was training to make it happen, but I hadn’t really prepared myself for the major change in schedule.  I was able to maintain the 2-3 hours of training a day 5-6 days a week for a little bit, but finally the stress of such an abrupt change got the best of me and I needed to pull back and slow down.  I am not a 0-60 in 4 seconds kind of girl I guess.  I have always wanted to be the one that can change overnight, but I need to take it slow, you know like the tortoise.

So thank you for the challenge, I am going to take it slow.  I need to get exercise back into my regular routine, but be able to do so without disrupting my wife time or my mommy time.  I want to do this without causing injury or pushing myself too much so that I want to quit.  I am currently in the planning stage with my implementation beginning slowly.  I am going to take the challenge, but start slow.  I am going to aim for the half-marathon in March.  Start slow and make realistic, reachable changes.  I can do this!