Head in the Game

Marathon training begins the week of June 21 (at least according to the schedule I'm following; I think the official Chicago Marathon training schedule starts the previous week). I'm not even training yet, but already I find that I'm overwhelmed by the prospect. These days I'm shooting for 15-mile weeks. My longest recent run is four miles (though I'm planning on a whopping five for Sunday!). And I just ran my slowest 5K in a long, long time. So as excited as I was about the marathon in January when I first signed up, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it now. My stupid nagging shin, ankle, foot injury isn't helping matters, and I'm getting desperate enough to consider buying new shoes even though my Mizunos *are* new. Sigh.

All of this got me to thinking about my approach to the marathon last year at this time, which was about the same. A friend said to me, "Your head is not in this." And it was true. Add to that the whole house selling, moving, rehabbing thing, and yes, my head was really, really not in it. Yet I clung to the idea that I could somehow pull it off all the way up to my September half-marathon. That got me to thinking about last summer's racing schedule: 10-miler in April, half-marathon in June, half-marathon in September (is it any wonder I'm suddenly feeling raced out?). So really, if you think about it (in the crazed way that I'm thinking of it, at least), I trained for 36.2 miles last summer AND moved (and lived with my in-laws for three weeks!). From that perspective, training for 26.2 miles this summer will be a piece of cake.*

*Truly, the training schedule, which starts at four days of running a week and goes down to three days a week once mileage picks up, does not look that daunting to me, but I am at a loss as to how I'm going to run eight miles on a Wednesday. If I only I were somewhat fast, this wouldn't be quite so puzzling.

**Now I will have "Get Your Head in the Game" from High School Musical (1? 2?) stuck in my head for the rest of the day. And no, that gem is NOT on my ipod. Yet. But surely, if anyone could motivate me on a 20-mile training run, it would be Zach Ephraim. I wonder if he likes middle-age moms who wear tinted lip gloss and shop at Forever 21?