Does anyone remember THIS tiny little race? Well, not really "tiny", more like 26.2 miles of agony.
Ok, I'm exaggerating. It was only 24.2 miles of agony, I managed to run those first two miles pain free.
In case you didn't click the link, the race I'm referring to is Rock n Roll San Antonio. It was my first full marathon. I poured my heart and soul into training, left blood,sweat and tears out on the training trail, and made it to race day injured. I struggled through the race, "sucking it up" to prove I could. I didn't enjoy it. It hurt, it was demoralizing, and it left me unable to run for 8 weeks.
Recently I sat down and reread my race recap. It brought me to tears.Based on the comments, it brought many of you to tears as well.
Fun stuff.
So, guess what?
I registered for it again. Yes, my friends, I am going back for a redemption race. I'll be training through the insane Texas heat. I'll give up sleeping in and going out on the weekends. I'll probably even sacrifice a few toenails.
I have a few goals for this race. I'm going big people.
1. I WILL take an hour off my marathon time. (yeah,the first one was slow.I was HURT)
2. I will run it uninjured.
I put a lot of thought into how I would reach those goals. I've been educating myself on ways to prevent injury, but felt I needed to bring in the big guns to achieve my time goal.
I've made a lot of contacts in the running industry, I know people locally as well as nationwide that could offer assistance with this. I put a lot of thought into who I trust and who I thought would best understand where I'm coming from.
And guess who I came up with?
Yep, as an Olympic Silver Medalist who has struggled with injuries himself, I thought Meb would really be able to offer me insight into how to reach my goals.
For some reason he isn't returning my calls. Weird.
So, then I did a little more thinking and came up with this guy:
Don't get your hopes up, I'm not talking about Ryan Hall, I'm talking about the guy on the right.
Anyone familiar with this fellow?
That is The Boring Runner,Adam. (that pic may or may not be retribution for the hella hard run he assigned today)
In all seriousness. I DO think he is absolutely the best person to "coach" me to my goals. Adam has gone from a 10min/mile runner to having a mile PR of 5:22. He has experienced first hand what it takes to improve speed. He has also fought to come back from injuries, and he has done it all without taking himself to seriously. He has been a great source of support for me over the last several months. Bottom line, I trust him.
This is my second week following his training plan, and I can already say he is kicking my butt I am seeing improvement. :) I'll be sharing details of that plan in the week to come.