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As mentioned previously, I am currently training for my first marathon, which I plan on completing in October while the weather is ideally on-point and is not sweltering hot. In preparing for this, there has been a lot of firsts for me, and most recently, it was completing my first half-marathon this past Sunday, August 30th.
I cannot tell you just how thrilled I am to have completed my FIRST half-marathon! I am quite literally, without words! Being able to pull off something like this was something that I never thought I would be able to do in the past and is just exhilarating to see that my hard work and training has paid off.
The funniest thing is that the week before my half-marathon, I had irritated my ankle during a long run, and had to take a few days off to allow it to heal. Moreover, thanks to the colder and rainy weather, I came down with a cold that I was struggling to shake. Not surprisingly, this was it not how I pictured things to go a week before this planned event!
Thankfully, I was well in shape to still go out and run as intended!
After having shed several tears of joy, and with this milestone now behind me, my journey is not yet complete. I still have some training to do as I am working towards completing a full marathon in two months. With this goal in mind, I wanted to reflect on some areas that I recognize may need more focus, but also where I have noticed some vast improvements. So let's get to it.
Areas That Need More Focus
Sleep and Recovery
Sleep and recovery are especially important to ensure that your muscles have adequate time to repair. While I always focus on stretching and foam rolling after each run, my biggest struggle is ensuring that I am getting enough sleep. While I average about seven hours of rest every night, I feel as though I should be pushing for eight hours, especially as my training gets heavier. My biggest struggle with reaching eight hours comes down to my stubbornness. I love early mornings and have been, quite honestly, refusing to sleep in after a set hour, especially at times when I know I should be pushing for some extra rest.
My struggle with sleeping in is that the morning is my time to shine! It is when I am at my most productive and am in the zone, which is hard for me to find later in the day, so the last thing that I want to do is sleep through it. I could go to sleep earlier as well (granted, I am usually am in bed by 9:30 PM), but I also appreciate spending time with my wife and catching up after a long day of work. Ultimately, I need to overcome my excuses and focus on balancing my schedule to squeeze in a little extra rest.
Nutrition and Calories
I know that I am not that bad when it comes to my nutrition and caloric intake, but I know that I am not necessarily doing that great either! At the beginning of my training, I was periodically tracking my caloric intake to see if I was consuming enough and if nutritionally, there were any gaps. But what I really mean by periodically is that I tracked everything for at least a solid two weeks and then stopped.
As such, I realized that I have been treating myself with more snacks and desserts that were not nutritionally the greatest, especially when preparing for a marathon. Further, I recognized that I was probably reaching for those extra snacks and desserts as a result of not eating enough to meet my increasing caloric needs. I overlooked that as my training got heavier and as my long runs became longer, I was expending more calories and was not accounting for that with what I was eating. As such, I started gravitating toward more calorically dense foods, such as more sweets compared to before.
Speed Runs
Running is hard, but for me, speed runs are harder and would much rather do anything else to avoid them at all costs. However, there is no denying the benefits that speed runs have on your performance, as it aids in building your strength, endurance, speed, and lung capacity.
Speed runs are a definite weakness of mine, considering how often I skip them. Ultimately, I need to make more of an effort to follow through with them, whether that means getting a little more creative and doing fartleks instead as a way of incorporating speed work.
Getting Stronger
Legs and Knees
My first 15KM run killed my left knee from all the impact. It was a struggle going down the stairs for a few days, and I had to ice it, as my knee was right tender. But since then, and with the continuous training, I have to say my knees are a whole heck of a lot stronger and no longer hurt! Even after running this half-marathon, I experienced absolutely no pain in my legs or knees!
Discipline
Maybe this might not come at a surprise, but you have to be pretty damn disciplined to follow through with your training over several months. Of course, discipline is easy when your motivation is high at the start, but after a few weeks when that motivation starts to fade, is when things start to become more challenging.
You begin making excuses for yourself as to why you should not work out that day, and you tetter back and forth between whether you should run or not. It is these moments that you are deciding how important your goal is, and therefore, how committed you are to achieving that goal. Granted, you are not always going to feel like running (trust, most of the time, I do not want to run), but it does not mean that you can't or that you shouldn't. *Of course, there is a difference between taking a needed rest day, recouping from an injury, or are sick. There are certainly times when you should not be running.
While it is still a struggle some days, I do have to say that this is probably the strongest that my discipline has ever been, considering how far I am into my training. Admittedly, there is the odd day that I do skip out on, but I do not allow that to detract from how stoked I am with how things have been progressing, as those days are infrequent.
Endurance
One of the most significant components in training for something like a marathon is building your endurance - physically and mentally. While it is hard to build physical endurance, it is as equally challenging to build mental endurance as well, especially the longer that your runs become. Your mind starts to wander off track and can often derail the pace that you want to maintain.
With slowly building the duration of my long runs, there have been vast improvements with being able to endure the long distances both physically and mentally.
Knowing When to Back Off
Knowing when to back off is incredibly important, which may mean changing your planned run or taking the day off altogether. Adapting your training schedule can be difficult for some, and while it is good to push yourself, there are going to be times where physically pushing yourself is not the smart decision.
A week before my half-marathon, I had stumbled at least three to five times during my long wrong (13.1KM) and aggravated my left ankle, and while I wanted to run the next few days, I knew that it was best to let it rest. It is far more effective to take a few days off to allow my ankle to heal, rather than potentially causing more damage in the long run. There was also a day that I had planned to go for a long run (16KM) and woke up feeling worn down, was bloated in anticipation of my period, and was mentally exhausted. I attempted my run anyway, but when I was out on the road, the run was only getting harder and harder, and my body was feeling heavier the further I ran. Realizing this, I stopped and called my wife, and she picked me up at my halfway point. Sometimes you need to know when to stop, or in some instances, never start at all.
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Ultimately, I am very proud of the progress that I have been making - I mean, it has been months in the works after all, and I completed my first HALF-MARATHON!
I think that this illustrates that with anything that it is that you want to do in life, it is important to practice patience, discipline, and consistency. To add to that, setting a realistic timeline for achieving that goal is just as important. For example, if you have a financial goal that you want to achieve, you want to evaluate where your finances currently are by looking at the money that you have coming in versus money going out. From there, you can determine where you can cut expenses (if needed) and how much you can realistically save each month. With those monthly savings, you can calculate how long it will take to reach your goal.
I already had a solid foundation when it came to cardio when I first started my training, but I needed to strengthen and develop my legs to carry me for these long distances, which I knew would take time. That is why when I was developing a training schedule, I decided to put my half-marathon date three months out.
Things take time and can be challenging, and may often leave you wondering why you are even doing it in the first place. But don't let that stop you.
Persevere.
Sometimes there is no greater reward than putting in the hours, the hard work and achieving something that you had your set your heart too.
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