It’s very encouraging—lately, I’ve been getting a little frustrated with all the work that I’m having to put into this class. I really like science—so much so that I’m joining the Science Club at MCTC!—but it’s a lot of work. This past Sunday, Val, John and I did our long run, and then I had to high-tail it home to study for 4 hours. It was absolutely gorgeous outside, and I was stuck at my desk with my bio book and my study guide. It made me think that maybe I should just chuck this whole school thing and stay where I’m at. Climb the corporate ladder and all that jazz. Take the easy way out.
But who wants to take the easy way out? Well, I’m sure many people do, but I’m not one of them. (And would climbing the corporate ladded really be that easy? No.) I think about my good grades in science and how much I’m loving it, and I think about my little North Shore dream. I think about my shadowing experience. I think about all this and more, and remember how much I want to do this. And that keeps me going.
And at least next week is spring break. I can catch up on some textbook reading.
I could use some inspiration for marathon training. It just doesn’t seem like our schedule is holding together as well as last year. It could be because we don’t have an official coach, and it’s really up to me and Val to keep ourselves to the mileage. We haven’t done the best job of that this year. It’s been hard with the crazy weather we’ve been having, but you can only use that as an excuse for so long. I wonder if it’s because *we’re* the ones in charge this year. We’re not listening to a coach who tells what to do and when to do it. We’ve got to make our decisions, and we’ve got to hold ourselves accountable. We’ve got to work hard to maintain the pace, not follow the person ahead of us. It hasn’t been easy. I’m honestly not sure that we can finish in 5 hours or less. I’m not sure that we can maintain the 11 min/mile run pace that we need to. But maintaining a total pace of 12 min/mile puts us at 5 hours and 14 minutes, which is still almost an hour off my time last year. I won’t turn my nose up at that. Creating our own training schedule and being responsible for our training has thus far been an enlightening experience. I felt like I learned a lot of lessons during the race last year that I wanted to implement this year. This year, I’ve learned a lot about constructing a training regimen…I think that next year, I will more closely follow Hal Higdon’s “Beginner 2” training schedule.
The other thing I think about a lot lately is the Seven Summits. I wonder what it would take the climb the Seven Summits—financially, emotionally, fitness-wise, time-wise. It seems a lot more feasible to consider climbing Mt. Rainier or even Denali. I’ve considered both, and looked into climbing Rainier recently. To really try something like the Seven Summits would necessitate a move to the mountains, though, wouldn’t it? So that I could really train and get used to altitude. I would love that, but would have to sacrifice time with family and friends. And at what cost to my relationship with Abe? Of course he’d be supportive, but I’d be away a lot and consumed with training most of the time. And at what cost to other dreams, like living and working on the North Shore? If I had to choose, which one would it be? Just thinking about it...
I also had ideas to look for marathons in other states. There’s a marathon in Montana in September called the Two Bear Marathon. (http://www.twobearmarathon.org/) Based on the brochure, it looks like an amazing experience—elevation, wooded dirt trails, roads, lakes, bears, all of it!! I don’t think it’s possible to do it this year, what with saving vacation time for the North Shore. It’s probably not even feasible to do it next year, with school. But it’s something to think about.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately.
posted by Lola @ 12:08 PM
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