Knowing what you're capable of

Every time I hear that phrase, I think of the Viagra "Knowing what you're made of" commercial where some middle-aged guy makes his horses pull his truck, and then goes to enjoy chemically enhanced sex afterwards.  Lucky for you (and me) I'm not writing about 4 hour erections.

I've been sticking with my early runs, however painful the alarm may be.  On Thursday, the alarm went off at 4:50 (and 4:51, 4:52, and 4:54) and I laid in bed thinking about the run I was supposed to be getting up for.  My training schedule called for a 10 mile interval run, with the majority of the run at a 7:30 pace.  As I laid there groggy and exhausted, I knew that there was no way I could keep that pace up.  And if I couldn't keep the proper pace, should I even bother with the run?  I could get an extra hour and a half of sleep and still get up with time to make breakfast.

Then I remembered last years marathon, and I remembered how I surprised myself training for it.  I remembered that even on recent runs I've been able to run faster that I thought I could.  Then I remembered what I'm supposed to do:

Once I got on the road I was fine, and I realized how hard the first steps usually are.  Even though I KNEW I could run what I need to run intellectually, my body wanted to hibernate and conserve energy.  Over the next 2 years, there are going to be many days where I feel like I can't accomplish what is required of me, and it's going to be very difficult.  Not just the runs, bikes, and swims, but hearing the alarm, taking a mental step back, and knowing that I can finish this.  Every day is just a little more than the day before, and I survived that, right?

I don't need to know what pace my body is capable of.  I just need to know that I can finish what I've started, and that every time I train, I get closer to my goal.

Morning Runs

Did you know that some people consider the time before 6am the morning, and not the middle of the night?  Crazy, right?  Regardless of what time "Morning" starts, I'm not a morning person.  Getting out of bed is tragically difficult for me.  In highschool, I had be in the building by 7:30 at the latest.  It took 15 minutes to drive there if I drove there like a reckless teenager.  I usually woke up between 7:15 and 7:20.  Caroline and I trade weekend days for sleeping in, and if any of the boys get up before 7, we are VERY annoyed.  

I've avoided morning training as much as I could since I started running a couple years ago.  My old point of view was:

Running a long time sucks.  Mornings suck.  Running a really long time in the morning REALLY sucks. 

But now that I'm taking my marathon training seriously, and I'm going to have to add in swimming and biking, I have a few reasons to run early.   Four reasons to be exact.

My weekday runs are starting to go past an hour, so if I'm going to work, train, and still have time to see these boys and my ridiculously supportive wife while they are awake, I have to run while they are asleep.  This means starting before sunrise, or as I call it: 5am in the night.  

Three days this week I drug myself out of bed after on of my alarms went off. (I'm not sure which one, since I have them set for 5:00, 5:02, 5:03, and 5:04)  Once I get past the anger that it's still dark, things start to slowly improve.  I crawl into the running clothes I've laid out, and scrounge around in the kitchen for some kind of food I wont want to throw up 4 miles in. By the time I make it outside, I'm feeling fairly awake, and off I go.  I really like running in the city before everyone else gets up.   The traffic is minimal, and I get to explore areas that are usually too congested to run.  I've found myself running faster than I anticipated, and now I'm optimistic about my marathon goal time.

I have evolved into the next stage of runner: that super annoying guy that owns spandex (for races) and runs before others wake up to make them feel guilty for sleeping in.  I'm trying to combat the doucheyness by not posting about my runs on facebook, although I did put this blog on facebook, so I guess I'm failing at that.  Oh well.