No more fear of commitment

First of all, congratulations to all those who competed in Ironman Florida yesterday.  It's a truly amazing feat.  And "good luck!" to all those running the NYC Marathon today.  I wish I could be there to cheer you on!

All the competing this weekend has me thinking about my own goals and how I'm going to get there.  Here we go:

1.  Qualify for Boston at the California International Marathon

I know that Boston sold out in 0.5 seconds.  I am very aware of that fact because I let my pace slide at my last marathon thinking I could qualify at my next.  Sucks, but c'est la vie.

Unfortunately, I had to do the most grueling training for the Towpath Marathon while I was on my most demanding work rotation.  Generally, I was ecstatic to get a mere 6-7 hours of sleep and was happy just to be able to fit any runs into my schedule.  No speedwork.  No hills.  Just logging the miles.  I still hoped it would be enough, and there's a slim possibility that I could have still qualified if I did some serious pushing through the pain & burn.  But, as I mentioned in my race report, I wasn't having fun or enjoying myself.  Maybe I'm a dreamer, but I think it should be possible to qualify without being miserable and I'd much rather have it be a good experience.  So I won't be going this year but I want the qualification nonetheless.

So!  Goal number two:

2.  Pensacola Marathon ONLY as a training run.

I sometimes have a bad habit of pushing it on days when I feel good to the detriment of runs when I actually want to push the pace.  Since Pensacola is only a week away (and only 3 weeks before CIM), it's important that I commit myself to taking it easy.  My aim is to run no faster than MP+45 for 18-20 miles and then MP for the last 6-8.  We'll see how I feel.  If anything is sore or hurting, I'll back off.  This is not the time to get injured.  (Remind me I said that when someone passes me in the last mile and I'm not allowed to speed up.)

Looking at past results, I shouldn't have too much trouble keeping it slow.  This is a pretty small marathon and last year there were less than 80 women (only 221 marathon runners in total.) I won't have massive crowds egging me on.  It'll feel like a LSD run that starts & ends with a lot of people.  And I won't have to carry my own water.  I'm ok with that.

3.  Keep running though the winter.

It's not that I'm worried about "falling off the wagon."  By now, I'm a hard-core convert.  If I go too many days without running I start getting symptoms of withdrawal.  For me that mostly means I get super grouchy, b*tchy and can't sleep.  Trust me.  You don't want to see me like that.  I don't want to be around myself when that happens.

What I am worried about is the fact that December & January are going to be insanely busy for me.  I will more or less be away from home and on the road from mid-November until New Years.  While the trip should be a lot of fun (& work), fitting in runs could become a major challenge.  I'm gonna go ahead and use you guys as my peer pressure.  I'll squeeze my runs in whenever and wherever I can - pit stops, early mornings, late at night...  Hopefully I'll end up with some great stories and awesome pictures.  Maybe I'll even find a running partner or two.  But this blog will hold me responsible.

And while we're on the topic, I don't want to simply run though December & January.  I want to keep cross-training.  I'm still toying with the idea of competing my first triathlon at the New Orleans 70.3 Ironman this spring.  Right now, the major hurdle is a bike.  I only have a MTB and I'm broke.  There may be a way for me to use some loan money to buy a road bike, but that might cause a much tighter belt over the next year than I can afford.  So, we'll call it "cross-training" for now.

Now that's commitment

The hurdle will be that biking & swimming aren't quite as convenient as running.  I'll either have to bring my bike with me or pay for a gym every time I need to bike or swim.  Again, this whole "being poor" thing is really cramping my style.  So we'll see.  But now I'm committed.  I said it "outloud."  (Well.  I made it public, anyway.  You know what I mean.)  I am committed to running, biking & swimming through the winter, whatever it takes.  Hold me to it.

Any suggestions for training while on an extended road trip?