I've owned the couch2boston.com domain name since right after running my first
Boston Marathon way back in April 2014. I'd thought about starting a run blog throughout the adventures of 2012 and 2013 but always came to the same conclusion, that I could do the things or I could write about the things but I probably couldn't do the things and write about them at the same time. This year I resolved to write about training at least once a month. The resolution stuck pretty well for a while, but the last 3 months put me right back to the beginning, I could do the things or write about them but not both.
I'm now on the precipice of Chicago2Boston. The hay is in the barn. Taper has started. 😱
I'm scared, for real. I'm losing motivation fast. I'm looking for excuses not to run. I don't know what the heck I was thinking when I put together a training plan for Chicago2Boston that was built around running twice a week. WTF. I'm an idiot.
Ok, let's just say my confidence is, well, um, lacking. Maybe getting caught up on everything that has happened the last 3 months can chase some of the fear away. My weekly run total was paltry, but then again I averaged less than 30 miles per week running before I PR'd with a
2:56 at Chicago in 2019. I've been lifting weights, which has left my body looking and feeling better than ever, but will that actually help me run back to back marathons? Dunno. My bike miles are nowhere near as high as they were back in 2019. The one thing that I'm left clinging to for confidence is that this was a "weekend warrior" plan that had me often biking 5 hours on Saturday and running 3 hours on Sunday.
Time to get out of my head and into the story. Ready or not, there is a lot that has happened the last 3 months and most of it is pretty damn good, so let's spend some time in the wayback machine getting caught up together.
July
Oh, July how I miss you! You were the first big month of this training cycle. The month where my confidence started to grow that my body was up to the challenge AND there was plenty of time to play with friends.
Since I was abstaining from racing in 2021 there was no Musselman, but thankfully my best friend Chris still came to town from Connecticut. We have a tradition of racing Musselman every year, but this year it was more important to just be together without the stress of racing. We hung out, had great food with friends to celebrate his birthday and still found time to get out for a ride with Amanda.
I'm convinced that on some cosmic level Chris and I have stories that are inseparable. We spent a lot of time talking about our employers during his stay with us and right on schedule we both resigned a few weeks later. I'd been with my prior employer for 8+ years. He was with his employer for 20+ years. On August 30th Chris would go on to start his new job. I would start mine on August 31st. Amanda? She went on to start her new job on August 23rd. We were all doing our best to support the Great Resignation of 2021. lol.
I also had an adventure with another friend Rae. While out for a ride in the middle of nowhere a storm popped up 2 hours early. With barely any visibility from the rain and ample opportunities to hydroplane on our narrow tires we managed to keep going until we could find shelter inside a gazebo in Oakfield NY. I don't know if it felt brave or stupid at the time, but really there was no other choice. There was lighting coming down everywhere and no place to shelter until we made it into town. Amanda was called to our rescue but within 15 minutes the storm was done and we could get back on the road so off we went. Good times?
On a training front, I had a breakthrough running and was able to consistently slow down for the first time in forever. This might seem like an odd thing to be proud of, and I guess it is, but after the glute injury and without any racing to do this year I've thrown myself wholeheartedly into the mindset of "Be humble, Stay healthy" and in retrospect that mindset may be the smartest thing I've done with my training this year. I was also able to pull off my first 5 hour ride + 3 hour run weekend during July 24th + 25th.
August
August got off to a great start. It was inspiring to watch Molly Seidel win the bronze medal in the marathon at the Olympics. Watching her run past the personal hydration station I had the pleasure to
volunteer at in Atlanta for the Olympic Trials is one of my strongest memories. She was a "nobody" at the start of the trials, a "somebody" at the end when she qualified, and a medal winning Olympian on August 6th. Wow.
The very next day I got out for another 5 hour ride in the countryside and rolled the odometer on my bike in the process. My Cannondale Slice hit 20,000 miles with me in the saddle. I hope to keep riding this bike forever and I might need to in order to achieve my cycling goal. I've always wanted to "pay off" my tri bike in the value of unspent gasoline saved from commuting 20 miles each way to work. The new job? It is a permanent work from home position. The bike is now stuck 7 bike commutes away from having paid itself off. Doh.
There were more opportunities to be humble in August. I drove to Buffalo a couple of times to run with my friend Scott and his son Drew.
They are an awesome pair. Scott runs the local branch of
Ainsley's Angels in Buffalo NY where he helps give people with special needs a chance to experience endurance events. How did I learn humility from Scott and Drew? That's easy. When I've joined them for their long runs I've struggled to keep up!
As I wound down work with my old employer and took some downtime before starting the new gig on August 31st, I was able to get in some nice training. There were two more 5 hour ride + 3 hour run weekends accomplished as well as plenty of cross training and extra play time during the week. I was able to average almost 16 hours a week of training while staying healthy and pain free.
September
September was a grind and I think it has me worn out. Aside from the excitement and intensity of starting a new job I also managed to pull off 3 weekends in a row of 5 hour rides + 3 hour runs. I've started letting the reins out on the runs and the pace has been dropping which should build confidence but right now has just left me tired. By the time I got to the last big weekend of ride/run I'd lost the desire to be out in the middle of nowhere by myself turning the pedals. I mixed it up by taking the roads that I never do and it got me through the final ride, but then I struggled the next day and had to push the run out by a day. It wasn't that I didn't have the energy, I'd just lost the desire to do the thing. Consuming so much weekend time with solo training time had definitely gotten old. The time invested in training took away opportunities to play with Amanda, but in retrospect I think it was the fact that every one of these rides/runs was by myself is what really got old. My training volume was almost as high in July/August but with the occasional mental break of good conversations with good friends while doing the things made those months much more enjoyable.
Trying to pivot into 3 weeks of taper has been harder than I expected. The relief of being done with long rides/runs was palpable, but for reasons that are hard to put my finger on I'm kinda scared to get out to run any distance at any intensity. I put together a taper that was filled with shorter/faster running, like I usually do except the definition of "faster" is a whole lot slower than it used to be. I then immediately started looking for any reason to NOT run that I could find. Oh, gee, look at that...the temp is 48F. That's clearly way too cold. I'm tired. Oh look, I was totally going to get out the door but the driveway looks like it might be wet. Clearly, too much rain in the air. Was there rain coming down? No, but it had. Were there storms on the radar? Nope. Yeah, let's bail and start work early instead...etc, etc, etc.
Despite being in the land of 1,001 excuses I have gotten out for 2 runs in the last few days that were at a harder effort. The first was 3 miles at the same pace that I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2019. Depressing, but done. I really didn't want to do a 4th mile at that pace. After a few days of excuses, I got out for 6 miles at a moderately hard effort (6:59 pace) that didn't suck. It is a poor replacement for the 12 miler I wanted to do, but it wasn't too bad. It might have even been borderline good. There is a small kernel of hope starting to build that I might be able to get out of the run funk soon. 🤞🤞
Conclusion?
So now what? Well, despite coasting into the finish line of training in a funk, I am healthy. Nothing hurts. There is nothing legitimate to complain about. There are always doubts at the end of a training cycle and it is inevitable to think that a different path might have somehow been better. The Chicago2Boston effort was never about being able to race either event. It was always about doing something silly and finding a personal way to celebrate the world becoming a little more normal. Both events are about persistence and that's one thing that I am full of right now.
I had to practice persistence (and patience) to get through the pain in the
ass glute. "Be humble, Stay healthy" was never an easy or natural thing for me to embrace. With that in mind, it is pretty important to remember the rocky start at the beginning of this journey. I threw caution to the wind and signed up for Chicago2Boston at a time when I couldn't run 10 miles without pain. March, April, May and the first half of June were all dominated by running short distances easy because that was all I could do. The path out of that was a mix of regular deep tissue massages and finding ways to turn the dial up on training without stressing my body out. In plain english, I had to fight my natural desire to run hard and now that I'm mixing in some hard running during taper it's scary. 🤔
I've read that last paragraph 5 times trying to figure out how to bring this update to an end and I've got nothing. So, like a movie that leaves its viewers unsatisfied because the credits roll before the story is complete, here we are. Done for now. I'll see you all for the sequel when the next chapter of this adventure begins with a flight from Buffalo to Boston on Friday, October 8th and ends with a very tired me on the couch at home on Tuesday, October 12th.
