Long story short: I want to qualify to run the Boston Marathon. My current marathon PR is 4:10, and I need to run under 3:35(*) in order to reach it. My goal: knock 40 minutes off my current time at the Mountains to Beach marathon on Memorial Day weekend in 2019, seven and a half months from now, crossing the finish line with enough cushion to guarantee myself a spot (I’m gunning for an arbitrary five minutes). Oh yeah, and hit the gong in triumph.

Sounds good. It’s a meaningful goal.

However, at this time it’s fantasy. Here’s why.

Until recently, my marathon training history consisted of training to run the fastest pace I could reasonably hope for with as few miles as I felt I could get away with.

This is not an admission of laziness. No one takes up distance running because they don’t want to push themselves. It is, rather, an admission of lack of time management, ignorance of basic marathon training principles, and an unwillingness to tolerate discomfort and pain beyond a certain threshold.

Back when I was running in order to chase away depression, anxiety and self doubt brought on by the Great Recession, I ran through remote portions of Yosemite National Park, the San Rafael and Dick Smith Wildernesses, Big Sur, the Sierra Nevadas, and anywhere else that would yank me out of the head-space I was in that told me my most productive years had passed me by. It worked, and it provided me with a solid base that powered my first 10k and half marathon races. Make no mistake; my fitness has improved. I can run at a 9:45 pace until I either drop dead or run out of road. I would not be able to do this if I hadn’t pushed myself in my previous training. But this new goal is going to require me to change the way I train.

After all, my recent time at the Ventura Half Marathon tells me that I am capable of training to run a marathon in three hours and fifty minutes. So why is my PR a full twenty minutes slower?

More on this in the next post.

But in the meantime, I have some pre-work that needs to be done. It’s one thing to commit to a new way of marathon training, or to any new worthwhile endeavor; it’s another to take a hard look at the non-running parts of my life and make the changes necessary so that new goals can take root and flourish. To wit:

1. Get to bed early enough to sleep the 8-9 hours I know I will need in order to recuperate from my efforts.
2. Take the time to plan my food needs and shop weekly (which has the added benefit of saving money otherwise spent eating out)
3. Clean and organize my living space so I don’t allow messy surroundings to influence my mood and desire to train.
4. Plan my downtime to really recreate and unwind. Watching Star Trek and MASH reruns is occasionally acceptable, but it can’t be my default position every time I’m tired and bored.
5. Understand that I will need to get out the door and train regardless of how tired or stressed I feel. A friend and coach I know uses the mantra “No excuses.” I need to find one that works for me.(**)
6. Perhaps the most important thing: understand that I run because I enjoy running. It’s what I do to unwind and recreate, and as such falls under the definition of self care. There will be a “job” aspect attached to this specific goal, but “resting and recreating” can apply even to the hard workouts. After all, at least I’m not at the office.

Life is short, and no one knows for sure what lies on the other side of it, so we need to make do with the opportunities we have before us right now, and we need to have the courage to face the uncomfortable transitions between what we have settled for, and what we dream of in those moments when we wish for a better life.

Which is why this blog exists.

(*) The new BAA qualifying standard for a male 55 years of age is 3:35. I will need to run faster than that time to have a chance to actually enter the race in April of 2020.

(**)A writer of my acquaintance once told the story of another writer he knew who would, every morning upon waking, point a loaded pistol to his head and ask himself “Are you going to get up and write today?” I don’t think such a tactic would necessarily apply to me, but who knows?