Jobs. Family responsibilities. Car trouble. Time commitments made but then forgotten. Bad weather. Then even worse weather.

Lack of motivation, depression, anxiety, regret, loss, lack of sleep, overall lack of energy due to the constant grinding of life against one’s limited physical, mental, social and spiritual resources.

#Amirite?

Still gotta train, though!

It’s been several months since my last entry, and I apologize. But, you know, stuff.

So, where am I at? Right now, I’m in a pretty good place.

A little backstory:

I am a pace leader for the LA Roadrunners running club, the official training program for the LA Marathon. Which means that every Saturday morning from September through Marathon Day in March, rain or shine, I rise at oh-dark-thirty in the blessed ayem, a full ninety minutes earlier than I do for my day job, slam as much of a healthy breakfast as I can down my pie-hole, and drive to Marina Del Rey to meet several hundred runners who depend on me and about ninety other “PL’s” who have made the same commitment, and lead them on long training runs around Marina Del Rey and up into Santa Monica. Along the way, we provide coaching, encouragement, friendship and at times a bit of therapy as we make our way along sidewalks, beach paths and the occasional shoulderless stretch of roadway on our 10,12,14,16,18,and 20+ mile runs.

I pace a group corporately named “Run Group 6,” which means we run 11 minute miles on these long runs as part of training for a 10 minute per mile marathon pace. Which means that as the calendar falls headlong into the throat of winter, we spend a increasingly long amount of time in each others’ company. In the case of our longest run coming later next month, that time will be around three hours and forty minutes.

These runs are always done with the idea that suffering together creates a diverting, relaxed congenial atmosphere. Running as a social lubricant.

It also means that as pace leaders, we are expected to be  stronger runners than the runners we are leading. Can’t do that if you are suffering as much as the runners under your care.

Need a motivation to train? There you go!

Because when the actual race gets tough, as it always does around mile 18, we are the ones our fellow runners will look to for encouragement and motivation. And we need to be in a position to provide it.

Life got a bit rough for me during the holidays late last year, and it was tempting to let things slide and just sleep in on the weekday mornings, and surrender to MASH and Star Trek reruns in the evening after work. And a few times, laziness won out. But overall, knowing what will be expected of me at the LA Marathon pushed me out the door. And oddly enough, who’da thought, running can lift burdens and provide much needed perspective on non-running aspects of my existence.

Life evened out after the new year, and I surprised myself with the realization that I ran twenty miles more in January this year than January last. It was a major accomplishment.

But then, oddly enough, it began to rain in Los Angeles. A lot.

And right about that time, my car needed some much needed attention, requiring me to take “alternate transportation” to that all important day job.

The bike.

Not the motorized kind, mind you. The regular kind. The kind that you have to pedal in order to push through the rain.

So for several days, I donned all the rain gear I could find and biked through the sloppy wet streets in a downpour to the Expo line train station, rode the train as close to my work as I could, then pedaled the rest of the way there. A change into some dry socks and shoes, and I was good to face the workday. Then, at five pm, re-don the wet shoes and socks and lather, rinse, repeat to home.

Life happens, right?

Like when the derailleur on your back wheel gives out just as you decide to pedal your way through a six inch pool of standing water a hundred yards long, as the uncaring automobiles slide past you sending little tsunamis up and over your calves, your rain gear now useless because God chose that moment to give you a demonstration of what old man Noah must have gone through back in the day, and when you get home, you end up dragging half the puddle you pushed through all over and into the new carpeting your landlord installed as a justification for the rent increase.

And you’re going to towel off, don your running clothes, turn around and do a six mile hill workout after all that?

Hello Hawkeye, Trapper and Frank Burns. What are you up to this fine evening? I’m sorry, but I’m not that strong.

Besides, I will have to _walk_ to the train station tomorrow morning because the garage had to send out for a part that will take a full day to get to them so they can install it. Oh boy.

But take heart, friends. I’m going to pull this off. Here’s how:

According to my training log, I ran 180 miles from January 1^st of this year to yesterday morning. Was shooting for around 220, but considering everything, I’ll take it.

With four weeks of training “build” and a two week taper before the marathon, I will be running my highest mileage weeks, and I feel strong, and mentally and physically ready to push through whatever training, and life, throws at me.

The greatest decision I made this training cycle was to NOT overlook the LA Marathon on the way to Mountains 2 Beach, my BQ race. Of course, I’m training for both, but I am approaching the LA Marathon as a separate race entirely: I am training _specifically_ to run the LA Marathon at 8:45 per mile pace, or in a 3:50 finish time.

Of course, as a pace leader for LARR Run 6, I won’t be running the marathon at that pace. I will lead my group to a 4:22 finish, running 10 minute miles. And by focusing specifically on the LA Marathon and training to run it at a full half hour faster, I will have the strength and perseverance to help as many runners as possible reach their goal of finishing the marathon in 4:22 or better.

Because life is challenging for everyone. And how do we find respite from our challenges? By challenging ourselves to accomplish something we once thought impossible, and having a little fun along the way.