I have always wanted to run a marathon. It was one of those abstract goals in which you tell people and expect them to be impressed. "I'm training for the marathon." just sounds so wonderful and it makes one seem so athletic and healthy. However, for 3 years now, the marathon goal has never even got off the ground. Before I even got started training, I would convince myself (subconciously, of course) that I had too much work, too much stress, and no energy. As a result, the goal always got pushed back. "Oh, I'll do it next year."
Now as a senior, I realize that I can't push it back any more. I just feel like I have to do this or I will feel regret for the rest of my life. Maybe this is one of those experiences that you don't want to miss. I guess there are many other personal reasons for wanting to do this:
1) I want to get in shape. For the longest time, I know that the fat (love handles, stomach fat) is just getting out of control. I guess it's the fact that I'm a student makes it even easier for me to stay 24-7 in front of my computer screen, sitting in one spot. I guess I just don't have that much will power to make myself exercise every day in order to lose weight. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a student and no one seems to care about issues like this in my school that this motivation alone is just not good enough.
2) "Reach for the moon, if you miss, you will be among the stars." This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. I thought that if I just train for the marathon with my heart into it and even if I don't run it that well or if something goes wrong, I will have had the benefit of the exercise, lose the extra weight, lose some fat, and everything is happy.
3)...which leads me to divulge to you why I want to lose the weight and fat. For one, I plan to do some hardcore traveling after graduation..on the Asian continent. I plan to hit Singapore, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Japan and more and boy do they have high standards for the ladies. I consider myself to be average built here in the U.S. but over there, I'm a fat cow. Haha.
4) Meet some new people....hot guys!!! Let's just say that my love pot is dryyyyy! Of course, I wouldn't blame it on my body and that's definitely not the reason that my love pot is dry. But I really think that if I start training daily, I might be able to meet people whom I would not normally meet and I think just the experience alone is worth the effort.
Enough of the reasons behind it...what I need now is ACTION.
I have realized that one of my biggest flaws is that I plan a lot and act little. Sometimes I can talk about for days and daydream for months even years on what I plan to do or what I will do if I was given this and this opportunity, yet I hardly ever have anything to show for it. My cousin, from China, recently arrived in the states to pursue a master's degree. His English was decent but he still had a lot to learn and adjust. Yet, after arriving only three weeks on campus, he was able to attain a driver's license as well as receive a social security card. If I were him, I don't know if I even have adjusted to my entire environment during that time. Yet, he was able to actually have results to show for it after setting his mind on the things he need to do.
ANYWAYS, I thought I would divulge a little about my plans of actions since I hope that there are some of you fans out there who are perhaps thinking of traveling with me on my journey to running my first marathon: The Boston Marathon.
In order to set up a training schedule, I basically looked online and find this little neat site:
http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon/m_mile.html
Mileage Buildup Schedule (Schedule I)
| Week# | Sun. | Mon. | Tue. | Wed. | Thu. | Fri. | Sat. | Total |
| 1 | 4 | Rest | 3 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 3 | 14 |
| 2 | 4 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 3 | 15 |
| 3 | 5 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | 3 | Rest | 3 | Rest | 3 | Rest | 3 | 12 |
| 5 | 5 | Rest | 3 | 3 | 3 | Rest | 3 | 17 |
| 6 | 6 | Rest | 3 | 3 | 3 | Rest | 3 | 18 |
| 7 | 6 | Rest | 3 | 4 | 3 | Rest | 4 | 20 |
| 8 | 3 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 3 | Rest | 3 | 13 |
| 9 | 7 | Rest | 3 | 5 | 4 | Rest | 3 | 22 |
| 10 | 7 | Rest | 4 | 5 | 4 | Rest | 4 | 24 |
| 11 | 8 | Rest | 4 | 6 | 4 | Rest | 4 | 26 |
| 12 | 4 | Rest | 3 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 4 | 15 |
| 13 | 8 | Rest | 5 | 6 | 5 | Rest | 4 | 28 |
| 14 | 9 | Rest | 5 | 6 | 6 | Rest | 4 | 30 |
| 15 | 9 | Rest | 5 | 7 | 6 | Rest | 5 | 32 |
| 16 | 5 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 4 | 17 |
| 17 | 10 | Rest | 6 | 8 | 6 | Rest | 4 | 34 |
| 18 | 10 | Rest | 6 | 8 | 7 | Rest | 4 | 35 |
| 19 | 6 | Rest | 4 | Rest | 5 | Rest | 4 | 19 |
I thought this was a good schedule to use because the numbers didn't look that intimidating. Plus there are rest days almost throughout the training weeks so I can incorporate those days into my busy school schedules and make sure that I only work out on days when I don't have five million hours of classes or a ton of psets due the next day.
Today was just my first day training...whooo! As you can tell, today is a Thursday and how I wish I can start on a Sunday so I can walk through this schedule, but I have decided that enough routines and rules, JUST DO IT.
So, today I finished four miles on the treadmill in 39:38. It wasn't good by any stretch of imagination but it was a good start. My ankle started to hurt around the beginning of the second mile so I had to walk and then working off the pain so I can start running.
In freshman year in high school, I ran for the school's track team. During one of the trainings, the coach wanted us to do a pyramid training, basically means little rest, lots of interval runnings. I reached a point where my ankle or my shins were hurting so badly that I wanted to stop. My coach yelled at me and told me that only quitters stop in the middle of their races. Without a choice, I ran on. Eventually the pain became unbearable. Later, I went to see a doctor and he told me that I had shin splints or something so I ended up quitting track for the rest of the season. Now, I think the splints thing has healed but whenever I run long distance, my ankle would hurt. The hurt feels like a tightening sort of pain like if I just stop and walk it out, everything will be fine. If anything, I'm afraid that I will experience that pain while running the marathon and then I won't be able to run on. I will have to watch for that in the later weeks.
For dinner, I had a chicken caesar salad from ABP and a bottle of water. If you ask me, I am starving now! It's 10:53 p.m. and all I can think about is the strawberry cheesecake icecream that is sitting in the freezer...*shudders*. I have started to watch this new show on ABC. It's called the Fashionistas Diaries which are basically about six young people trying to make it in the fashion industry. I will not trouble you with the details of the show (you can look it up online), but there is one quote in the show and it says, "If you have money, spend on clothes, not on food, after all, no one eats around here." Of course, now I have to have a little disclaimer which is that I am in no way shape or form supporting anorexia or whatever eating disorders that people seem to be experiencing. I just want to make a point that there are some people out there so determined to look a certain way, to achieve a certain accomplishment, that they are willing to go to the extreme to succeed.
I am ready to do the same. In the next however many weeks until April 21st, 2008, I will be providing lots of details on my training as well as little life tidbits about me, and of course so you can track me and hold me accountable for my committment. Be sure to tell your friends about me, leave me lots of comments/encouragements/suggestions and best of luck to all you runners out there training for your marathon!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment