You guys and gals make this way too complicated. Just run mofos.

I found that training through anything and everything really changed my definition of hard. -5 degrees, snowing sideways, and wind? Go run. 90 degrees with 87% humidity and no breeze? Go run. Legs dead, working overtime, and feeling stressed to the max? Still go run. I'm not saying I never missed a run but I ran a lot of days that I absolutely would have skipped before. And I've done a lot of workouts that I would have said were too hard before. If my plan says to do something now I pretty much find a way at all costs, even rearranging days or taking vacation from work. I don't ever want to race another marathon (7 so far) with a single doubt in my mind that I could have trained better.

I think that's a bit extreme.  No, I don't make excuses and I do drag my ass out the door on some miserable days but when I feel like taking a day off, I take a day off.  I went on vacation in the middle of training for my first marathon and turned a planned 70+ mile week into a 19 mile week.  I don't think it made a damn bit of difference.  All of my training still led me to believe I could run between 3:10 and 3:15 and I even told my wife that's when I thought I'd finish.  I ran 3:12.  Because I have kids that get sick and a wife that gets sick and me that gets sick and a job that occasionally requires something other than 9-5, and times when I've tweaked something, and times when I'd just flat rather drink a beer than go run, I have entered every single race I have ever run and will enter every single race I will ever run in the future knowing with 100% certainty that I could have trained better.  But, this ain't what I do for a living and it matters a whole lot less than taking care of my wife or my kids when needed and sometimes it matters less than a good stout or an IPA.

Hey Fsocks, why do you post unhelpful bullshit whenever someone asks a legitimate question?

 

+1

"Plan your race, race your plan"

in all seriousness, one thing I find helpful is to make the important decisions prior to the race. (I find this to be great life advice too)

 

I try to think of the problems I may encounter, and I decide what I will do should that happen. I find that when I try to make decisions in the heat of the moment, I make bad decisions. But if I've thought through the problem before hand, I've already decided what I'll do, and I only have to do what I planned.  Decide before hand, what will make me slow down or what will make me speed up, what would make me drop. Don't think on race day, just race.

 

"Plan your race, race your plan"

This is great in theory, but much harder in practice. Especially if you have not run a marathon before, or not run many -- you will not really know (I mean REALLY know) what to expect until you physically experience it. Makes it tough to plan.

 

This is great in theory, but much harder in practice. Especially if you have not run a marathon before, or not run many -- you will not really know (I mean REALLY know) what to expect until you physically experience it. Makes it tough to plan.

well, yeah.

most of life is harder than you think it's going to be, at the time.

I would disagree though. I think that makes it all the more important to make the decision beforehand.

If it's really hard, but you haven't hit the threshold for dropping, or slowing down, suck it up.

It may be tough to plan, but it's still possible.

What makes it hard in practice is not having the experience in making quick assessments and good decisions when the race doesn't go according to plan. That's experience that can be picked up in running shorter races than the marathon and also in training when making mid-workout adjustments. One of the factors I see with many people who run marathons is that they rarely race other distances and race rarely, often only a few times a year.

Terrific observation George.

I just came here to support your theory that FSocks is full of shit.

I think we've decided that his sock his full of something else.