{"id":3702,"date":"2013-05-19T15:33:22","date_gmt":"2013-05-19T21:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thekitchenpaper.com\/?p=3702"},"modified":"2013-05-19T15:33:22","modified_gmt":"2013-05-19T21:33:22","slug":"getting-in-shape-is-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thekitchenpaper.com\/getting-in-shape-is-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting in Shape is HARD"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow, please remind me never to get out of shape EVER AGAIN.<\/p>\n

I wrote the following paragraph two weeks ago, after one week of running:<\/p>\n

Seriously, this last week has been really demoralizing: running is much<\/em> harder than I remember. I'm having a really hard time believing that I ran 7:59 pace for over 26 miles, just two months ago. I can barely run THREE miles at a 9:00 pace right now! {And this is really depressing to admit}.<\/em><\/p>\n

There's a lot more where that came from! I wrote an entire post about how awful I was feeling on my runs, how depressing it is to not perform as you know you (once) could, etc. Probably a good thing not to publish - it was whiney. I had [many] failed workouts, skipped workouts, slow workouts, and just plain HARD runs. I'd come back and Derek would ask how it went, to which I'd always<\/em> reply, \"AWFUL.\" And I meant it. I really felt awful. That training plan I laid out? Totally thrown out the window.<\/p>\n

\"getting
Source: Just A Little Push<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Onto the good stuff: I'M BACK! I hope. I finally had a successful run yesterday, surpassing all of my expectations and hopefully signifying a return of my fitness. After a week of running without my GPS watch<\/em> {gasp!}, I went out for a 10-miler with the watch, having made the decision not to look at it for pace, and only look at it for mileage. I set out at what felt like a \"long run\" pace (slowish), and didn't check my pace until I hit 5 miles. Surprisingly, I was maintaining a 9-min pace - on a route where I sometimes struggled to do that during marathon training. Hmm. Curious. <\/p>\n

At that point, the rest of my run was slightly downhill, so I decided to let myself push it a bit - still not obsessing over pace, but looking at each mile split as G beeped at me. 7:58, 7:45, 7:32, 7:28, 7:18. Not a bad finish to the run! Faster than I'd expected to finish a run like that! My average for the run was 8:20, and that alone boosted my confidence like WHOA. I think I'm past the hard part, and can start running with the watch again.<\/p>\n

While the first three weeks were really<\/em> hard and demoralizing, I've now learned that you really can just push through and make a comeback! I realize I made it harder on myself by only running hilly trails, but I think that has helped me gain my strength back faster than I would running flat roads. It also makes it easier to push myself when I am running flatter routes - NOTHING is as bad as running up the backside of Pete's Hill. Nothing. I've also been doing more cross-training, as promised. Cycling 2x (one long, one shorter) per week, and doing a bit of yoga. Gotta get strong!<\/p>\n

What I've learned is that signing up for a race is not necessarily a motivator for me - there are plenty of workouts I've skipped in the last few weeks. The motivator, as I've always suspected, is seeing the numbers get better and better. I didn't NEED to push it on the way back yesterday, but I loved seeing the mile times get smaller and smaller, knowing I still had enough to keep pushing. THAT is what makes me want to keep going. Knowing that last week I ran the same route 30 seconds slower. That my mile-repeats are getting faster. Running without the watch was helpful simply to keep me from being discouraged by poor numbers, but now that I assume I'll see them getting better, the watch is essential for my motivation. Bring on the numbers!<\/p>\n

I'm confident I can get back into shape for the Missoula Half (July 14, I think), and PR pretty substantially, but for the Jackson Half I'm still not entirely convinced. I may need to just run for the sake of running. I AM AWFUL AT THIS. I'm definitely the kind of person that would rather quit than fail (oops), and not PRing would feel a bit like a fail to me. Thinking about it logically, I feel like there is no way NOT to PR: I only need to run 9 seconds faster (per mile) than I did for the ENTIRE MARATHON<\/a>. That should be ridiculously easy, right? Yeah, I feel like it should be. Hopefully I can keep running like I did yesterday!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wow, please remind me never to get out of shape EVER AGAIN. I wrote the following paragraph two weeks ago, after one week of running: Seriously, this last week has been really demoralizing: running is much harder than I remember. I'm having a really hard time believing that I ran 7:59 pace for over 26...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3778,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[440,349,352],"holidays":[],"class_list":["post-3702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-jackson-hole-half-marathon","tag-running","tag-training"],"yoast_head":"\nGetting in Shape is HARD Recipe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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