Duck Feet

An ongoing series of lessons learned through the preparation for and completion of 39.3 miles over two days

3. Have the right goals.

If you know yourself, and you’re training regularly, you can set goals that are challenging yet still achievable. I realized that “Finish The Goofy Without Getting Swept And Without Injuring Myself” was a smart goal for me based on where my fitness level was as I began. It required me to commit to the long training runs but didn’t cause me to get discouraged when I felt “slow.”

And a nice offshoot? While I’ve never before trained to get a PR (personal record) for time, the Goofy training got me in good enough shape that my next goal is to set a personal record in my next half marathon.

The first three lessons were all intimately related for me. Can’t set goals without knowing myself. Can’t truly know myself without the training experience. Need to know the goal to determine the training plan.

Ag

An ongoing series of lessons learned through the preparation for and completion of 39.3 miles over two days

2. Know yourself. 

I’ll talk about goal setting later, but part of being able to set a goal is knowing realistically what you are capable of. This is another reason why training is so important. Six months of training at a variety of distances in all kinds of weather after all types of eating and hydration strategies helped me to learn a lot about my body. That knowledge allowed me to set challenging but attainable goals, make realistic plans for each run, and adjust to changing conditions during runs.

As a beginning runner it’s very easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to other people your age, or your weight, and think their pace should be your pace or their goals should be your goals. I can think of no easier way to end up injured and disappointed. 

Running is an amazing opportunity to learn things about yourself you never would have discovered otherwise. Allow yourself the full benefits of that opportunity.

Ag

An ongoing series of lessons learned through the preparation for and completion of 39.3 miles over two days

1. Training matters. 

Our training for the Goofy (The Walt Disney World Half Marathon and Marathon on back to back days) started about 6 months prior and we stuck to an “at least three times a week” running plan all the way through. As the plan reached into November and December, it had us scheduled to do long runs back to back and it was very tempting to start “tapering early” and bag them. But we did every long run we could, including a ten miler and a twenty two miler on back to back days. It was no fun doing a twenty two mile run in my neighborhood, but it helped prepare my body for what was to come. Without those training runs I believe I would have shut down around mile twenty on day two. As it was, the training made the half marathon ridiculously easy and left me less hobbled after the 39.3 mile weekend than after either of my previous full marathons. 

People finish marathons and long races without training. But I know I did much better and was much less banged up thanks to the preparation. And if anyone tells you that you don’t need to have some back to back long runs as part of your training for an event like the Goofy, they may be idiots. ;-)

Ag