Last week was Week 1 of my NYC Marathon Training Plan.
I’m proud to say that I completed every prescribed mile. I was slower than molasses (19-20 min/mi pace), but I got them all done.
The toughest was this weekend’s long run.
The run itself wasn’t bad, I was actually kind of surprised how easy the 6 miles actually were, then again I was power walking at the prescribed 20 min/mi pace. What was tough was doing the run in the context of the rest of the weekend.
In the last year I picked up a new hobby: The Pokemon Trading Card Game. And I don’t just play, I play competitively. I’m also a judge and league leader, but that is beside the point.
Over the weekend there was a pair of tournaments in Tampa, and I went with some of my friends. The problem is Tampa is a 2+ hour drive, and tournaments are usually 5+ hours long (between registration/check in and the end of the final round). So in order to get that 6 mile run in, I had to get up at 4am so I could be done and showered in time to meet up with my friends to drive to the tournament.
Let me tell you, running at 4 am is precisely 0 fun. But I had to do it because 1) I wasn’t about to fail to stick to the plan in week one. 2) My friend had promised to take me to breakfast on our way to pick up the other person who was coming to the tournament with us. 3) This same friend threatened to not drive me to the tournament if I didn’t get the run done. So I had no choice.
To say it was an exhausting weekend would be putting it lightly. I was so tired on Saturday that I didn’t do well in the tournament. I made a lot of mistakes and misplays because I wasn’t thinking clearly.
Sunday was a different story. I did really well on Sunday, placing 19th out of 60+ competitors, making it the best I’ve ever done at an upper level tournament.
But the exhaustion of the weekend has caught up to me today. Its noon and I still haven’t gotten out of bed. I need to go for today’s 3 mile run. But I’m just so completely unmotivated that I’m writing this post instead of going out for my run.
I’ll get the run done at some point. I just need to find the motivation.