Underprepared 2.0

A few weeks ago I had written how I felt underprepared for a 10k I participated in. I didn’t think I was (obviously not, I mean I did PR – yahoo!) but I sure felt that way. Even though I had been following my training plan, I guess I was just nervous because it was the longest distance I had covered in months.

And tomorrow, I’ll be throwing down twice that with a half-marathon I signed up for on a whim.

But where I felt underprepared for that 10k, for this half – I actually am underprepared.

I haven’t ran anything in over a week (I have done a few other workouts though) and my longest run so far has been an 8 miler (done about 3 weeks ago). If you’ll look over most training plans circulating the internets they have you run at least one 10-miler and yeah, uh, oops.

I thought about bailing. (I couldn’t really since I have a friend running with me. Hi Courtney!) And who knows, I may get to mile 8 and just can’t go anymore, but I’m still going to go for it. If I didn’t, I think I’d really just be disappointed in myself. But I have no intention of trying to push the hell out of myself to PR. When I said I was going to run a marathon I planned on killing my training schedule, just knocking that shit right out of the park but other things have taken priority (one of the reasons I’ve been fairly absent around here) and like I said, the past couple weeks have been a struggle for me emotionally & physically. All of the races I’m participating in up until the big 26.2 are on my schedule with the understanding that they should be handled as a training run. (Just, like one with 300 other people.) Even though when I step up to that starting line the little bit of competitiveness I do have surges forward and I want to smash any of my old times.

This time last year I had just finished my first half in Vegas and completely stoked about it. Crazy where a year can take you. It almost feels like I’ve been lazy with my training simply because I know my body is capable of running 13.1 miles already.

I feel like this race tomorrow is going to be a massive failure on my running ego, but I’m still excited for it. Weird, right? It’s supposed to be in the 40s but with the wind chill, low 30s and for this Texas girl, that’s going to be um, interesting. Hopefully the rain will stay far, far away but even if doesn’t - been there, done that.

So, here’s to me – admitting my faults as a runner and saying, “Fucking shit. Sometimes I suck at running…and pig & cow shaped pancakes. Definitely suck at those.”