You gotta have faith

Marathon training has thrown me some curve balls, as expected.  It’s no surprise that the long runs have been really hard over the hot summer months.  The part that I didn’t anticipate was the huge mental effort required. 

Previous training for a 10 k or half marathon, it seemed like a fairly easy recipe to follow.  Add 2k to each weekend long run to increase the distance.  Mix in a bit of hills and a sprinkling of speed workouts during the week to strengthen. Kneed in some off weeks every 4^th week so you don’t over train and get injured and take time for a massage.  Allow your muscles time to heal and rest.  Bake for 8-10 weeks and presto, you’re ready for race day.

For me, it didn’t seem to require that much of a mental effort to get the recipe right when training for these shorter races.

So, naturally I figured that training for a full marathon distance of 42 k that you just follow the same recipe but over a longer period of time (16 weeks) and your long runs just get really long.    

I never gave any thought to how much mental effort was required and I feel I’ve underestimated.  Sure it’s taken quite a big physical effort throughout the training (but you expect that when striving for these distances); but the mental effort for me seems to be the hardest part of the mix.  Doubts, fear, race day anxiety and other negative thoughts that chip away at your confidence.

There’s a phrase I hear a lot as race days approach: “trust your training”.  It gets me thinking, that I don’t think I yet trust the training.  Maybe because I’ve had some tough struggles at not being able to complete some of the long runs and that idea seems to be stuck in my head.  If I can’t do the distance in training, how the heck am I going to on race day?

I’ve also read a few articles that some folks never do any really long distance runs in training for a marathon.  That idea seems too crazy and hard to accept.  But the concept is that what matters most is your base training.  How long have you been running prior to the marathon training, and having that good, solid base.  Benny has always suggested we run based on time and not worry about the distance.  The idea is that what is more important is “time spent running well” and time on your feet.  With this method you may never get to more than about 28 k in your longest run.  That’s a far cry from the 42 k you’ll be required to do on race day. You may need to go 14 k more than you have ever done before.  That’s a huge gap to bridge. 

So I try to cling to these ideas and try to remain hopeful that it I’ll be able to go the distance on race day. 

But still, the logical brain in me has a hard time accepting this as it goes against everything I’ve had to do in training for previous races.  Sure training for a half marathon distance of 22 k we only did 18 k in our longest run, but you only need to makeup 3 k on race day.  Anyone could crawl for an additional 3 k if you really needed to.  But crawling for an additional 14 k? 

So there’s my big mental hurdle I need to overcome and I’ve been assured by many marathoners that we’ll be fine.  I need to trust the training, trust Benny and his methods as he has successfully trained many successful marathoners in the past.  I need to have faith.

But faith is a strange thing.  I did a Google search on the word and found this definition; “Belief that is not based on proof.”  I also recall hearing someone say that faith is when everything is telling you one thing, but you believe in the opposite.  I’m also reminded of Indiana Jones (in The Last Crusade) and his leap of faith across the chasm where he must believe and he steps off the ledge into what appears to be just thin air, but lands safely.  And of course a favorite scripture from the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:7 which says “we walk by faith, and not by sight.” 

Faith is hard for my logical brain to accept.  Actually I think what I need to do is not listen to my logical part of my brain, as that is what is getting me into trouble.  This is a very hard thing for guys I think, as we’re very logical creatures. 

It’s been a long road, but I do have faith.  I have ifaith in God and the bible’s teachings.  And now I seem to be gaining faith in Benny and in the training.  We’re on the long taper now and just trying to remain strong in body and mind.   

My lesson in all this is that marathon training (like logic and reasoning in trying to understand Religious faith), will only get you so far.  To bridge the gap requires faith.