Throwing my Hat Over the Fence...and the 60-minute workouts

Joy here...Back in November 2010 I introduced you all to the phrase "Throwing my Hat over the Fence," a phrase I hadn't heard before meeting my husband.  Simply put:  if you throw your hat over the fence, well, you have to go and get it.  So if you're delaying doing something, just take that first step (throwing your hat over the fence) and then you'll just have to do that second step (going and getting it).

So back then I threw my metaphorical hat over the fence and signed up for Hamilton's famous Around the Bay race, a 30km running race, the oldest running race in North America (yes, it's older than the Boston Marathon).  I pulled off that event (barely) back at the end of March on minimal training and leftover fitness from my fall half marathon.  But I did it.  The important thing (for me) is that I've now run 30kms; it wasn't super fast (around 3 hrs), and it hurt a fair bit, but I'm proud of myself nonetheless.

My next half marathon: May 27, 2012.

Now it's time for me to pick up that hat again and throw it over another fence.  I've now signed up for my 3rd half marathon.  This one is the last weekend in May, during Ottawa's "Race Weekend."  The end of May 2012 will mark exactly 2 years since I ran my first ever running race, and so I'm hoping to have a good half marathon, one that feels more like my first half marathon in October 2010 rather than my second half marathon in May 2011.

But lately, all I've been able to pull off are 60-minute workouts - 60 minute skis, 60 minute runs, 60 minutes on the trainer/spin bike, 60 minutes with the trainer - and I'm worried.  I wanted to be up to 90-minute runs by the end of January, but with all the snow and ice around here, I haven't been able to get out there and build up my times.  And I feel rather bad about that.

You know, it's rather like we think that once we've achieved a certain level, no matter what it is, we'll always be there as our baseline, and anything else must - somehow by definition - be a move forward.  Whether we finish a PhD or run 30kms, we always lure ourselves into the false sense that we'll always have the mental acuity that we had at our doctoral defence, and only get better and sharper with time; or that if we've run 30kms once, we'll always be able to do at least that, if not more.  But the truth of the matter is quite different.  Whether our journey is a mental or physical one (and most often the two are deeply connected), it has its ups and downs, its peaks and valleys.  And the important thing to remember is that your baseline might not be PhD-defense type intellectual sharpness nor 30km running distance, but with each accomplishment, your baseline does move forward ever-so-slightly.

I may not be as intellectually on the ball as I was when I finished my PhD, but I'm certainly more intellectually sharp than when I started it.  The shine may have dulled a bit, but the metal is still good quality.

I may not be as in shape as I was when I finished my first half marathon or managed to survive 30ksm, but I'm certainly able to run 10kms with ease.

Life's peaks and valleys.  Just try to get those valleys shallower and shallower, rather than hoping
to spend all your time up there on the peaks!

Just sticking' to those 60-minute workouts, until, suddenly,
they'll be longer!

And so...what do I do with that?  I realize that to get back up to a good half marathon training plan, I just have to start with those base-line 10kms, those 60-minute workouts.  If that's all I have time, patience, and fitness for these days, well, I can remember when 60-minute workouts were an impossibility.  The fact that my baseline is 10kms these days means that I'm so far ahead of what I was capable of only 5 short years ago when I went for my first run and lasted 9 minutes.  So I'm taking a moment to remind myself that my workouts this week (60 minutes on the trainer in my basement on Wednesday, 60 minutes of spinning on Thursday morning, and 60 minutes of strength training with the trainer on Thursday afternoon) represents such a step beyond what my baseline used to be that I should be proud of that instead of think of the peaks as somehow the gauge or the measure of my fitness.  What matters now is that the valleys get shallower and shallower, not that I stay up there at the peaks all the time.

And for that...I just need to hang on to these 60-minute workouts until they become 70-minute workouts, and then 80-minute workouts and so on...

Over and out,
Joy