Mach3Multisport.com

I had lunch with a friend the other day, one of those friends you always need to catch up with but only get to twice a year because you have ten kids and they have a job. Lunch turns into a two-hour gab-fest and you leave with a smile and a head full of stories. Good times.

This particular friend is a two-time Ironman finisher. She knows of my status as two-time Ironman AZ defending DNF-er and still likes me. It takes a lot to put up with my failure, and she does it well. She said something that made me think, though. Not just when she said it, but on the drive home and at home and over dinner and the next morning. Consider all my distractions and that’s a truly lasting statement.

Talking over my most recent marathon (and tearing up a sandwich and chips), she said between bites, “You run fast in short races (witness my swelling pride, my beaming smile, my totally about-to-be blindsided stupidity), your marathon times should be much faster”.

I began to nod, not really hearing the last part for a beat. Then I stopped and started mumbling something about how I had some hip pain and the roads were banked and… in short, I made a bunch of excuses. But, good friends have the ability to see through bullshit (and unknown-to-the-wearer transparent shirts- whew, thanks for the nice save Michelle!). What, then, has kept my marathon times so … slow?

I could almost hear the answer before I asked my husband – so I guess I did know that I should be going faster (and apparently he had noticed as well). The reason for me not being able to translate a 22 minute 5K into a 3:45 marathon is (drumroll please): I never trained for that speed. My training has been straight miles, no tempo runs, sprints, fartleks, or track workouts.

I have been sabotaging myself by thinking that just running the miles would give me speed. It took an off-hand comment by a casual observer (and coincidentally a trusted friend to boot) to make me realize I’ve been training HARD, but not SMART.

A changed woman am I! I’m spending the summer setting up IMAZ training (IMAZ is November 23) with a goal of finishing. My secondary goal is to train smart and get my body ready to do the best it can do – not just survive the miles (in this case 140.6 of them), but make the most of whatever natural ability I might have. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to see what I can do.

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