Lessons learned (so far)

Route: St Kilda beach run (Saturday); Park St cycle path (Monday); Capital City Trail plus a massive detour (Wednesday)

Distance: 16.25km; 8km; 13km? (95.63km total)

Time: 1 hr, 55 mins; 45 mins; 1 hr, 45 mins (10 hrs, 22 mins total)

I have twin goals for the next four weeks: the submission of my honours thesis on 1 July and the Run Melbourne half-marathon on 17 July. I thought each would provide a welcome distraction from the other, but as the weeks have ticked on I’ve found they’re surprisingly similar.

Here are my reflections as I near crunch-time:

The finish line always seems impossibly far
Four months ago, 21km was an insane distance. I wasn’t sure I could make it. Likewise, writing a thesis seemed like something only suckers-for-punishment would do.

Neither can be completed in one hit
Training for a long distance run involves many shorter runs. In much the same way, writing a thesis requires a huge number of smaller writing sessions. Some are fantastic: you feel like you could run/write forever. Others suck and you feel like you achieved nothing.

Repetition, repetition, repetition
Related to the above point. There’s only so many ways you can spice up the same old running route, or be interested in the chapter you’ve rewritten five times.  There’s no way around it other than to put your head down and keep going.

Routine is essential
It’s easy to have a vague goal in mind. Making and sticking to a plan is a lot harder. Setting days each week, where you know you’ll dedicate a certain amount of hours to running/writing, makes you confident you’re working towards your goal. It also eases the guilt that comes when you finally take a break.

The numbers become an obsession
How many kms did I run today? What’s my total this week? How many words did I write today? How many did I delete? How many more to go?

It feels like you’re getting nowhere, until you suddenly have a break-through
There’s nothing quite like trudging through a bad long run, then realising you went further or faster than you ever had before. Except maybe the feeling of reading a thesis chapter you worked on the night before, and realising it’s 100 times better than you thought when you were tired and fed-up. Those are the awesome moments when you remember why you set the goal in the first place.

The final weeks require patience and trust
Suddenly the finish line seems close, but not close enough. Patience is essential, it’ll be here soon enough.

And, when last-minute nerves hit: ‘have I done enough?’ or  ‘Should I have done more?’, it helps to reflect on your months of preparation. I’m trusting (and desperately hoping!) my work will pay off.

They make you think: “If I can do this, what else can I do?”
I was pretty sure I’d run the half-marathon distance once and then return to much shorter races.  I also began my thesis sure it would be the longest thing I’d ever write.

And here I am signed up for a marathon and contemplating a PhD. Go figure.

What goals have you smashed? What did you learn along the way?

Training summary over the past ten days

Long run: Saturday 12 June. 16.5km, 1 hr 55 mins.  Longest run yet! Felt positive even though it draaaaaaagged.

First group run: Great session with Meghan and Matt. I’ve been doing so many long, slow runs, it was nice to remind myself I can go faster when need be! I reckon these speed demons will be a good influence on me.

12km middle-week run: First half = relentless hills. Second half = lost on a dirt trail. Two hours of pain. Notes to self: when trying a new route, take a map. And, if you look at the altitude graph before you leave and think ‘woah that’s insanely steep’, you should probably consider another path.  Lesson learned.

Next run: Saturday 18 June. 110 mins.