sticking to your plan

First the technical details of the run. Todays run was considered a medium/long run. For us Novice Marathoners that weighs in at 11km (don't worry - this Friday is still going to be 15km). The thing is we were supposed to run 4km of it at half marathon pace.

I have no idea what half marathon pace is, but I assume it is a bit faster than normal training pace. So the first 3km of my run I ran at a faster pace. I ran it at about 5:50/km. Overall I ran the 11km a bit slower than my average. My average pace tonight was 7:14/km. I was tired and unmotivated, so I ran slower...

I intended to run early this morning (Wednesday), but it did not work out because I had to go in to work early. So I ran Wednesday night instead. Let me tell you, when you wake up early and run, it increases your energy for the whole day. When you wake up early and do not run, you get tired very early.

So I was pretty tired. And I was not motivated tonight. I was thinking to myself I am too tired to run, maybe in the morning instead, maybe I'll just skip this one - no big deal, etc. Then I decided I have a plan and I have to stick with it. You skip one run, maybe it is not a big deal. Then you start skipping more runs and all of the sudden you are way behind in the training. It took a lot of will power to get myself going when not so motivated, and especially to run a difficult route, but I did it.

If you have a plan, a long term plan, there will be ups and downs. There will be times when it is easy and fun, and there will be times where you will not want to do it - it will be hard, tiring and not fun. You have to stick to your plan in order to hit the finish line and meet your goal, even during the tougher days.