After several weeks of training for the big day I get to pop my marathon cherry I have learned a few things.
1. At first, when I started my training as soon as I would begin my runs I would perseverate on when my run would end and I could stop running.
2. Eventually running became tolerable and then I was simply bored.
3. As my fitness progressed I found that running was a great time to plan out my life (i.e. short term goals, long term goals, what I would eat for dinner, what I would wear to work the next day, etc.). In essence, I found a cure for boredom. However, I still questioned why anyone would run when you could ride a bike.
I found myself constantly comparing the two sports. All the while, I stuck to my grounds of “not being a runner”…I ride a bike, not run. However, I began to view myself as sort of undercover endurance runner. I sought after training tips as if I was a running anthropologist living amongst tribal jogging junkies.
After weeks of logging miles and studying this two-legged culture, I have come to the following conclusions:
1. Endurance running is merely training yourself to physically and mentally endure an annoying level of discomfort. Similar to blocking out the noise of a crying baby or a persistent clicking pen cap. The days I manage to escape this annoyance and block it out, I am locked in and in the zone, I feel the rhythm.
2. Bike racing, on the other hand, is a game of offensive and defensive moves. At times the rhythmic, effortless, fluid pedal cadence can make you feel one with the road and with your machine; enhancing your comfort.
However, at times the suffering I endure on a bike is like nothing short of child birth (so I’ve heard). It’s the up and downs that appeal to me.
3. Many times, during a bike race, I have been shoved face first with an atomic wedgie into the pain locker. So far in my running experiences, I have never even entered the room the pain locker is kept. I have simply stood outside the door blocking out a crying baby, some nails on a chalkboard, a siren in the distance, and an alarm clock that won’t go off.
The unfortunate side of all of this is that I have a bad case of “cycling burn out”. It seems this plague has struck harder than any other end of the season. Currently, I am most excited about the marathon and the extremely mediocre result I plan on posting rather than the Tour de Leelenau, a UCI Pro Cycling event. Rest easy, winter months coupled with the W.R.C.S. are proven medicines for this tragic illness.
