Skipping Workouts Like It's My Job

I’m back. And for those that wonder where I’ve been, to be brutally honest, my blogging is directly related to my training. Now I’m not saying that my training is completely non-existent like my posts, but the intensity and commitment are at about 50% of where they were during Ironman training. I’m ok with this though.

I spent six months of this year dedicated to one thing and one thing only. I skipped countless happy hours, watched what I ate, and passed on way too many other fun activities. So now I’m taking a much more laid back approach. If I feel like forgoing a workout to play soccer, so be it. If I have to rearrange my run because of a spontaneous happy hour with friends, great. And if I want to eat six Subway cookies in one sitting because I have a terrible sweet tooth, don’t judge me. I still hit my long runs and most of my speed work. It’s just those pesky low-intensity and minimal-reward runs that I tend to leave out.

Which brings me to today – approximately four and a half weeks away from the big race. As you may remember, I said that I would spend the better part of a year attempting to qualify for Boston. I conservatively planned to shave a few minutes off my marathon time each month and figured it would take a few tries before completing the goal. But in reality, I have bigger and bolder goals planned for 2011 and as difficult as success will be, I’ll still be disappointed if I don’t qualify for Boston at the Marine Corp Marathon.

But ultimately, as frustrated as I may be with myself, I can’t be too upset because as a good friend recently told me – I shouldn’t get too sucked into endurance training and neglect other aspects of my life or miss out on some of the other passions and goals.

Hopefully I won’t have to do this but in case I do fail on October 31, I’ll look back to this post to remember all the other activities and fun I had when I could have been training:

Soccer - it wreaks havoc on my legs and body but those bumps and bruises are well worth it
Beach Volleyball – easily the best way to spend an entire weekend afternoon
Happy Hours – sometimes it’s either feast of famine but it’s always nice to catch up with friends
College Football – so trivial but so nice to waste an entire Saturday in front of the tube and have no regrets
Vacation – Greensboro, Virginia Beach, Boston, San Diego, Las Vegas; six places I couldn’t really visit during Ironman training
Sweets – during the beginning of this 50% marathon training, I didn’t exactly focus on getting too many “well balanced” meals