Week 11 of the training plan is finished. It was a 50 miles week. Sunday’s long run was 20 miles. I have never run that far in my life. It actually felt pretty good. Last week’s 19 miles killed me. This week I was tired (it was 20 miles), but also felt strong the whole way. I keep thinking that after the taper, and the added rest right before the marathon, I should be feeling pretty good.
Only 47 more days until the Marathon. I’m still going to have to figure out my fueling. Sunday’s run was at 4 pm. I was able to eat during the day and drink plenty of water, so I felt I went into the run fueled up and hydrated. The marathon is at 7:30am. I’m thinking about keeping snacks around the night before the race so that I can munch something during the night when I get up to go potty. I also need to make my breakfast big enough, and I will have a Powerbar with me to eat right before the start. I also want to experiment with eating more Gu during the run. On the 20 miler I only had two (at miles 9.5 and 14.5). I’m going to try one every half an hour and see how that feels.
Looking ahead, I have an easy week (34 miles), followed by another 50 miles week, followed by another 34 mile week, and then the final 50 miles week. Hopefully my legs will adapt to the long week (and the long run) and they will become more manageable. I would like to take one of those long runs and try and run the second half closer to marathon pace. But then again, I don’t want to push too much and risk injury. I’ll have to see how I feel.
I also started a new class this week. At CGU I’m auditing a class: The Idea of Love. And for NBC I’ve started teaching a World Religion class. Both are keeping me busy. The Love class is going to be good (but a boat-load of reading). As a matter of fact, this week there were some ideas that stuck out. We are looking at Plato’s idea of love as erros. One of the readings is The Symposium. The other readings look closer at this piece by Plato. I’m still thinking, but the idea of love being a restlessness that keeps us seeking more is intriguing. It is a drive, a desire for what we lack. In the Symposium, Plato develops this thought, ultimately coming to the conclusion that what we seek is the beautiful, the good. We sense these things are lacking in ourselves and so we seek them in others, and then ultimately we realize that what we really seek is a beauty that is more than mere physical beauty, but a beauty that is beyond time and change.
There is a sense that it is this lack, this yearning for what we don’t have, that gives us insight into what our true self really is. We don’t long for what we have. We don’t desire to become what we already are. We long for what we don’t have. We desire to become what we are not. It is our lack that shows us what we desire. It is our desire that drives us. It is love that orients our desire. Love is our guide, leading us out of ourselves, bringing us to the new. Thomas Hardy (one of readings this week) says, “Ultimately this means that what we love is our self, our own unfulfilled self. What we desire in all our striving is our own eternal reality.”
I think it is this idea of the “unfulfilled self” that I love about running. There is a sense that there is something fulfilling about the unfulfillment running brings. Each run is new. And with each new run, there is always the next run. And with each next run there is always the potential of getting better, of achieving just a little more, of realizing just a little more of my true self. When I run, I sense my own lack. I desire to fill that. I also know that it will never truly be filled (at least not in this life). That’s what keeps me coming back to the run. Each one is filled with potential and possibility that can never be exhausted. I seek to actualize my true self with each mile I run; and in that act I also discover new a picture of my unfulfilled self, one that I have yet to reach.
Anyway, like I said, I’m still thinking about this. These are only a few things that sprung into my head as I was running this week after doing some of the reading.
| Week 11 | Run | Ride | Strength/Core | |
| Monday | Rest | 25 miles | ||
| Tuesday | 5 miles easy @ 8:30 pace | 25 miles | 30 minutes | |
| Wednesday | 10 miles easy @ 8:24 pace | |||
| Thursday | 5 miles easy @ 8:26 pace | 30 minutes | ||
| Friday | Rest | |||
| Saturday | 10 miles @ 8:33 | 30 minutes | ||
| Sunday | 20 miles @ 8:32 | |||
| Total Run | 50 miles | |||
| Total Ride | 50. | |||
johnagrant 