Welcome to the mid-week publication, your 3-minute read where I delve into matters on and off the track. This week I navigate into the mental paradigm around my training.
This is your new normal. This is your new and current “Easy” pace.
Mentally, I’m just not there yet, but I’m working on it.
If you haven’t noticed, we’re in Week 8 of 2025 and I’m just 33 weeks out from the start of my official Marathon Build whereupon I will team up with Coach Brown for her expert guidance and mentorship. From there it will be a 16 week build to the Mesa Marathon where I will make an attempt to Qualify for Boston with a time of 3hrs 15min.
I wish I could say that when this idea of a BQ infected my mind in the Summer of 2024 I knew I could do it. That wasn’t the case, the idea hit hard and stuck, however the reality of running a 3:15 Marathon seemed near to impossible for my mind to accept. That’s a 7’26” pace for a Marathon! I nearly DNF’d my first ever Marathon in November of 2022 with a time of 5:54 and my redemption Marathon in November 2023 fell long of my 4-hour goal by 19 minutes.
I can’t think of the last time I ran two miles under 15 minutes. It was over a decade ago, in another life, when I was a professional Soldier; a Paratrooper. Even then, I could only sustain that pace for up to 10 miles and never any further.
Fast forward to present day and I have to mentally accept that I will be faster and stronger at 45 than I was at 25. It still doesn’t make any sense in my head, but here we are.
Throughout the last 75 days of training I’ve lost nearly 20lbs and my “easy pace” continues to get faster and faster. Just yesterday I ran 3.83 miles with Carlos at an average pace of 9’10” and it felt incredibly easy. Our fastest mile was 8’40” and even though I could have easily stepped it out to an 8’15” without issue.
This is your new normal.
I’m mentally accepting the fact that running at 8’30” is now an “easy” pace as indicated by my heart rate, breathing and overall feeling in my legs and back.
Throughout the run I just keep repeating in my head. “This is your easy pace, this is your easy pace.”
I’m finding now that when I lace up to start a run, my mind is now making all of the calculations based on an 8’00” mile. That’s my next “easy” pace and I keep focusing my thoughts and intentions to reach that pace and then maintain it. I’m willing it into acceptance, acceptance that I can run that fast and I will on my next run.
The mind is extremely powerful.
I know I must run faster. I know it will take time. I know how to condition my body to meet those goals.
Regardless of all that knowledge, the thought of running 7-minute miles again seems far reached and the questions of doubt start entering my mental space.
Have I bitten off more than I can chew?
Am I in over my head on this goal?
How many times in history has someone improved their Marathon time by over an hour between races?
Will I have the physical strength and capacity to accomplish this great feat?
When these doubtful questions arise, I simply shrug them off and say “We’ll See” and keep showing up for my weekly runs and weekend long runs.
I’ve got to “trust the process”.
While I may not trust my own mind, I can trust in the process of periodization and training. Trust that the day to day effort, the meal to meal discipline and good fortune will find me and culminate in a Boston Qualifying finish.
The only thing worse than quitting, is not even trying.