33 lbs = 33 minutes?

I've never done a full marathon, at least not in a competition. I've done a few half-marathons and also some runs ranging from 20 to 33 km.  The plan is to do a full marathon next autumn. Now, as I have mentioned before I'm a little bit overweight. I love my steak and a good desert, and when it comes to my diet, changing old habits has never been an option. What I could gain in terms of improved times/performance is simply not worth the sacrifice. Or so I thought, until a few days ago when I met guy who insisted that in terms of marathon time, one pound equals one minute. This means that each pound you carry, in excess of optimum body weight, slows you down one minute for the duration of a marathon. I understand that I'm some 33 pounds over my optimum weight. That's 33 minutes. More than half an hour. I never imagined it would be THAT much. I need to do some research to find out whether this actually true, but I must admit it really gives me something to chew on, while I eat my French-fries.

Read - and get fit!

I watched the Marcialonga on TV yesterday. It is a beautiful cross-country ski race in Italy, 70 km long, packed with some six thousand participants ranging from professionals to “twice-a-week skiers”.  I almost skied this race a few years ago, but had to pull out due to injury. My friends went and they absolutely loved the track, the atmosphere and the whole experience in general.

As I sat in front of the screen yesterday and watched the pros double pole up the last 2 km long hill – without any kick wax under their skis – I couldn’t help but think “these guys are not human”. To be able to do this is one thing, but to do it after battling though 68 km first is simply beyond my understanding.  I wondered how on earth one could get so extremely fit. Then I skipped training.

This has been my story for the past several years. I spend a couple of hours watching a marathon run or a ski race, or brief through a few chapters in one of the numerous books on training and racing that are out there, and the result is that I have to skip the training session for the day. The thing is that after work there are only so many hours available, and the kids need help with the homework, the living room doesn’t paint itself etc. If I spend my precious time on watching TV or reading, that means my training time is gone.

My friends used to tell me “you can’t read yourself into shape”.  That, however, is not always true. I did my first half-Ironman distance triathlon a few years ago. As I don’t have a proper coach, I had to make my own training plan for the season, and as I’m no expert on these things I soon found myself spending a lot of time reading through the triathlon literature. I soon found a book called The Triathlon Training Bible by Joe Friel and decided that this was what I needed to make a sound plan. This is a big book, loaded with information, so there was a lot of reading to be done and digested. I, therefore, made a decision to skip all training for the first two weeks of the training season, and use my time instead to read the book and create the plan for the rest of the season.  My friends thought I was mad, but my reasoning was: "my main race is almost a year away. I don’t have the time to both read and train every day so I’ll sacrifice two weeks of training to come up with a good training program" (one might ask “why didn’t you train right after work and then read the book in bed before going to sleep in the evening?” Answer: “If  I try to read in bed I pass out before I finish quarter of a page”).

This worked. I finished my first half-Ironman distance race in 5 hours and 46 minutes, which was way better than I expected. More importantly, I beat all my training buddies – for the first and, so far, only time. So don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot get fit by reading!

The right frame of mind

When I was a teenager I had big dreams about myself as a top level athlete of the future . I could picture myself winning big races and representing my country at the Olympics. I guess that’s quite normal for kids and teenagers. I  always trained with my best friend. Whether it was a looooong and slow session or a murderous interval training, we would run neck in neck. However, when it came to racing, he always beat me comfortably.

Fast forward a few years. My friend went to the Olympics,  while I ehmmm ... did not.  It didn’t hurt, honestly, because by that time I had discovered something about myself. I had realised that I didn’t have the necessary desire to sacrifice everything for my sport. I didn’t have the mental toughness to endure the pain you must go through to get the results. I simply didn’t want success bad enough. I still loved training – but rather for social reasons and for staying in shape, than to become a top-level athlete.

Today, twenty something years later, my friend has grown fat and bold and cannot even stand the thought of training or racing anymore. As for myself, I’m also fat and bold but I still remain active in running, triathlons and cross-country skiing. But I’m still stuck in the same place as I was in my teens when it comes to the desire to succeed.  Today, just as back in the old days, I tend to ease off when things start getting tough. If the weather gets too cold, I tend to find an excuse to stay at home rather than go out for a run. And during races, when my muscles scream for mercy, I tend to obey. “It’s just a game, who cares whether I’ll be no 2500 rather than 2300 on the results list?” That’s my reasoning and I always manage to convince myself to slow down.

However, after I cross the finish line, I usually wish I had pushed harder, because I know that physically I have it in me to do better. I usually get over these thoughts in 12 minutes or so, but occasionally they linger. I have googled some articles about mental training, even borrowed a book from the library, but so far to no avail. I would, therefore, be interested to hear from people who have had this same “problem” and found a solution.

My intro

Greetings and welcome to the Endurance Sports blog. The main focus here will be on running (including marathon, half marathon, mountain runs, wilderness runs etc), triathlon (including Ironman and half Ironman distances, as well as shorter distances and various formats such as winter triathlon, extreme triathlon etc) and cross-country skiing. We will look at the sports from various different angles, such as training, health, gear, introducing interesting races and so on.

I don't claim to have all the answers, I might actually have more questions than answers.  As for myself, I'm no expert or pro when it comes to sports. I've been active since I was a teenager (which was, frightening enough, some 30 years ago) - although never very successful. I'm still quite active, I train 4-6 days per week and although I'm not very competitive-minded, I actually love to participate in runs, triathlons and cross-country ski races whenever possible. However, I never have the patience to search far enough down the results lists to find my name!

Being slightly overweight (33 lbs/15 kg of excess luggage) I often wish I had a lighter frame to carry on my runs, but have never actually done much about it.

Anyway, I will be sharing my thoughts, experiences and questions here on this site. I also aim to post a list of links to interesting races all around the world - races that suit and welcome the average person just as much as the pro.