Marathon Training Week 6: Wife Hijacks the Blog with a Little Q & A

This week was a step-back week 3-5-3 with a 7 miler on Saturday. I cross trained instead of running on Thursday to rest my shins. All the while, my wife had been (lovingly) complaining that my blog posts might be getting a little predicatable. (Rest day, short run, long run, aches, pains...) So I made her come up with a better idea for this week's post. She suggested asking me questions about my marathon training and I will answer honestly. Here goes:

Q.You have been struggling a lot with aches and pains during your training. Have you wanted to quit?
A. No. (Wife Blog Hijacker and anyone who knows Rob should not be surprised by this answer.) I haven't wanted to quit, but I have wondered if I would be able to continue increasing my mileage.

Q. How in the world do you get up at 6am on Saturday mornings for your group runs?
A. The group makes it easier that I'm not doing a long run by myself. Actually the large group is really made up of smaller groups. I am in the 9 minute milers group. We are like a little fraternity. (Misery loves company!) It's not like I'm the only one out there, so if I don't show up, others are affected too.

Q. What do you do when you have to pee during a run?
A. I haven't had to yet. But I have heard that in most long races there are porta-potties. I'm civilized. I will use them. Note: For those that are further interested in this topic, there is a YouTube video of Paula Radcliffe, female winner of the London Marathon who had to pee mid-race. If you so choose, you will see that she did not use the proper facilities. When you gotta go, you gotta go I suppose. Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6I2-YP42rs)
(Wife Blog Hijacker: Apparently when becoming a marathoner causes you to lose your dignity.)

Q. What do you eat the night before a long run?
A. I'm not one of those runners that thinks the meal before affects your run. (This comes as great disappointment to Wife Blog Hijacker, who would only consider running great distances in order to take advantage of the giant pre-race spaghetti dinner.) I generally eat whatever I want, but try to eat a little less. And I don't snack after dinner. Which is close to impossible for me.

Q. What is your favorite piece of training equipment you have purchased?
A. Teaser: I will post more about marathon training paraphanalia in a later posting, but I would have to say my favorite is my new watch.


Q. What do you think about when you are running?
A. I'm not a good enough runner to think about anything other than running. Or not dying. I'm constantly calculating how far I've gone in both distance and time, and how far I have left to go. On Saturdays in my group runs, I think about how far I have to the next water stop. I also think about my shins. (WBH: apologizes for how boring these answers are. This guy is hard core. I kept asking, "Don't you think about what you are going to eat when you are done? Do you sing "We Are The Champions" in your head? Do you pretend someone is chasing you?" I didn't want readers to think I didn't try. He's really just this dull, errr, focused when it comes to his brain on runs.)

Q. Why don't you listen to music during your runs?
A. I sweat too much. I would sweat the ear buds off. (WBH: "Gross.")

Q. At this point, would you ever consider training for/running another marathon??
A. I'm withholding judgement until I finish my first. Aside from the shin pain, it has been an awesome experience. (WBH: Go Rob!)