Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Perspective

Sometimes your perspective changes on things. For example, what constitutes a date night. 

It used to be you spent days picking out your outfit, and tons of time getting ready, and being nervous about what you were going to talk about.

When you're married, it's throwing a dress on five minutes before you leave and going across the street to get the most delicious Eggplant Parmesan I've ever eaten.
We had big plan of watching Glee after, but the DVR wasn't working, so our plans got even more exciting.....

Shopping for a new trash can AND laundry basket!

When I said throw on a dress, obviously I meant over my Aspaeris Pivot Compression shorts


I'm really glad I'm married because sometimes I think about how much I would fail on a first date.

Last night Carolyn invited me to a sneak preview of 50/50. This was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time, I highly recommend everyone cancel or rearrange your plans this weekend and go the second you finish work on Friday.
Considering this movie is a true story about the main character's battle with cancer, it gave me some perspective on my whining about my workday woes. 

It apparently didn't give my fellow movie-goers the same perspective. There was some sort of technical difficultly, and everyone started yelling and booing at the people in charge, because God forbid they are interrupted while watching a movie they paid a whopping $0.00 for.

We had to watch the scene where the main character first goes to chemo three times. Really, he was the lucky one. The people on the other side of the screen had to rewatch something they had already watched, not once but twice, then wait nearly five minutes while they fixed it. I haven't even told you the worst part yet though. During those not even five minutes, we weren't allowed to use our phones, because it was a sneak preview! Now it's clear why the guy getting chemo was the lucky one, right? I mean, can you even imagine going through that? No wonder people were completely throwing hissy fits.

Saturday, I listed all my mile splits so you could all be super impressed with how my speed decreased throughout the run. My awesome friend Mike emailed me saying he graphed them all. He totally changed my perspective on listing splits. This is way more user friendly.
And who doesn't love graphs?


Lastly, several people have asked me if my upcoming marathon seems like nothing, because I've ran as many 50Ks as I have marathons (2 of each - didn't that sound hardcore though?) and I'm training for a 50 mile race. 

Um, hell no. The marathon is huge. 26.2 miles is still a long freakin way to run.

My perspective on distance has changed to some  extent. I clearly remember being ready to give up on half marathon training the first time I was supposed to run seven miles, because I honestly thought that was too far and I couldn't run it. Last week, a 7 mile run was my shortest workout.

Now that I've done more 20+ mile runs, they don't seem as scary. But, they still seem pretty far, and I do still get some anxiety about running that long.

Still, I don't feel any less intimidated by the marathon coming up. I'm tapering for this marathon, and I'm not using it for a training race. Unless I don't do well, in which case, it will have been "just a training race", and I'll delete this post, if necessary.

Part of the reason is a 50K, for me, does not feel like crossing the finish line of a marathon, then running five more miles. It's a totally different experience, start to finish. In a marathon, you're gunning for a good time, and running hard with very little breaks. In my 50Ks, not that it's been easy, but it was more about enjoying the experience, chatting with the friends I'm with, and it's so much more relaxed. I'd maybe compare it to taking a traditional class vs. taking a pass/fail class? Either way you want to pass, but how you get there when your grade counts requires a lot more hard work. As far as the 50  miler affecting how I feel about the marathon, running 50 miles is just ridiculous. I'm not even thinking about that yet.

Maybe if I run like 10 marathons it will seem like no big deal, but I'm definitely not to that point yet!

16 comments:

  1. i think you and kara should wear a shirt that says "this is just a training run for me [bitches]!!" during your marathon. all the puzzled marathoners will ask you why and you can say "oh, i'm training for a 50 miler". you'll look ridiculously hardcore and may even get a few blank stares!

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  2. I'm pretty sure my date nights would be very simialar to yours. ahhhh...the thought of going through the first date thing again scares the crap out of me. I have been teaching charts and graphs the past few days at school...maybe I should use your examples!? haha.

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  3. "i'll delete this post if necessary." I'm going to cache this post so it's here forever!

    I LOVE graphs!

    Your date night looks like Mike and my dates, though I usually wear a long dress so I can sneak calf sleeves in there too.

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  4. Isn't it funny how our perspective changes? I was actually thinking this morning about a time I was training for the Las Vegas Marathon in 2007. I had an 8 mile run which ended at Mile 5 in tears because the 8 was too intimidating. I wonder if I will cry in this training cycle when I have to do a 5 hour run. Ha. Oy.

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  5. Perspective really is funny when you train for endurance events. During last week's 17 miler, when we got to 7.5 miles I was like "Dude! Guys! Less than 10 miles to go."

    Everybody may or may not have glared at me.

    P.S. Super dark chocolate isn't really a sweet in my opinion. Just an FYI for your pre-race prep thing.

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  6. Perspective really is everything. I'm still at the point where a 7 mile run seems so far! I'm excited for the day that I am training for a marathon or 50K and that's my short run.

    Date night really is all about perspective. I mean, how much time did we waste getting ready for dates in our teen years?

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  7. I appreciate that you still think marathons are huge :) I have not yet put that into my realm of possibility haha.

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  8. I'm so glad to hear that seven miles used to scare the crap out of you crazy runners. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one struggling to train for NINE miles!

    I've never not failed at dating. Hence...I'm single! Wee!Why must people complain so much?! I know people on Facebook who do nothing but complain. Sometimes I want to retaliate and yell at them, but then I remember I can just unfriend them and never have to read it again.

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  9. I can understand how the two would be completely different experiences, but the marathon distance even now seems crazy to me so your 50 miler I still can't even really comprehend .
    Date night for me = a little makeup, if he's lucky. You put on a dress? Compression shorts or no, that is seriously special, ha!

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  10. Date night? What's that?

    Marathons are huge. So are 20 mile runs. It's not supposed to feel easy. Ever.

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  11. I love that Eric takes pictures with you for the blog. :)

    50/50 looks really good.

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  12. Graphs are good! Now, for your next homework assignment, fit a straight line through the data points!

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  13. 1. I have that laundry basket AND that picture frame (but with my wedding pictures in it, not yours)
    2. I love the pace graph and I am envisioning the line of best fit. Can I borrow that idea for my next long run? I also love the clip of Marshall.
    3. Marathons still scare me. But I am becoming more comfortable with the half (which is not even close!)

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  14. I really want to see 50/50 but I get choked up at the commercials!! I think I will bawl!

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  15. I am substantially more intimidated by racing a marathon than running another 50K, or even another 50-Miler. My goal in the ultras is to finish, but my goal in the marathons is to push close to my own aerobic limit -- the latter is more intimidating to me. That's why I did two ultras in a row this summer (well, a week apart), and no marathons at all this summer or autumn.

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  16. besides the glitch, did 50/50 make you cry like HARD? I was so uncomfortable in the theatre, because I don't think I have ever made so much crying noise in a movie, ever (except 127 hours). I love JGL so, so much.

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Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.