Rolling With the Punches When Training for the Marathon

It is Memorial Day weekend, a 3 day weekend for many of us.  Today is also the 24th running of the Los Angeles Marathon!  So I thought this would be an outstanding weekend of running, training and motivation!

Zzzzzz...but I'm TIRED!

Ah well, I tried to get my long run up to 1 hour, 15 minutes yesterday, but just didn't have it in me! :<

LIFE kind of gets in the way.  I've got 3 and 6 year old boys and they are quite a handful.  We've had a great weekend, full of fun activities.  But I've been tired.  They seem to have this sixth sense...wake up at 6 a.m. on weekends but on school days sleep like a rock.  And make sure to wake up 2 or 3 times during the night for various reasons.

So as a full-time dad, full-time provider for the family and part-time marathon runner, I roll with the punches, step back and realize that I ain't gonna feel perky, peppy an energetic all the time.

I can set training goals but I'm not going to meet them all the time.  In fact, these days, I don't meet my goals more often than not!

It is frustrating.  But I do have the hindsight of running 24 previous marathons to know that, you can't force your body to do something it isn't willing to do.

So what else can you do about these training impediments?  PLAN for them!  Yes, place enough time in your schedule for the unforeseen to occur.  Plan for the unplannable and you will succeed in meeting your marathon goals.