I would argue this is the BEST training run you've ever had. It prepared and changed you more than any other workout you've done. Enjoyable? Hardly. But the bang for your training buck? Mountains. You did not squander this unfun workout - you capitalized on it. And that investment is going to stay with you, not just on November 16, but forever. You wouldn't have been mad at yourself for the rest of the day for quitting. You would have remembered that you quit for a very very long time - maybe forever. You are made of the stuff!
Sydney, thank you! Your writing is so brutally honest. I've had days like yours when there were multiple "valid" reasons not to run. My 1/2 marathon training workouts are much shorter than your marathon workouts, but on Sundays, at our Blue Sky training, I see you week after week run whatever miles Dana gives you. As my miles increase, I will remember that you still went out there a day early, without your normal fueling, in the dark and RAIN and ran more than 20 miles! And it was miserable. And you did it.
It's a struggle to find that line between "good for me but feels bad" and "bad for me and feels bad". I think pushing yourself like this is the only way you can learn that stuff, and it takes incredible courage! Now you know the difference between wanting to quit and actually injuring yourself; so you can go so much further than before.
I would argue this is the BEST training run you've ever had. It prepared and changed you more than any other workout you've done. Enjoyable? Hardly. But the bang for your training buck? Mountains. You did not squander this unfun workout - you capitalized on it. And that investment is going to stay with you, not just on November 16, but forever. You wouldn't have been mad at yourself for the rest of the day for quitting. You would have remembered that you quit for a very very long time - maybe forever. You are made of the stuff!
Sydney, thank you! Your writing is so brutally honest. I've had days like yours when there were multiple "valid" reasons not to run. My 1/2 marathon training workouts are much shorter than your marathon workouts, but on Sundays, at our Blue Sky training, I see you week after week run whatever miles Dana gives you. As my miles increase, I will remember that you still went out there a day early, without your normal fueling, in the dark and RAIN and ran more than 20 miles! And it was miserable. And you did it.
It's a struggle to find that line between "good for me but feels bad" and "bad for me and feels bad". I think pushing yourself like this is the only way you can learn that stuff, and it takes incredible courage! Now you know the difference between wanting to quit and actually injuring yourself; so you can go so much further than before.
You got this! Keep it up!