Mental Marathon Training

Over a year ago, I went for my first training run for the Couch-to-5K program, which consisted of about 1.5 miles. I thought I was going to die. At the time, I thought it was crazy that I could run a 5K. I was mentally exhausted and somewhat miserable. Yet 9 weeks later, I did. Fast forward to the beginning of this year when I started training for my first half marathon. It was the same thing after my first "long" run of 5 miles. The run was extremely difficult and both mentally and physically taxing. Yet in May of 2010, 12 weeks later, I finished my first half marathon. It was enjoyable, and the sense of accomplishment afterward was fantastic.

Yesterday, I had my first BarBri class. Very much like my first run, I thought the lecture would never end. I checked my watch much too frequently, and could not wait to finish. When I got home, I felt brain dead and unintentionally fell asleep for a 30 minute nap. Now I have about 8 weeks to get all of the information pictured here, into my head. It won't be easy. But this morning as I was doing a smidgen of reviewing, it occurred to me how similar BarBri is to marathon training. There is a pace schedule that tells you exactly what to do and when to do it. If you stick to the schedule, you'll be fine. But the BarBri guy told us on the first day that the schedule is tough. We may not be able to stick to it. The same was true of my half marathon training schedule. It called for four runs a week, plus cross training. That's a lot to fit in. Similarly, BarBri calls for 3-4 hours of lecture time, plus an additional 3-6 hours of outside work. It's a lot. But my plan is to treat this training just like I did the half marathon training. Keep to the schedule as best I can, and on test day just hope that it will all pay off. If I need video game time breaks, I will make sure to take them. Will it all work out? Hopefully. I'll let you know in the middle of October.

Tagged as: BarBri, Half marathon, studying, training