Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Training is Over!

Today was the last day of training for the Fort-4-Fitness Half Marathon this Saturday in Fort Wayne. If you've been following along with my training log then you've probably already seen this, but here is today's log entry:

Day 86
Wednesday, September 24
2 miles - 17:41
Days Until Race: 3
Training Miles Completed: 195.5

That's it! Training is over!

Over the last three months I've averaged 2.27 miles per day. If you consider the fact that I usually only ran 4 days per week, then on the days I ran it was nearly 4 miles every time I ran. I usually run a little faster than a 10 minute/mile pace, so I'm estimating that I've spent around 32 hours running during my training.

I was hoping to get to 200 training miles before the race, but I guess I'll just have to stop at the 4.5-mile mark of the race and celebrate ... or not.

Anyway, I was talking with Katie last night about how I was hoping I'd feel more confident about the race and that I'm excited and dreading it at the same time. She said to just remember how much work and time we've put into all this training. We've sacrificed what could have been free time, sleep time, fun time and work time to achieve this goal. So, when we run the race Saturday, it doesn't really matter how fast we run it or if we can finish the whole thing without walking. As long as we cross the finish line, we've accomplished our goal - a goal most people (in their right minds) wouldn't even consider.

Now that training is over I realize that training really isn't over. I won't be on a schedule like I have been for the half marathon, and I don't expect to run nearly the distances I've been running, but I am going to continue to run. We've already signed up for the Pilots 5K during Bethel College's Homecoming weekend on November 8 and we may even find a race to run between now and then. So, the training will continue, but now it will be up to me to set the schedule and stick to it.

If you've been following along with this training log, thanks. I hope now that training is over I can get back to some normal blogging!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

CONGRATS, DAN! The hardest part is behind you, now the fun part begins on Saturday to see the hard training pay off! I am excited to see you, Katie, and Craig cross that finish line and receive your medal! :)

Jill

Dan Weiss said...

Jill: I'm guessing you will get to see all of us cross the finish line because you're going to be the first to finish!
Looking forward to it!

Dan said...

Congratulations Dan. That is really, really cool. Maybe next time I'm up I can convince you to eat some fatty foods...

Anonymous said...

Dan - not sure if you remember my husband, Chris, and I or not from your Bethel days -- but I've been keeping track of your training and now that the race is over I just wanted to say, "Congrats." I did my first "mini-triathlong" this past summer and I know how great the feeling is of simply finishing a goal you trained weeks/months for! Congrats once again.

Chris and Melanie Conley

the Peterson family said...

Thanks for starting this!
My training begins no begins!
www.the-petersonfamily.blogspot.com