Perfection in Execution
What I am longing for is perfection in the execution of the marathon
And here’s yet another unrequested update on my marathon preparation. You are very welcome.
After a quite satisfying half-marathon at the Thermen-Marathon in Bad Füssing and a full week of extensive rest, I am now going about the last big block of training, before tapering for the Bienwald/Kandel Marathon in less than 4 weeks.
Basically everything is new to me in this marathon preparation. It was the first time I consciously detrained in order to then build a solid basis for almost 10 weeks. That alone was new (and very demoralizing haha) to me, but it was the fundament for a good number of surprisingly easy quality workouts in January and February. Speaking of easy: During this whole training block I never felt tired or burnt out. Even during big weeks I always remained fresh, both mentally and physically. Only the little voice inside my head that constantly tells me "You could have done more" was and is a bit annoying, but I am getting better and better to mute it. On the other hand, the next 2 peak weeks will probably be more and faster running than I ever did in a marathon preparation, so who am I to complain.
Although the 'why' in marathon training seems to be rather obvious (… like Running a Marathon, huh?), my main goal became clear to me just recently. What I am longing for is perfection in the execution of the marathon. I know that no such thing as perfection exists, but I want to get as close to it as possible. Instead of hunting my goal time (that’s what I’m going to do at a fall marathon) I want to focus on my effort by carefully balancing my three main resources: endurance, strength and mental power. In other words, I want to race smart and aware.
I already found great satisfaction and deep insight in this marathon preparation. It has made me a smarter and more aware runner already and I can’t wait to put this knowledge into practice in Kandel.
