Thou Shall Live Your Life in "Marathon-Training" Mode

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going”

-Beverly Sills

About a month ago, some very good friends of ours called to invite us to run a mini-marathon. Now, I have been invited to some great dinners, fantastic parties, even really exciting sporting events, but being invited to run a mini-marathon is kind of like getting a call from your dentist, inviting you to a root canal. 

Nevertheless, I thought about the pros and cons. It was going to be exhausting..lots of training...endless miles on the treadmill, especially with the cold winter weather. But, on the plus side, I was looking for an opportunity to shed some of the post-holiday lbs and I thought it might be nice to return my treadmill to its true and intended use, instead of having it laden with a week’s worth of mine and Greg’s clothes.

So, with all our options well considered, we somewhat reluctantly agreed. We figured, after all, it’s a “mini”-marathon....how bad could that possible be??? I figured it would be like, what, 5 miles, maybe 8? Yes, 8 at the most. 

Uh, no. It’s not.

A “mini” marathon is 13.1 miles. That, my friends, is what I call a “half-marathon.” The definition of “mini” according to Mr. Webster is “something of short length or duration; brief”...well, 13.1 miles on foot, while running, is anything but “short” and the last thing I can think of from “brief.” But, now, it was too late to back out. We had committed. Yes, committed and actually bragged to the children about how “daddy and I” were going to run a mini-marathon, oblivious to what we had just committed to. Yes, people, we were now going to run this race if it killed us. 

As I tried to psych myself up on the morning of my first training run, I tried to look back on my several failed attempts to train for a half-marathon in the past. Three years ago I was beyond enthused for my first big race and started my first training run with a short 6 mile jog. I spent the day after that jog with ice attached to nearly every joint of my body and never quite recovered from that. Then, two years ago, I was well entrenched in my race training when I found out I was pregnant with Brooklyn (I blame my husband for kai-boshing that attempt).

This year was going to be different though. This year, I was going to arm myself with a training plan, increase my training gradually and actually succeed. 

Just a few clicks on my iphone later, I had found a training app for a half-marathon and I was off on “Week 1, Day 1” of a 12 week plan for half-marathon training.  Day 1 actually surprised me because it was a short 5 minute walking warmup, a 15 minute jog and a 5 minute cool down. I thought, “ok, even I can do that.” I resisted the urge to keep running after my 15 minutes elapsed, determined to follow the plan to the “T”.  Days 2 and 3 were just a tiny bit harder than Day 1 but even though I was just gradually increasing my distance, by the end of Week 2 of training, I found myself completing a 40 minute session without feeling like I was carrying the Grim Reaper on my back. All in all, I had to admit, this training was working!

It then dawned on me in the middle of one of my longer runs that if I could somehow “marathon train” my life, could I make all the changes I wanted without it having to be so darn painful? Could I find a way to keep the laundry from piling up so that I would not have to spend the better part of the weekend doing so much laundry that my husband thinks “Downy” is my new perfume? Could I help Logan (my 12 year old daughter) learn to keep her room picked up and the clothes put away on a regular basis? Could my house’s closets get neat and organized (and stay that way?) The possibilities were endless...

The answer, of course, is YES! I have started to make all those changes but not the way that I have in the past...not in my usual kamakaze, “get out of my way...momma’s on a mission” style. Noooooooooooo. This time the changes I am making are gradual. They’re consistent. They’re...dare I say it???? Permanent! 

These changes are permanent (or at least I hope they will be) because I have trained myself (and am training my kids) into them. 

Case in point. As you know, Logan struggles with her room. My usual fix...I wait until it’s so messy that I need wine to keep me from threatening her with banishment from the premises...then I clean it. All of it...until it shines. I enjoy that look for 20 minutes only to return later that day to see my work deteriorating. This time though, I am not cleaning it. But I’m not forcing her to clean it either. Rather, like my race training, I told her on day 1 to put away only 1 thing that day (in addition to whatever she has on). Day 2, put away what she has on, plus 2 things...etc. 

“But Mom, she said, it will take FOREVER to get it clean that way.” 

I know that, of course, but the key is that I’m training her to keep it clean. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, so long as we reach the promise land. And we will, because eventually, there won’t be anything left to put away...There will only be what she has on...then, we will have crossed her finish line...we will have won. And we will have won because, she will have “marathon trained” her way into keeping a clean room.

It’s working with my kitchen, with my closets and with my laundry. Baby steps, my friends. They are small but they work.

So, in short, while I love what all the training is doing for my body, it’s really what it’s doing for my mind that matters most. Consider applying marathon - training in your life and I guarantee the results you achieve will be anything but “mini.”

-Claudia