Saturday, July 6, 2013

What a difference a training partner makes!


"It's when we start working together that the real healing takes place...it's when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood."  David Hume

Being silly  - we ran 18km that morning, then spent the evening walking around at the Jazz Fest.
We were both pretty proud of our bodies, as we had no lingering pain :)

Running my last half-marathon with my daughter was an amazing experience. However, we did not complete the same training program (as it was her first) and so ran only one or two training runs together. Therefore, having completed my last training cycle mostly by myself, I am thoroughly appreciating having a training partner for this cycle. We don't do all our runs together, but Last Thursday, I had a really full day and we had a 40-minute run with 8 X 100m relaxed strides. My SSIL is a nurse and is used to getting up at the crack of dawn to go to work, so she suggested we go at 7am (before my crazy day started)...I know that for many of you 7am is almost mid-day :) but, for me, 7am is so much easier to do with a partner. 

The next day was our long run, most of which we will try and do together. With the crazy humidity and heat, we decided to head out at 6:45am for our 18km run. We'll probably have to go earlier than that when the runs are longer if it's that hot and humid! My SSIL suggested a new route, where we went by these huge and beautiful houses. Talk about an enjoyable distraction. One of them had a small waterfall coming from these low brick towers on each side of their driveway...so we went to the water and wet our hands and our face. It was so refreshing :) By the time we were at 14km, my SSIL, who barely sweats and therefore has a really hard time dealing with heat, was starting to find it tough. Luckily, in the summer, there are places to stop and refill water bottles. The first place we stopped, the water was tepid, but a few kilometers later we stopped at another fountain and the water was nice and cold. So, we poured water over our heads and body, refilled and felt better as we moved on. By the last two kilometers, I unexpectedly found myself encouraging my SSIL to stay strong and get this done. 

My SSIL gets me out there early in the morning, she is one tough lady, she is super healthy, she is a faster runner than I am and has many more years of running experience, but heat is her kryptonite. It evens out the field between us and allows me a turn at being her support system. Being able to motivate her and get her through the last few kilometers felt great, but mostly it was a revelation! It made me realize that together, we are stronger than the sum of our individual selves...as a team, we push each other to that next level. Our individual strengths come together and we form one powerful badass team! 

I love you SSIL...let's keep on rocking that marathon training!!

Cheers!
  

8 comments:

Miles of the Journey said...

1 and 1 can make 3...I don't get to train with anyone anymore but I can remember how good that was.

ajh said...

Sounds like a win win training situation. You have to get out early on these hot days although if I'm doing a long bike ride I'm going to be in that heat. Yuck! The waterfalls for cooling off sound great.

Char said...

It's always better when you train with someone else. The run is just that much more enjoyable and seems to go quicker. I hope you get a lot more chances to run together.

Kate Geisen said...

All my early training was done solo, and now that I've got awesome running friends it's really hard to get myself out to run alone. So much more fun with company! So glad you found yourself an awesome run buddy! :)

Robin said...

Sounds like you are having fun and that's great!

TX Runner Mom said...

Training with someone is definitely more fun!

Dawn said...

this is so awesome!!!! I'm not very good at training by myself, but am finding it harder to find someone to train with due to conflicting schedules and the fact that all my run buddies are waaaay faster than I am-lol. I agree, that training with someone is MUCH better. Enjoy :)

Caroline said...

J'adore cette nouvelle photo pour Le header!!!!
Comme j'aimerais avoir un ou une partenaire pour un possible marathon...quelle experience que vous partagez !