you’ve now entered the marathon training paranoia zone
I realize I’ve now entered a very “special” point in my training. I’ve entered the marathon training paranoia zone…do de do do, do de do do (my attempt at typing The Twilight Zone theme).
Not familiar? Not sure what I’m talking about? Please allow me to fill you in…
It’s the part of the training where every minor ache and pain is, in your mind, a torn muscle or…worse.
It’s the part of the training where you start thinking everyone around you has germs and will give you a terrible cold/flu which will destroy your training and marathon goal.
It’s the part of the training where you trip over a pebble on the sidewalk while walking to work and think, “whew – I almost fell there. I coulda sprained something and screwed up all these weeks/months of training”.
It’s the part of the training where you wake up with a kink in your neck because you slept funny and think, “oh crap – it’s over”.
It’s the part of the training where your kid jumps on your leg and you start yelling uncontrollably “don’t you have ANY bloody idea what the heck you coulda done to daddy?!?!?! Daddy’s in TRAINING!!!!!!!!” (note: I didn’t actually do that one but it really adds to the drama of this post huh?)
It’s the part of the training where you wait until everyone else digests the food you are about to eat just to make sure it doesn’t have salmonella and ruins all your running plans (who cares about your general health – it’s the running that is important right?)
Get my point? The MTP Zone is where you’ve put in a ton of work, have a goal and nothing by God, NOTHING better screw it up but EVERYTHING happening to or around you seems to hold a threat for doing so.
It might be your first marathon or your tenth but I guarantee that at some point before your big race you WILL enter the marathon training paranoia zone and that as your marathon gets closer and closer, the paranoia will worsen and worsen…
…do de do do, do de do do.
P.S. If you’ve never had a paranoid thought before a marathon please ignore/forget what you just read and carry on…
HA! Gooood Luck!!
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As you say, there is really a lot of focus and hope for the race day but so many things can happen (especially if you have kids, and don’t forget the mysterious wife, haha). I have always a contingency plan, it’s pretty simple, just another marathon 2 to 4 weeks later. At least this one is in my mind…
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Pingback by A Passion for Running » paranoia will destroy ya!
Wednesday September 29, 2004 @
[...] ll destroy ya! Filed under: general — Mark @ 7:21 pm So, my latest bit of paranoia is that I might be over trained… You see, I’ve been really [...]