Editor’s Note: Over the next 20 weeks, assistant news editor Katie Shepherd will be training for the Asics L.A. Marathon and writing a weekly column chronicling her experiences along the way. She’ll be reporting on the science and health aspects of endurance training as well as featuring students and L.A. residents who are taking on similar races this year.
Midterms, a new job and Halloween conspired against me last week to wreck my training schedule.
Between studying and adjusting to a heavier workload, I missed a few runs, which is not good. A slow and steady pace for building up mileage is only effective if you stick to a gradual training schedule.
Missing runs puts an athlete at risk of increasing distance too quickly and causing injuries.
But skipping just a couple runs or having one rough week won’t totally derail preparations for the long 26.2-mile run in March.
Getting back into training is vitally important though, and I’ve had to adjust my running plan to accommodate my new schedule.
Before my busy week hit, I was running anytime during the day I had a spare hour, but now I’m scheduling specific times to go for a three-to-four-mile jog on weekdays.
For me, that means waking up early in the morning and getting it out of the way before I get sucked into class and work and forget to run.
Alternatives exist for college students, who have many small periods of free time despite extremely busy schedules. Running between classes or stopping by the gym on the way home from campus is an easy way to sneak in a run.
And if sacrificing an entire hour of time to run instead of studying is impossible, students can do shorter runs in segments: Run for 20 minutes before class and 20 minutes after.
Luckily, the time spent running instead of studying for midterms can actually sharpen your mind, improve your focus and help you out in classes.
Running can help maintain attention spans, and I always find that my mind is clearer after a long-distance jog around campus.
Balancing work and running is a common problem, especially for beginning marathoners.
Annie Bersagel, who ran the New York City Marathon on Sunday, balances running with a highly demanding career as a lawyer. She runs before and after work, and saves her long runs for weekends, according to a New York Times profile on her training regimen.
College students running long-distance races have to find time to squeeze in training between class, exams, extracurriculars and the occasional party.
Balancing all the demands of school, work and running is difficult. The past week has proven that faltering from my planned schedule is more than possible – it’s easy.
Now that I’ve adjusted to midterm season, getting back in the swing of things is a matter of prioritizing. The race at the end of March is one kind of marathon, and the training leading up to it is another.