FOMO and Marathon Training

FOMO (n) informal: anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.

Although I do not party 7 days a week (maybe 4-5), I do hate being left out of things… even if that means hanging out with myself 😉  This FOMO characteristic has often lead to subpar full- and half-marathon training. Normally, I do not make well-laid plans because I am a kind of a go with the flow kind of guy, which I think is a bad thing for marathon training. I made this the topic of today’s blog, because my FOMO background kind of made me miss my 8.5 mile long run this weekend. Yes, it is my fault but it is easier to blame “FOMO”.

• Saturday I was planing to do my run but I worked all day and really did not feel like running after work, then hang-out in the city. The sad this is that I brought my running clothes with me, so I could do my run at the gym. Instead, I skipped the run to hang out but I did not drink too much because I “knew” that I was going to do the run on Sunday.
• Sunday: I taught my last class of the semester and was planning to run after class. However, I wanted to get a drink. I agreed to meet someone around 4pm in the East Village, so I started drinking around 3 (after class). However, he texted and said it would be better if we met at 6pm, because he wanted to go to the gym. Of course, I received that text after drinking two large margaritas and eating a couple of empanadas. There was no way that I could run after doing that.
• Monday (today): I was going to do my run but a coworker wants to get birthday drinks after work.

With regards to my training plan, I think that I have a buffer for missing this long run, because I ran a 15K (9.something) race last week. However, looking at my training plan for a marathon in March, I do not have much wiggle room to miss anymore long runs. I know that I will miss this weekend’s long run because of the Christmas holiday, although I am really going to try to fit one in sometime this week.

Asics Training Plan for the week:

• Monday: Rest
• Tuesday: 3mi jog
• Wednesday: 5.5mi Fast
• Thursday: Rest (X-train)
• Friday: 5.5mi Fast
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: 11mi Comfortable

We shall see how this plays out. Hopefully, FOMO will not get in the way but it will be tough with 80 million holiday parties that are going on.

If FOMO affects you, how do you deal with it with regards to training?