Post-Marathon Funk

Well hello there. Anyone still here? Despite my best intentions to keep this blog going following a race, I always end up slipping away from blogging. But, with only 6 days left to sneak in a November recap I realized it was time to buckle down and blog. After running the Baystate Marathon and reaching my goal, I admit to feeling a bit lost with what to do next. Running is very much a goal oriented hobby for me. That’s just what is enticing to me about it, and since Baystate I haven’t been able to latch on to a motivating running goal. There have been a few ideas – PR’ing in the half, PR’ing in a full, finding a difficult/scenic/interesting/something course, running a 50k, etc – but none have really taken root. So while nothing has been getting my running mojo going, Helly has been SMASHING every PR around! She had a spectacular sub-4 performance at the NYC Marathon and then followed it up with a new 5k and half marathon PR! If you want to be inspired and motivated do yourself a favor and check her out.

The one thing that does get me off the couch and onto the road (or most likely, treadmill) is I am thisclose to hitting 1,500 miles for the year! So while I have actually been running, it’s certainly hasn’t been any type of running to write home, or on a blog, about. The majority of my running has been 5 mile, easy paced treadmill runs while I try to, unsuccessfully, zone out and not countdown the 45-ish minutes this takes. To help break up the monotony I’ve tried to add back in some Tuesday speed work and Thursday tempos. This usually equates to 400m-800m repeats at slower than 5k pace and 1.5-3 miles at marathon pace.

The one real running accomplishment since I last blogged was running a Thanksgiving day 5k. It’s the same race I ran last year and again I loved how easy it is to get to, to park, and getting to run on completely closed roads. The donuts and hot chocolate at the end are also a major perk. My running blah’s were in full effect that morning and instead of running there to warm up as I had planned, I ended up driving and doing a shorter warm up when I arrived. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to try to run fast or easy so I ended up lining up about half way back. After about the first mile, which I spent desperately trying to get around large groups of walkers, I realized I’m too competitive to just run for fun and started to put some effort. I ended up finishing in 23:06 (7:26 pace) which is just 9 seconds off my 5k PR. I was pleasantly surprised to see I was still able to pick up the pace after mostly foregoing any speed work since October.

The only running pictures I took all month.

So now it’s time to start thinking about 2017 goals. After the New Year I hope to find a race, find a goal, and set up a training plan. And, of course, to start blogging again!

Happy Holidays!

 

October Recap

Congratulations to the Cubs on a hard earned win last night! Despite living in an area filled with die-hard Red Sox fans, I’m not a huge baseball fan myself. I am, however, a huge fan of underdogs and feel-good stories. After going 108 years without a World Series win, while maintaining a very loyal group of fans, the Cubs pulled off a World Series win in epic fashion. Seriously, that game was a nail-biter! Even as an only occasional baseball game watcher, the nerves, excitement, and joy of the Cubs fans was palpable. Congrats to everyone reveling in the win today!

Obviously my October running was fully centered on the Baystate Marathon. Tapering, the actual race, and then post-marathon recovery. I was pretty excited to hit over 100 miles even with tapering and low mileage following the race. My goal for what little remains of 2016 is to run at least 100 miles in both November and December which will put me at 1500 miles for the year!! The idea of hitting 1500 miles is pretty exciting to me and a lot more mile than I expected to run this year.

Since Baystate I’ve spent a little time thinking about what’s next and what kind of running I want to do in 2017. I really love the feeling of strength and achievement that running gives me so I would like to keep my mileage up, although probably not at marathon training levels. I’m 99% sure that I’ll run a half marathon in the spring – the fall is much more up in the air. There was a big part of me that wanted to run Chicago again and experience the excitement of the race, exploring the city, and having a crack at racing it vs. just running to complete it. I’ve never done back-to-back marathon training cycles though and don’t know that I want to run a fall marathon and then a spring marathon too. Especially since I have been pondering the idea of trying to get into the Boston 2 Big Sur lottery. This is totally in its infancy stage of an idea . . . but the idea is there.

Slowly I’ve been easing back into running – all run at easy/recovery pace. The first week post-marathon involved walking, a little time on the elliptical, and at the end of the week 2 miles at recovery pace. This last week was a little more eventful with a couple of 5 mile runs and a long run of 8 miles with some of my running group friends. Four of the ladies I ran with this summer are running the NYC Marathon this weekend and since our schedules didn’t align the few weeks before Baystate, I was determined to get out and run with them before their race!

Speaking of the NYC Marathon – best of luck for a fun and fantastic race experience to Helly this weekend! ❤

Anyone else running the NYC Marathon this weekend?

After a goal race do you like to take time off or start plotting your next race?