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.
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!
The “No Stopping” signs are already up, my Instagram and Facebook are filled with pictures at the Expo, and I’ve downloaded the app to track numerous friends and bloggers who are running. Despite the excitement of surrounding the marathon, it was forever changed by the bombings that took place in 2013. The weather this weeked has been incredibly gorgeous – sunny, blue skies, warm air – just like it was on Marathon Monday in 2013. It’s impossible to think about the race and not also think about the people whose lives were affected and those who lost their lives.
At this point I don’t remember too much of the details of each run, but there’s the data if you’re interested. I’d had a weird niggle in my ankle/heel so I was trying to rest it as much as possible and ran mostly easy paced runs for the week. L was still sick so I was running mostly on the treadmill and getting caught up on Making of a Murder on Netflix. My husband worked from home one day so I was able to run my tempo run outside and it felt much better than my previous one. Bonus: I didn’t get the same brutal headache afterwards that followed my last tempo run.
running (Bos)s 