I'm back after a glutaneous, lazy week of recovery. After qualifying last Sunday for Boston I was ecstatic. The high lasted most of the day on Monday and then I came crashing down with "what now" thoughts. I have so many things I want to do and wish I had more time in each day to do them all. I also have this all or nothing mentality and I need to let myself relax about some stuff. Running has taken up so much time over the past year and I realized that I'm not really allowing time for anything else. So, that needs to change. Running is and will always be a big part of my life but I won't let it become my life. I spent the whole week thinking of what I want to do, things I want to work on, accomplish, etc. I will never give up running but I have to make time for cross training, lifting and hopefully soon, yoga. On top of this, I need to find time to study for my personal training certification. I go in waves. I'll spend a few weeks studying every day, then I fall off the wagon and don't open a book for a month. I also really want to work on getting out of the food rut I'm in and start to eat more variety, more raw, and possibly eliminate the little meat (currently only chicken) I eat. I bought 2 books the other day which I hope will help with this: "Eat to Live" and "eat, drink & be vegan." I plan to post a little more about my eats (no worries, this won't turn into a food blog!) so I can share some of the fun stuff I'm hopefully learning.
So where do I go from here? I talked with Coach Jack and I'll be taking my running down to 5 days a week, but still keeping up with my mileage. These 2 off days from running give me extra time to lift and do some other form of cardio...like taking a walk. I miss taking nice long walks! In addition, I will be adding on cardio to any run day where the mileage is low. I really want to keep my cardio to at least 60 minutes for each workout. I'm also going to check out a local yoga studio and hope to try that once or twice a week. Not only could my body use the benefits of yoga, but I think my crazy head could, too.
I will say this, though. While I was deep in thought all week about what to do now that I just crossed a huge goal off my list, I realized how much I love running. I love the simplicity of it and I love the people I've met through the sport. I love racing and I love proving to myself what I can do. But with that being said, I'm looking forward to a fun year of non BQ stress running!! Here's a little glimpse of what I have lined up so far in 2010. I also have some more things in the works, including another biggie, but I'm not ready to talk about that yet! And I entered the NYC lottery today.
Dec 31st - Puddlz NYE marathon (this is a just-for-fun marathon my friend is organizing at a local park. It's a one mile loop so people can come and go as they please. If there are any local runners interested, let me know! Run a few laps and bank some calories for champagne later that night!)
Feb 21st - Frostbite 5 miler (won third in my age group last year, trying to beat that)
Mar 21st - Shamrock Marathon (running for run, around the 4 hour pace group)
Apr - yea, no races this month because I'll be sunning it up in Jamaica. Not a bad trade off for Boston 2010 being sold out!
May 2nd - NJ Marathon (pacing the 4:15 group)
My recovery week, which consisted of NO running and too much food, is officially over. I'm so ready to get out there and hit the pavement tomorrow. Here's my schedule for the week. No set paces, just a nice easy jog.
Mon - 2 mi
Tues - 3 mi
Wed - off
Thurs - 3 mi
Fri - 2 mi
Sat - 6 mi
Sun - off
19 comments:
oooooooh! Hope you get into NYC, and looking forward to the biggie news! Glad you took the time to recover and are feeling good! :)
Sounds like a great plan. You are always so well thought out! I wish I had the planning skills you do!
Wow you're pacing the 4:15 group for the nj marathon?? That's a sweet gig, how did u get that? I sat next to the race director of the NJ marathon last year on a return flight from the Dominican Republic, nice guy and sounds like a really nice race! That's awesome. 2010 looks good to me!
Wow you're pacing the 4:15 group for the nj marathon?? That's a sweet gig, how did u get that? I sat next to the race director of the NJ marathon last year on a return flight from the Dominican Republic, nice guy and sounds like a really nice race! That's awesome. 2010 looks good to me!
You've got a great plan for the coming weeks and beginning of 2010. Cutting out chicken is a lot easier than you'd think. GL and enjoy all the new foods you will try.
so true that those of us who love running can find ourselves forgetting about all other things. I think a fall back period is a wonderful idea.
Jamaica is AMAZING! you are going to have so much fun
that's awesome - you are going to be a pacer! how cool is that? looks like agreat schedule! I can't believe you were running 5 days /wk and you aren't burnt out.
Sounds like you have a fabulous plan. And congratulations again on qualifying!
Enjoy Jamaica :o)
With your times, you should be able to easily qualify for NYC with a half marathon. But hopefully the lottery will work out!!!!
Those are great races. So fun that you pace marathons; I would love to do that sometime.
Enjoy your week running!!!! :)
I too, entered the lottery for NYC.
Fingers crossed on that!
I haven't made up my mind on NJ yet. I might go for National Marathon in DC.
C
Lots to look forward to!
OMG!!! Four of my friends and I are going down to the Shamrock Marathon- we will have to meet up!!!!
I totally feel ya on the "running is running my life" thinking. I LOVE to run, but you are right, I have put a lot on hold for a few years and now that I made my BQ goal, I need to figure out what I want for me out of my running.
Sounds like you have a good plan going. Congrats on NJ and so cool you are going to try for NYC! Enjoy the week and the miles! :)
I'm glad you are going to take some time to enjoy things and get caught up on "YOU" time. Very jealous of your pacer gig! Would love to do that someday. You have a lot of fun things on deck, I look forward to reading about all of them!
Definitely sounds like a good plan. I hear you on the 'all or nothing' mentality.
Time to start racking up those HBBC points! I remember how hard you killed it last year!
I wanted to stop by and say hello. We are the same team for HBBC! I hope we can motivate each other to do good things these next few weeks. I am glad to have found your blog - I am working towards running my first marathon next year and love to read about other's marathon & running adventures.
Love that April! Jamaica -- woo hoo!!!
Looks like a good schedule :-)
Ohhh I thought about signing up to be a pacer at NJ...I think it'd be a good first experience! Have you done it before?
I might be interested in the NYE shindig depending on when I work...
so fun!! lots of great stuff going on in the first part of the year for you :)
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