So now the dust has settled on the marathon training. I was feeling a little depressed for a few days after the race. Besides my wedding, I have never put so much time and heart and energy into a one day event. And in terms of actual hours of effort, I don't even think I put THAT much time into my wedding!
I feel proud of myself for following through with 18 weeks of training. I feel proud that I hardly missed any training runs. I am surprised and grateful that I made it through without a single injury. Considering I spent the better part of the first 9 months of my running career nursing some type of injury, I was nervous I was going to be destined to be an injury prone runner. I think my weight loss and building my running muscles has made me a stronger runner.
Now that I am stronger, I think the next task is to get faster. I know I will never be a super speedy runner, but I think I can still make some big improvements.
I have some ideas about this. And I have some plans for the future.
Short term goals:
I have a couple of races to run before the snow flies!
Next Saturday (October 20th), I am going to run the Fargo Mini Marathon (a half marathon). I know it's not the *best* idea to run another distance run just two weeks out from the marathon, but my legs are feeling 100% and I think I have it in me. No lingering pain, and if I was able to make it through training strong, I'm not worried about injury. I am going to run the race smart, and if there is any hint of pain, I will back off my pace and run for fun. If I am feeling good, I might just shoot for a PR (2:18 or faster).
Saturday November 3rd, I am going to run the Donut Run 10k. Because...well... DONUTS. No brainer. I want to gauge my speed on a 10k to see where I am at for that distance.
Other races I might run: Turkey Trot 5 mile on November 17th and Jingle Run 5k on December 1st.
Medium term goals:
Between now and March my goal is to focus on strength training and improve my 10k speed. I am going to work with a trainer to figure out a strength training routine- preferably using free weights rather than machines. I am going to use a Runkeeper training program to work on a Sub-55 minute 10k (current 10K PR around 1:06?). I think the 10k training program is about 16 weeks long.
Will also do cross training by going to spin class and maybe try some lap swimming?
Long term goals:
Fargo Marathon- 1/2 marathon in May. Not sure of time goal for that yet- it will depend on how much speed I've built in the previous months. Ultimate half marathon time goal? Under 2 hours. But I think under 2 hours is a SOMEDAY goal. Doubt I can get there by May.
Marathon- I definitely want to run another marathon. Aiming for something next Fall. Since Twin Cities Marathon and Chicago Marathon generally happen on the same weekend, I would probably choose one of those. I would love to do TCM again, but it would be SO awesome to do Chicago. This decision will probably be based on budget. Chicago would obviously be more expensive.
So, there it is! Making myself accountable again for some more goals. Excited to keep working at being a better runner and seeing how far I can push myself!
This probably also means another year of me blabbing on and on about running and oversharing my workouts on my blog and on Facebook! To some it's probably too much info, but I know that for myself, I am motivated by reading people's workouts and successes. If I can help to motivate some of my friends to take up running or work on personal goals, then I feel like it's worth it. I can name more than a handful of my friends who have told me that I have inspired them to run. I don't say this because I'm trying to be all full of myself, I say it because I think it's crazy awesome how Runkeeper and Facebook and other social networky things can help others to create change in their lives.
Here is to another year of hard work and doing this together!
No comments:
Post a Comment