I am still alive!

Sorry so long from blogging. Things have been a little crazy here and I was in a bit of a funk post marathon.  First off I couldn’t walk for 3 days after the race, wasn’t expecting that.  Then we were on vacation.  I didn’t get to run the whole time I was on vacation.  Well, I got in like one 3 mile run and one 2 mile run during those 2 weeks.  Then coming back didn’t pull myself together and just kind of did nothing.  I just didn’t feel like it.  I think the break honestly was probably a good thing, but my horrible eating during my vacation was not.  I think all I did was eat.  I gained about 10 pounds.  I am working the weight off now and starting to feel back on track.  I went on a 5 mile run yesterday and right now having essentially taken a whole month off running 5 miles is somewhat hard again.

New goals

Well, one of the reasons I have been struggling to stay on track is because I have no goals in front of me.  Here are some new short term goals I have made.  I decided to spend from now until the end of the year really working on my speed (and building back up my base mileage too, but focusing on improving my speed).  I did no speed work really or hill work training for my marathon because I was so focused on being able to run the distance.  Now, I want to see if I can actually start running faster.  I signed up for 2 5Ks and I’d like to find one more 5K to run and maybe a 10K before the end of the year.  One 5K is next weekend and then the other one is 2 weeks from then on Oct 3.  I’d like to see if I can get my 5K time below 27 minutes before the end o the year.  Right now my fastest 5K time is 28:28 so I think if I really start focusing on speed I can reach that goal.  We’ll think about marathon training next year, not committing to when next year yet, but I’d like to run another marathon by the end of next year.

Swimming and weight training

I am going to try to give the whole swimming thing another go.  I tried to take up swimming during my race training, but just didn’t have the time or energy.  I am going to try again to add it into my schedule.  I dropped down to 2 days a week with my trainer.  I can’t justify the expense for 3 days and may phase him out all together this year, but we’ll see.  I really do like him as a trainer, but not sure that I need it and it’s money that could be spent better.  I am going to try to add in 1-2 days weight training on my own.  Once I can see that I can stick to it on my own then I will decide what to do with my trainer. He’s been a nice safety net and a nice guy and really helped me to see progress so we’ll just have to wait and see.  I want to be able to do the “Pump and Run” race they have around here this year.  I wanted to do it this year, but couldn’t lift the weight required to do it so this year I want to set that as as goal as well.

Anyhow, life is good.  Kids are back in school and I am regaining my sanity so hopefully I’ll be back around regularly again.