Upcoming Racing Goals and Thoughts Post-Half Marathon

Hey guys and happy Friday! I hope you all are having an awesome day and are enjoying a great start to a long weekend. I am SO incredibly excited about having a three day weekend. Like straight up crazy excited. The past month of Landon’s job switch has been crazy and we’ve only worsened matters by staying incredibly busy on the weekends/evenings. Tonight, we are doing nothing the rest of the weekend is looking pretty slow and relaxing too. I am hoping for a good run, some good food, and unplugging a bit during the weekend.

I wanted to share with you a peek into what I am planning next, post-half marathon and what my goals are for the rest of the year. And because I talk things out better than I think, I will just pretend I am talking with you guys over a cup of coffee, sound good?

DSC_8967

Sounds so good.

Okay, back to real life.

You ever have those post-race blues? I am having a weird mixture of post-race crazy PR endorphins and a little post-race blues too. I am so amazingly excited about hitting a PR and having an awesome race, but I am sad the experience is over. I kept telling myself that around mile 12 when I wanted to die, haha. It was such a sweet, beautiful and crazy hard race that I am feeling sad that it is all over with, while hungry for more. But right now, I am trying to figure out what more means. I am debating on either focusing on the half marathon this year and going for a sub 1:44 late this summer or signing up for a full and focusing on running a faster,  better marathon than last marathon.

DSC_8026

At this point in the conversation, if we were talking over coffee, I would ask you for your opinion, so feel free to give me some in the comments. Part of me, REALLY loves the half marathon, I love that it is long enough to be challenging (okay, let’s be honest ANY distance is challenging) but I love the race distance. It can leave you trashed if you race it hard, but it doesn’t totally crush you like the marathon. BUT, I love the marathon and feel like I have so much more to learn about that distance and so much more potential with the marathon. So, I am leaning towards starting a new training cycle and really training for a great marathon this fall. I have already run 4 half marathons and would love to balance it out with another (would be my second) marathon. I know that marathons take time to learn and I feel like I have so much to learn about the marathon and that brings me back for more.

DSC_6650

I found a couple local-ish marathons in the fall that I am looking at and thinking about signing up for. I also have a 10k that I am signed up for and I am excited to race that distance! I haven’t done a 10k race since 2013 (? crazy!) and I would LOVE to PR that race, which would be anything under 46 minutes for me. (Photo from my marathon last fall!)

Basically, I am trying to sort out all my goals and what really lights me up. I know if I am doing hard training for any race, I want to be super excited about it and right now, I am trying to figure out which distance that is for me right now. The next couple weeks, I am going to recover really well from this half marathon, work on a few hot spots (not necessarily injures, but some flare ups) and make sure that I can start any training cycle with a fresh, strong body!

Either way, I am so excited for this summer training cycle! Who is with me?

Questions of the Day 

  1. What are you training for this summer?
  2. How often do you race?
  3. What are you weekend plans!?!?