The post-marathon blues

Right after my Marine Corps Marathon I was anxiously looking for my next event to run. Even though I had a tough marathon, I was wanting to it again and do it better. Anyone who asked me why got the standard reply: "because I know that I can do better".

I found a mid January marathon that runs in Clearwater, FL, (link: http://www.clearwaterrunning.com/) and I was thinking that this would be a good one to do, particularly since most of my heavy training was already well under my belt and all I had to do was to maintain my distance running and work on some endurance drills.

But then life and projects and commitments got in the way again. And to some degree, I was tired. With an ongoing project to which I have self-imposed deadlines, it seems to be totally consuming me. Rather than wake up, stretch, and go for a scheduled run of x-miles, now I'm jumping into my project and *maybe going for a run. It's like running (or training) have taken a back seat in my list of priorities. And now I'm really bummed about it.

As in life, running goals and a plan to achieve them are necessary. I find that I need a goal (a race event actually) in order for me to focus on running. Otherwise, I tend to just run whenever it is convenient to do so or I have nothing else pressing to do.

And I need to change that. I like the trimness that I achieved while training for the MCM and I like the fact that I can eat. Oddly enough, I still have not regained the weight that I lost in the last few weeks prior to the marathon, which just means that my current project (which is pretty physically demanding) is consuming a lot of calories! But still....

The Clearwater Marathon is in mid-January - and unfortunately I've not done the running necessary to make it a reasonable event for me.  They do have a half marathon event, for which I think I can comfortably do. But I need to establish my plan and get out there and train for it, i.e. get my miles in.

Gotta get on it !!!