Recovering and Looking Forward

It is 3 weeks post Boston now. I felt better than expected in the days after the race but my legs are pretty sluggish now and I can tell I need some recovery time.  The week following Boston I ran 46 miles but that is a little deceptive because Boston itself is included in that total. The next two weeks I did 42 with the longest run being 10 each week. I think I’m starting to feel better but the temps are rising so it is hard to tell for sure. I’ve just been doing easy runs but next week I’m going to start gradually upping the mileage and adding speed work and tempo runs. I’ll build up slowly over the summer and be ready for some fast running in the fall once it cools back down.

Yesterday, I signed up for a lot of races. The next will be an 8k on 5/30. I’ve only done one other 8k and it was about 13 years ago. I’m not sure it was a certified course and I don’t remember my time so this will be almost a first for me. I also signed up for the Arkansas 2 miler on 6/13 and the Go!Mile on 6/20. I better get started on that speed work! I do plan on some 5ks and maybe a 4 miler this summer as well but I’ll wait and see how my legs feel. I also want to do the Chile Pepper XC 10k in October. I love that race but I’ve never been able to do it in top form so I’m hoping I can make that happen this year.

The other thing that I must mention is that I signed up for the Houston Marathon on 1/17/16. I know, I just did one marathon and I’m already signed up for another. I’m an idiot. The thing is, after finishing Boston, I was happy with my performance on that day but I was disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to run what I know I’m capable of running. I’m certain that a sub 3:15 was in my legs that day but the course and the weather made it difficult. I really want to train and run a race that will give me the best chance to maximize performance. Houston is a fast course and the weather is about as consistently good as you can hope for.  Their guaranteed entry for time qualifiers opened on 5/6 so I felt like I had to go ahead and secure an entry. If I waited to see how my legs felt, I would have to go into the lottery and I might not get in. January will give me a full 9 months between marathons and I won’t have to start official marathon training until the last week of October. Just like weather, healthy legs are never a given so you really are always taking a little bit of a gamble. Now that I have signed up though, I’m going to try to put it on the back burner and have fun focusing on shorter distances this summer.

I’ll be back in a few weeks with a race recap of the Rock Run 8k unless something more exciting happens before that.

Book wise I have been very busy listening to the 3rd and 4th Game of Thrones books. I'm about a third of the way into the 4th one. They are long and tedious but there is no turning back at this point.