It's pouring rain outside. I wish I was running.
So it's been a while since my first post! With the new year about to start, it seems like a good time to catch up on all things running.
After the Philly Marathon, I had about a month where I've done almost no training. Part of it was our Texas vacation, part of it was a general malaise after the disappointment of Philly. I said I was over it, but I don't think I really was. I would wake up in the morning to go out for my run and then find it easier to stay in bed. Usually, I can fight that feeling off and get my butt out of bed anyway, but lately it's been hard to say no. Whatever the cause, it couldn't have come at a worse time, with the Goofy Challenge at Disneyworld coming up in a couple of weeks.
Here's the damage in weekly mileage totals post-Philly. (As a comparison, when I was training for the marathon, I was trying to average 50-60 miles per week.)
| Week | Mileage |
| Nov 18-24 | 6.55 |
| Nov 25-Dec 1 | 5.00 |
| Dec 2-8 | 12.38 |
| Dec 9-15 | 16.01 |
| Dec 16-22 | 29.03 |
| Dec 23-29 | 37.79 |
At least things have begun to pick up for me the last couple of weeks. I got a new pair of Brooks Ghost 6 as a Christmas gift to myself this year, which definitely helped. There's nothing like a new pair of running shoes sitting in the box, begging you to take them out for a spin, to give you motivation to get your ass in gear. Here's the obligatory #shoeporn pic:
Fortunately, it doesn't look like I've lost too much fitness. I just finished a nice 21-mile run yesterday, and earlier this week I was able to get in a 10 miler at sub-9:00 pace. I'm not quite feeling as strong as I was a couple of months ago, but I don't think Disneyworld will be a disaster either.
I've debated in my head for a while how I should approach the Goofy Challenge. It's a half marathon on Saturday, January 11, followed the next day by a full marathon on the 12th. Should I go all out for the full marathon and blow off the half, or go for the half marathon and not for the full? Or should I put some measure of half-effort into both races? I've decided that, given the crappy month I've had and the heat I'm probably going to have to deal with in Florida, the best thing to do is to treat the half marathon as my Real Race. My current half PR is 2:09:57, so I'm going to try to at least beat that. I'd *like* to go sub-2:00 since I've done it before in training, but after last month, I'm not going to let myself get my hopes up. I'll see what the weather's like that day and adjust expectations accordingly. And then I can take the full marathon the next day easy: walk the water stations, take a few pictures along the way, or maybe pace a friend. Then I get my bling and enjoy the rest of my vacation!
Coming up next: my running goals for 2014. I'm still making up my mind on those, so I'll put those in a separate post later this week.
