Here it goes…

I may regret this post later.

I have decided to take 2 weeks to recover.  I know I could probably do ok with one week and pick back up slowly but I stumbled across this article at Runner’s World .com: Second Chances (HERE).  The article is helpful for those of us who want to roll into a second or third (or fourth….) marathon (or race) pretty soon after completing one.   What I took away from the article is that that recovery is important, especially for me because I just did my first marathon and my body is kind of in shock mode.  Doing the half marathon last weekend was not the best idea, a bit too ambitious perhaps?  Either way, it did not kill me, injure me, break me, beat me or otherwise have any negative affect other than I can seriously tell I need some recovery time. 

With my next half marathon 7 weeks away I have time to really let my body bounce back (unless I do something completely stupid like run the local 50K that I REALLY want to do on June 5).  I have been thinking a lot about my next marathon and where I really want to go with my running.  With a lot of consideration I have decided that I am going to hit the training, speed work and hills, hard leading up to the Rock n Roll half in June.  I am going to shoot for a new PR, under 1:56 and significantly under that would be best (keep reading…). 

This will only build confidence in my newest plan:

 Run and PR in Portland Marathon on 10/10/10!

Now I am putting this here for you all to see, that makes it both serious and real.  My fingers want to type that I will be shooting for a BQ at Portland but I am just a little bit nervous to put that out there just yet.  A BQ would mean TWO half marathon PR’s in a row. And I am not just talking little half marathon PRs.  I am talking two half marathons at 1:49.30 to put me at the finish at exactly the cut off: 3:40.59. Now I am not saying it is impossible because I believe in hard work and training(just ask Miss Tall Mom Boston) .  I am saying it will take tremendous hard work and training to hold an 8:26 pace for 26.2 miles.  So for now I am throwing it out there with no pressure.  I will work on holding my pace at 8:23.  I am so close to that now. 

This past week I have been enjoying some cross training.  I swam 3/4 of a mile yesterday and again today (I do have a couple of sprint tri’s coming up here soon!). I lifted weights yesterday and did a serious core workout.  I am making a commitment to focus on my core more because (aside from the obvious summer/swimsuit season) core strength is important for running (and it is my goal to run in a speedo swim suit at my upcoming tri if I so desire).

Today I am grateful for:

Two weeks of rest!

The amazing transformation I have seen in my body over the last couple of months!  Pretty sure that is like #1 on the list as to WHY I do this to myself and am considering doing another!

Concealer because I have a huge bug bite (yeah, that is what it is) on my nose. Ugh, what am I? 16?  Sheesh………….