Pondering Plans

I seem to be recovering pretty quickly from Saturday's marathon. I'm still riding a bit of a high, and it's got me thinking more about what's next. This is somewhat of an unexpected result, as I thought I'd be pretty eager to just take it easy for a while, even forgo running for a couple of months. It's great what a motivating factor a race can be. You run poorly, and you convince yourself you can do better. You run strongly, same result.

There is a transition factor here where I just kind of play it by ear for a month or two, with no real specific goals. This is a very convenient excuse for me to rest my various nagging injury issues, which are on the retreat but still lingering. Mainly my left shin and right IT band. I'd be foolish not to take this opportunity to rest and allow them to fully heal. This would probably involve a couple of return visits to my PT just to establish some corrective exercises I could do on my own.

During my training runs with Rob (who has become a pretty consistent training partner) I mentioned I'd like to skip another marathon this year and try some speedy shorter fall races, up to the half-marathon. This would set me up to build to an early spring marathon next year. The shorter races are appealing mainly as a change of pace (literally) but also because it's an area in which I haven't focused before. The short races I've run in the past have been either for fun or as part of a longer-term training goal. Might be fun to pick out a short race and focus my training toward it. Those 5- and 10k PRs could use some revising.

On the other hand, I could still incorporate some shorter races into a late fall marathon goal as long as I planned it appropriately. The attractive thing here is that I could ride out my current base of longer runs after a low-key July. Philly marathon is in November. Marine Corps is October - registration is closed but I might be able to get a charity entry.

Thursday morning I fly down to Orlando to visit my extended family. I expect nothing short of a relaxing long weekend by the pool and oceanside. Perhaps I'll look at a calendar and work out some options for the fall season.

As far as training goes for the next month, I'm not running until I feel confident that my left shin is healed. It didn't bother me during the marathon but this had partly to do with 1) ibuprofen and 2) adrenaline. Surprisingly it feels better now than before the race, so perhaps it's really on the mend. Otherwise, I biked to and from work yesterday and plan to do the same today and tomorrow. A few visits to the pool are also in order to rekindle my swimming technique. My annual trip to SW Ontario is next month and as always, I want to be in shape to swim the blue waters of Huron.