Here I am, 2 months since the marathon and it's safe to say it's been a difficult 2 months. I found everything relating to the marathon was tough once it was done. I wanted nothing to do with blogging about it because I was having a tough time with it being over. I REALLY enjoyed the entire process. I loved training. I loved the routine of training. I knew that every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday were my run days and I my life revolved around it-and I was okay with that. Training made me very structured in what I ate and drank....turns out I needed that ha ha. The endorphins running gave me were incredible and once it ended I missed them. Even the week after the marathon I was starting to get the post marathon blues. Originally, I planned to take a good month or so off from running...that lasted about 3 days. ha ha Even when I went back to running it wasn't the same-nothing was.
The marathon gave me a goal, a focus and in an instant it was gone. My post-marathon workouts were a waste of my time (in my head). Going from a workout where I ran 20 miles to a workout of an hour of lifting and 40 minutes of cardio was a joke. I missed the structure. I liked making my life happen around my training so once it was gone I felt like all I had was time-too much time. I started breaking all of my eating and drinking rules and felt completely out of control.
Once the marathon ended and runs were just "whatever" I started to focus on shorter runs where I killed myself to get quicker times so I can cut time and hopefully run a race that will qualify me for Boston. In the 2 months since the marathon ended I haven't had a run longer than 6 miles...sad! I've been so much faster, but could I maintain that quick speed for more than 6 miles?...doubtful, but I'm going to get there!
As I mentioned in other posts, I ran for OAR (Organization For Autism Research). They had a team that ran in the NYC marathon so Alice and I went to cheer our team on...it was so great to be there and see a marathon from a totally different vantage point! I wanted nothing more than to go out and run with them. I can't lie, I was pretty jealous.
These two months have been rough....add to it the intro of winter where it feels like it's dark all day. I'm the kind of person who needs sunlight so this has made post-marathon blues worse. As the darkness began to increase and my mood decrease I realized something had to be done....I registered for another marathon!!!! I'm back to training! I will be running the NJ Marathon at the end of April. (While I haven't registered, I will also be running the Key Bank Vermont City Marathon Memorial Day weekend) I can already see that training for the NJ Marathon will be MUCH different (and I fear harder due to weather and the fact that stakes are higher with me having a 3:40:00 goal so I can qualify for the 2015 Boston Marathon). I am happy to be back tho and while it's still week one of training I'm feeling my mood brighten. I'll be starting a new blog-name to be decided soon so keep checking back or like my blog FB page. One change....no dating "blog fans" this time around HA HA!
My final thought: The marathon changed me....that's all I can say!
John Hanc, running writer
"I've learned that finishing a marathon isn't just an athletic achievement. It's a state of mind; a state of mind that says anything is possible."
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