Since my marathon

I've been slacking on this blog, time to get up to speed.  Really, this is the best procrastination I can come up with to avoid my online faculty training to teach.  Oops..

Well, I'd always heard running a marathon changes you, just like getting married and having kids can.  BUT, I just took this in stride (pun intended) :) and trained and ran a marathon, not really understanding this philosophy.

They say for something to become a habit it must be repeated for I think 6 weeks.  Multiply that by 3, and you've got newbie marathon training.  Habit set in stone.  I now workout 6 days a week, and if I miss a day, I'm way off.

I decided to run a marathon for a few reasons, some of which I realized after the fact.

1. Running a marathon is a big deal.
2. I didn't want to lose the training from my half marathon.  Which looking back, wasn't  much in comparison.
3. Training is mentally tough i.e. will toughen you up, or make you cry!
4. Running in the dead of the summer heat and humidity is just ridiculous.  So why not try it.
5. Marathon training takes time, and I've got plenty of that.  No distractions here!
6. Get more in shape.  I've heard stories of weight gain and loss, and well I just thought I could be another story of weight loss.  Then I realized my bone structure wouldn't change if I ran 1,000 miles.
7. Join the 1%.  I'm competitive in my own weird way, so if there's a chance I can do some others haven't/can't/wouldn't dream of- I'm usually in.
8. To prove myself, and anyone who ever told me I couldn't, wrong.  I was always just average in everything growing up, and I didn't want that anymore.

The first few weeks after the marathon I didn't really want to run, and when I did I didn't enjoy it.  Apparently this is totally normal, and the fun did return a few weeks out.

Back to number 2 from above, I didn't want to lose all of my training.  That being said I wasn't venturing out in the early morning for any 15 mile runs either.  So I decided to stick with 4 runs a week.  The 3 during the week between 3-4 miles a run and the weekend mileage around 8-11 miles a run.  I've also stuck with yoga twice a week and added strength training twice a week.

My goal is to run a race decent race every two months.  So the marathon was November 18, two months out put me at the January Icicle run 10 miler.  So I just maintained mileage and ran 10 hilly miles in 1:46- not bad considering I hadn't been all out training, and my downhill 10 mile time is a minute less typically.

And in two more months I'll be running the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon, conveniently on St. Patrick's Day.  Maybe I'll dress up like a leprechaun....maybe not.