Well, now what?

I had been trying to beat my marathon PR for 5 years, and I just did that at the end of April.  I'd been wanting to lose those 10+ pounds I keep gaining back, and I managed to lose 14 pounds with the help of Medifast.

So now what?  (Besides frame that finish line photo where I PRd the crap out of that marathon...)

That's the question I've been bouncing around for the last few weeks, with a number of ideas bouncing back in response.  After careful consideration (translation: when I remembered to think about it during a long run or right before I fell asleep at night), I think I've nailed down some brand-spanking new goals to work towards regarding my running and my eating and other areas of my life.  Since I know everyone out there is breathless with anticipation, I'll share those shiny new goals below:

1) Run the 2019 Twin Cities Marathon and snag a PR for the course.  My PR for the Twin Cities course is a 4:17 and some change, so the goal is to beat that.  I would love to set a goal of under 4 based on my 4:04 time from Glass City, but I've run Twin Cities many times, and I know how brutal the hills can be on the back half.  This means I'm not foolish enough to try and go under 4 on a course where the hills make people cry their way towards the finish line, but that would be kind of awesome if it magically happened.  What's more realistic and just as ambitious is for me to snag between a 4:05 and a 4:10 on that course, which is what I'm shooting for.  I'll save that under 4 goal for a flatter, spring marathon.

2) Add spicy long runs to the training schedule.  I'm still going to use the My Run Plan app for training, but the cramps, leg fatigue, and general craziness I experienced at mile 21 at the Glass City Marathon made me think I need to practice more running at pace on tired legs.  That's why I'm going to spice up my long runs every few weeks or so with some miles at race pace, probably the middle or end miles.  Because why not run faster when you're already running 20 or so miles?  Piece o' cake.

3) Fix that little nutrition issue I experienced during that marathon of mine.  Slamming into the wall at mile 21 wasn't very fun, kids, so I've got to do something about it--especially with my tendency to do that "run too fast" thing all the time during races.  So, I'm going to add in more gels and some of those cool mini-bananas after mile 13 of all of my long runs and see how that goes.  Those mini-bananas, by the way, are cool because they are sufficiently portable in a running shorts pocket--FYI.

4) Lose 7 more pounds.  Like I've said before, it's amazing how fueling your body properly leads to awesome training runs and PRs...and how when you lose weight doing that you get faster not having to lug those extra pounds around.  Seven pounds lighter still puts me well within a normal weight range for my height, and is sure to put me within range of a nice Twin Cities course PR.

5) Stop tripping over large dog when he runs in front of me.  This one might be a bit of a stretch.

6) Add lower-body strength training to my plan.  I did absolutely no lower-body weight training during that last training cycle, and I felt the difference in strength between the front and back of my legs during the race thanks to all the treadmill running I did.  So the plan this time around is on Fridays (a cross-training day) to add in workouts that build leg strength using body weight exercises only...I'm a little cautious about using heavy weights for leg exercises because I fear aggravating my old left butt injury again.  Hopefully this will even out the huge strength imbalance and my legs can feel tired all at once during my next marathon.

You can tell I'm so excited about this goal.

7) For crying out loud already get enough sleep each night.  It's no fun (and very stupid) running 12 miles of speed after waking up exhausted because you spent yet another night staying up too late worrying about work stuff.  So I have decided (very smartly) to get my butt into bed at the same time every night so I can wake up and run way too many miles before work.  I know I've promised this before, but this time I mean it I swears.  Really.  Going to get into bed early and sleep like a spoiled formerly feral kitten I once knew.

So, you know...just a few goals for this next training cycle.  And by "few" I mean "overachieving at everything, even goal setting."  And now I will overachieve at listing ridiculous statements I call "learnings" but are nothing of the sort:

• I did frame that finish line pic, BTW.  In case you were RUNdering (get it? get it? I crack myself up.)
• I'm not lying about those crazy back-half hills on the Twin Cities course.  There's one at mile 21 that caused me to invent swear words one year because none of the existing ones really fit.
• Having my butt get tired before my quads during a race was a weird feeling.  Weird.
• I'm usually more excited about squats than the pic in the post lets on...but not by much.
• If only we all could sleep the sleep of formerly feral kitties who took over my house and my bed.

Upcoming workouts and stuff:  I start some serious speed and tempo workouts next week...I promise I will blog more about this running abuse than I did during the last training cycle.