Beginning Again/Continuing On

Well, it's finally here. The start of my training for the NYC Marathon. The goal race. The point of this whole endeavor. Yes, it feels slightly strange to say I am finally starting the trek towards my goal when I just completed my best marathon yet. But this has been the plan since the start. A lot of people get kinda bummed-out after a marathon. You spend 18 weeks or so training your butt off...and then it's over. Whether it went amazingly, or poorly, suddenly it's all done. Well, I didn't really have that experience after Grandma's, likely because I did not spend 18 weeks training for the race. Really, I only spent 5. Sure, I was running before that...and I definitely had the race in mind. But I wasn't specifically training for it. There was no plan until those last 5 weeks.

It's a good thing. I am still jazzed about what I was able to accomplish there and I am mentally ready to really get going with training. I have already made the complete mental switch to where 4:23 is my current, too slow PR that I need to train hard enough to completely crush.

Yesterday was my first run since the marathon last Saturday. I ran an easy 2 miles and followed that up today with an easy 6. Now, they didn't feel stellar. There is still a lot of gunk in my legs from the race and my diet, etc. has not been the best this past week. Time to get back on track.

I still know nothing about my NYC training plan. OK, that's not exactly true...I know that I still have Wendy guiding me and that the basic schedule will be similar. This time, however, it will be a bit more involved, more specific, and there will be many, many more miles. To get my coach up to speed on this particular race, I sent her a copy of this great book:

I highly recommend it.

I am so excited about this race. I have a number of super cool friends running it this year including: Tyler Crockett, Susie Hellman, Natalie Wolf, Vivian Adkins, Dave Wolfe, Michele Keane, Bob Kujawski and perhaps others I am forgetting at this moment.

Also, my mom and step-dad are coming to NYC that weekend and will be able to watch the race, as well as join me at the Team Up! with Autism Speaks team dinner the night before.

So much to look forward to. So much work to do. Bring it.