Post No-Race Blues

Yesterday was a major race day, not only here in DFW with the Cowtown, but the Disney Princess Half was yesterday as well as many other races like the New Orleans Rock 'n' Roll. My Facebook newsfeed has been full of expo pics, meet ups, pre-during, and after race pics since Friday, and my heart breaks. I should be racing again. I know the face that I am currently not racing is my decision, but that pang is still there as I see a majority of the people I know racing and loving it.

I haven't talked much about it, but as you can tell from my almost regular weekly posts, I'm only running an average of 10 miles per week. I decided I would use the winter to focus on strengthening in order to run better. My knee is doing better all the time, but I still have the fear of pushing it too far.

I've been using the new Combat program from Beachbody since January 2 to get overall body strength. My arms, back, and core are getting a major difference, but my hips are getting stronger too, which makes a huge difference in my running and the pressure on my knee. I'm glad it's working. The 60 day program ends next week, so we'll see how amping up my runs go in a a couple of weeks.

Have you ever taken some time off running to build strength or specific conditioning? What did you decided to do, and how did you handle the "racer's jealousy"?

I Want It Bad.

You know those people that say they want something and stop at nothing to get it? Yea, I'm one of those people. At least right now, I am.

I woke up this morning, and over a cup of coffee, reviewed my calendar for today. Mentally going over 'to-do's', whens and also deciding the best time to get my run in today. I glanced to Sunday, Christmas, to see my scheduled mileage for my long run, and it hit. Nine weeks. Nine weeks until the Cowtown Marathon. Nine weeks of training have already passed. Even as I type this, I get a chill down my spine and goosebumps on my arms...and that taste in my mouth.

I started getting that taste as I finished my long run two weeks ago when I hit the Big 10. I got it again this past weekend. 12.93 miles, knees aching and could barely walk, I had that taste. The taste of accomplishment. The taste of desire for your hard work to pay off. The taste of crossing that finish line. The taste of that damn medal in your hand.  Heck, I will probably kiss, lick and try to take a bite of that damn medal. The Cowtown Medal is one of the most awesome race bling pieces I have drooled over as well.

I think about this race every waking moment. Every piece of clothing or shoes I wear, step I take or anything I put in my mouth is hyper-analyzed on how this will affect my training for Cowtown. I eat, sleep, breathe marathon training right now. I set a goal to run my first marathon before I turned 35. I'm 33, with 35 nowhere in sight, but the timing is perfect and the desire is high. I want this goal accomplished. I want this goal even more than I wanted to graduate college. Every atom of my being wants this.

Here's to setting my goal. Here's to getting halfway to my goal. Here's to nine more weeks of pushing toward my goal. Here's to wanting it bad!