I have almost completed ten races in this pivotal somewhat challenging incredibly frustrating year of 2020. I truly believe God has used running to propel through many of the disappointments. My passions in the early 2000s were youth ministry and running. 2020 took much away from me, but it reignited my passions in both.
I plan on doing a 5K in a few weeks and see if I can hit twenty-four minutes. Honestly I don't enjoy 5Ks because there are quick and fast. By the time I have warmed up, I am done. I hate having to push myself to the point I feel sick afterwards. There is much less pressure than an actual in person race. Kara said she would ride her bike beside me so that might help with pacing. I am going to try and do a practice run with her next week.
Aside that I feel like it is time to train for Marathon #6. I am actually thinking I would settle for a virtual race if in person races do not open this spring. However it is looking promising with the vaccine coming and I will remain hopeful. However I think I should just run one regardless. I still want to beat four hours. My pace per mile would have to be 9:09 and I would have to carry that for 26.2 miles. I know I can do it for a 10K and even a half. When doing a full I typically start to fall apart around Mile #18-19 and when I ran Arizona it was before that. I still think that was a nutrition issue. I totally missed an aid station and I don't know how I could have missed it. I also did not train as thoroughly. I did hardly anything with strength training. I had an ankle injury and took a whole week off and cut down my long runs. By the last few weeks I felt burned out with life in general and skipped workouts.
This time around my work schedule is pretty light. I am not overly busy and I can do long runs on weekdays. Which I have not been able to do since we lived in Michigan and did not have kids yet. I know the physical therapy stretches for my IT band and I know how to "baby" my ankle as well. I am also continuing to work on my form which I hope makes a difference. Running helps tremendously with all my nervous energy. With all the COVID stress this week, I really wanted to just leave the house and go run. I needed to take this week off after the half marathon last Saturday.
I am going to follow Hal Higdon's Marathon 3 program. I followed it when I ran Minneapolis in 2015. That is still my fastest marathon. I might substitute some of the cross training for running. I am not motivated at all right now to swim and biking is hard in the winter. I like the short run, medium run, and long run. I will probably do the short run as intervals or a tempo run. Which I used to hate doing, but got really used them to this fall. I found at least three local parks that have nice paths to run intervals on.
I am not going to pick a marathon yet until I see which marathons open up this spring. I may try and do one local so I don't have to spend a lot on travel and lodging.
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