The Next Thing
The question I’m getting most these days is, “What are you doing next?”
I’ve been so marathon focused these past 10 months that I didn’t give much thought to what I’d be doing after the Boston Marathon. (Other than recovery. I was going to recovery like a champ.) This coming weekend, I’m running Ragnar Cape Cod with some dear friends of mine. It’s racing but it’s mostly fun so I wasn’t counting it as a goal race.
I registered for the 2015 New York City Marathon (NYCM) earlier in the year because it’s my favorite marathon. I also impulsively signed up for the 2015 California International Marathon (CIM). I haven’t set a marathon PR in a while and it’s known as an easy course. (Easy marathon course? I wonder what that would be like.) But, I don’t have to start training for those events until July or August.
Here is how I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do next…
Races. Races have been a huge motivator for my training. I hated marathon training in D.C. during the past two summers. I don’t want to put myself through 20 milers (sometimes with half of those miles at goal marathon pace) in 80 degree heat and ridiculous humidity again right now. But, I wouldn’t mind starting a base building cycle at the end of summer. In the meanwhile, having a few races on my radar would keep me honest over the summer months. Besides, marathon training has left me feeling a little slow and some 5 or 10Ks might help with that.
Field Hockey. I’ve missed playing field hockey. With no goal race until November or December, I could play in my league’s summer session without it negatively impacting a goal race.
Life. Finally, I’ve been looking at other things – work and family commitments, vacations – that might impact my training.
With all those things in mind, here is my preliminary racing schedule through July:
- 05/17 – Capitol Hill Classic 10K
- 05/24 – Alexandria Running Festival Half Marathon
- 06/13 – Lawyers Have Heart 10K
- 07/04 – Firecracker 5K or Let Freedom Run 5K
- 07/18 – Rockville Twilighter 8K
- 07/25 – Crystal City Twilighter 5K
Now that I have a sense for what my summer races will be, I need to figure out how I’m going to structure a training plan around them.
