Over the holidays, as a form of motivation to keep me from overindulging, I decided that I want to run a 10K this spring. It is also a bit of unfinished business - at some point while I was pregnant, I had promised myself that I would (a) get back to my pre-baby tennis form and (b) run a 10K. I have achieved the former, but that took all my energy for a while. Now that Malcolm is older, and I have more babysitting options, it is time to get running. The race I picked is scheduled for March 15th, so I have about 8 weeks left to train.
I'm almost two weeks in to my training plan, and while I am enjoying it, the more I run, the slower I feel! I'm trying not to worry about how long any of the distances take, and I'm running slower than I would on the treadmill so I don't get burnt out or hurt, but sometimes I wish I moved more like a racehorse than a chubby pony. Oh well - my goal isn't to win the race, after all, but to finish without walking (although I won't be too upset if I end up walking a bit).
A question for the runners out there: What do you do once the race is over? I mean, what sort of running routine do you have in ordinary time, as it were? I'm not sure how much running would be a good goal to maintain fitness and maybe work on gaining a little speed, without having a deadline to aim for. I'm not really interested in running any more races for now; mostly I want to use running to keep in good shape for tennis, although I am not ruling out a half in the future. If you have any thoughts, share them in the comments.
1 comment:
I struggle after races and often fall out of the habit. My day-to-day is often overwhelmed by work, so I need to go easy on myself to just do something. Right now, I'm trying to re-develop a habit or running by doing it every day. I'm trying not to care about my distance--so if I run a long run on a Sunday, I'll do no more than a mile on Monday.
I guess my answer is to set a goal. Maybe weekly, maybe a mileage goal or a speed goal. (Speed work is fun/hard and you can do it on the treadmill if you like). Give yourself rewards too..new shoes, shorts, headlamp..anything to make it all positive. I also tally every run. It's fun to see what I did each week or month and even after a year. (I also take notes on what made the run good or bad).
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