Where Do I Go Now?

After giving it a few days thought, kicking ideas around in my head, I still have a nagging question: Where do I go from here, and what will I do?

Part of the answer is easy to answer because, in about 10 days, I will resume my classes to finish the bachelor’s degree. The remainder of the questions, the larger majority of the answer anyway, is much more difficult. Will I continue to run long distances, or do I go more for the shorter races and work on speed? I really like the 5k and 10k distances, but even now the half marathon seems a pretty comfortable distance to run. For weeks I was running at least 12 - 13 miles on longer runs, and now, having completed a marathon, that distance seems short. When I reached the half point in Chicago I felt great. By comparison, when I finished my first two half marathons in 2009 I was a disaster for about 2 days; and after those races I didn’t run for at least a week! Here now, I am six days out from a 26.2 mile run and I have already run 3.2 and am contemplating another run as I type this.

My choices are: a) take a break for a while and do not run, b) run, but only short distances (5 miles or less), c) keep the endurance level relatively moderate (7 - 10 miles), or d) keep the mileage up at 13 or above.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and last year I ran the 100th Thanksgiving Day Run in Cincinnati. I am seriously contemplating this race again, in hopes of shattering my last 10k time of 54 minutes. In order to do this I must maintain a minimum of 6 - 7 mile medium range runs at least twice a week. Anything less than that would pretty much be a waste of my time and would not net me any closer to a better 10k finish time. If I keep the endurance level slightly above that, say in the 7 - 10 mile range, this would make my target a bit easier to achieve.

Another thought that keeps bouncing through my head is the fact that my wonderful wife wants to try to do a half-mary in May. Granted, we wouldn’t start training for the Flying Pig in the next two months, but if I maintain a higher level of endurance (13 and above), running that half would seem like a walk in the park, and I might even be able to finish under 2 hours!

So many things to think about and decisions to make. I’m open to suggestion, so if you have any thoughts please feel free to share.