Workouts in the off season, 2107 goals

Hi!  If you haven’t heard yet, I’m giving away two free entries to the Glass City Marathon (5K, half, or full)… more info on that here!

Now that my “racing season” has pretty much ended for 2016 (all big races are done for the year), I find myself at that odd spot of what to do between seasons.  The dreaded “off season”.  I know my body needs a rest, but when it comes around to actually doing that rest, that’s a whole other story.

Being a runner, I sure don’t have to tell you the great benefits of getting that run in.  My morning run definitely make my day 100x more organized, energized, and makes me a much better person to be around!  So what is the fine line between resting and running?  I get that anxious feeling like I “have” to run and I really want to run.

I looked at my week and put some workouts on my calendar…

I don’t think my workout calendar has ever been filled with so many question marks!!  But it’s all good.  Getting a little more sleep never hurt anyone, and giving my hamstrings and glutes the break they deserve will help me in the end.

As I look to 2017, I have a few goals….

1) Run the Glass City Marathon as a relay with my kids. (April 2017) It’s a 5 person relay, so I still need to figure out what we are doing with that extra spot (any runners out there wanting to run with us???), but I’m sure I can recruit a runner friend pretty easily.

2) Run the half at Glass City as part of the relay!  I can be the first leg of the relay and still run the half.  That way, I still have a sizable goal to train for in the Spring and not feel “left out” when everyone else is out doing their training runs!

3) TRAIN for the half.  Since I’ve been on a training plan for a full the past 4 years, I haven’t really trained for a half.  So I’d like to get an aggressive half training plan and do some work.  This is assuming I will have fixed all prior injuries (glutes, hamstrings) before I get into this training so I have a good chance at succeeding with the plan.

4) Run my first full trail marathon – Mohican! (June 2017) Alan has told me this is going to be great, so we’re running it together.  I am looking forward to this new adventure, and maybe learning how to run on trails without face planting every mile!

5) Run Erie Marathon and BQ (Sept 2017).  There, I said it.  I really do want to run Boston again and I think Erie is my best shot.

That looks like I’m training for marathons again all year, but I’ve been told the trail marathon will be much different so it’s really not the full training plan I’ve done in the past.  A little “easier” on the training side, think endurance instead of speed.  Maybe more weight training needed??

As for the rest of this year, I’m hoping to get just a few miles more in than the total miles I ran last year.  I ran 1,813 miles in 2015 – so if I run 28 miles a week in each week, I’m all set!  Here’s to goals!

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What about you?….

Q:  What goals do you have for next year?  Faster, longer, or just getting healthy??

Q:  Will you have run more miles this year than last year?

Q:  What do you when you’re not on a training plan?  Do you stick to a schedule of runs?