I have several things to talk about for my goals for 2016. But for now I will just give a brief summary of my running goals. Since this week kicks off the official week of the January Walt Disney World marathon events I will give a brief summary of my thoughts of my plans for my races and overall running goals this year.
Something that I began to include in my weekly routine is strength training. Before I started running I used to be very diligent with my weight training. So I want to make Strength training a more important element to my routine.
Next I want to add more JOY to my runs. Last Fall my running became more of a chore than my enjoyable time to myself. I was dreading my long runs. After Labor Day weekend I didn’t want to put in the time for the Marine Corps Marathon and once that race was done I didn’t want to put in the time for my Dopey training. But after listening to Dimity at the Girls Night Out event I really wanted my running time to be my play time again. So this year after my Dopey Challenge race is over I will determine what races I want to run this year and if I want to improve my finish times or my quality of my training runs.
I noticed that many of my runner friends also felt some burnout this past year. It seems that we have all participated in the same amount of runDisney races so we are at the same “mature” running age of participating in races. When you travel to these races and do as many as them plus local races it takes a toll on you. So I think we all felt like we were overbooked. Something I will think about for next Fall. It’s hard to train for a Fall marathon because the long runs do begin in the late summer and it is still very hot.
With that in mind I have to ponder the decision to re apply for the lottery for the Marine Corps Marathon to redeem myself at that race and I also want to enter the lottery for the NYC marathon. That marathon has been on my radar for many years.
So as I prepare for my second Dopey challenge and have these 48.6 miles ahead of me I will wait to decide what the rest of my 2016 racing season will look like and enjoy all 48.6 miles. The first 3.1 miles will be with my mom for her first runDisney 5K. The next 6.2 miles will be with my friend for 20+ years PK and his daughter who now live in North Carolina. And I will finish off the half marathon with Diana and Mandy will be joining us for the full marathon. And I want to enjoy every single one of those miles!!