Recovery and Reflection

Well, the worse performance of my life was this past weekend at the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon.  A combination of all events in my life from August until the finish of that race was the greatest indicator of how I felt.  Excitement, chaos, turmoil, frustration, anger, happiness, relief, and finally...... acceptance.  All this, crammed into 26.2 miles, is that normal or even possible?  Well, when you run that slow (for me), then yes!  I guess I'm not as down on myself as I could've been, since the New York City Marathon was cancelled, I was just going through the motions.

I've always been told, and have used this saying in my classroom that, "you learn more when you fail".  Well, I guess the only thing I learned was the fact that miles are VERY VERY IMPORTANT! As well as the motivation to race hard.  After the New York City marathon was cancelled, I guess my thought to run another race kind of floated away.  I thought I was excited to race a marathon, and hopefully win one, but once I re-upped my training, and fortitude to go one more month, I guess the fire was already dwindling away.  As for racing in Vegas, that city just isn't a place I'd want to be in for more than 24 hours.

So, as the long run soreness escapes my body, along with the self-pity, I am starting to refocus on my next training cycle and what I need to fix.  I finally wrote up a plan; actually, two plans, and will be running again by the end of this week.  Since I am still busy with school, and dealing with the fact that these 3rd graders need me more than I need them, I will attempt to keep my mileage at 90 miles a week.  It's not in the same neighborhood as most of the other "elite" runners out there, but it's all I can manage.  And I feel that with that, along with key workouts; the Boston Marathon will be a success!

A side note on the crazyness happening in my class...  One of my students' dad was found dead in a burning car in the Bosque (forest area by the Rio Grande).  That is the second family member death this year from one of my students...  It's a different world down there (Los Lunas), as most of these incidences are Drug related.  'Breaking Bad' is a reality, and I'm here worried about getting mileage in for a leisurely marathon.