Life After Marathons: My New Approach To A Healthier Life
This all starts with the aftermath of the marathon.
It took me a while to figure out why I was so disappointed in some of the responses I got from people, and I realized that it’s because running had become something I did for the validation of others, not something I enjoyed. And that’s not okay. Rather than totally give up running, which I think would be akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater, I decided to focus more on overall health and fitness and put running on the back burner (but not totally forget about it) until I truly felt like I was doing it for myself, not for others.
The plan is to run three times most weeks, with the occasional week having 4 runs. I also want to do 2-3 barre3 classes per week. I have a ClassPass membership with 20 credits per month (the corporate discount from my job sucked me in), so I will likely use that for a combination of Mile High Run Club (that’s the treadmill studio
I tried back in January) and checking out some of the other fitness studios in the area.
Now that I know approximately what I want my fitness plan to be, I need to work on scheduling. That’s a WIP, but here’s what I’m thinking so far:
Monday - Run (before work) and/or barre3 or other class
Tuesday - Run (before work) and/or barre3 or other class
Wednesday - Run (before work)
Thursday - barre3 (before work)
Friday - REST DAY!
Saturday - REST DAY!
Sunday - Long Run OR Run + barre3 (alternating weeks)
So Wednesday and Sunday are always run days, barre3 every other Sunday and every Thursday, run on either Monday or Tuesday (or occasionally both), and either barre3 or another class on one or both of those two days.
I don’t specifically have Mile High classes on there, but those will substitute for runs on normal run days, I just haven’t figured out which days and which classes.
I’m also still working on distances in general. I have the Princess Half in February, so I definitely want to get to at least 8 miles before that, preferably 10. One of the things I learned from working with Coach is to balance my long run with my weekday running, so I do still want to try to keep the longest run of the week below 50% of my total weekly mileage (maybe even below 40% if I can swing it some weeks). So we'll see how I manage to balance distance with not running super long or super often during the week.
My plan for this week:
Monday - Run (AM), SaltDrop (PM)
Tuesday - barre3 (PM)
Wednesday - Run (AM)
Thursday - barre3 (AM)
Friday - REST
Saturday - REST
Sunday - “Long” Run (5-6 miles?)
SaltDrop is a new class created by the former studio director of my barre studio - I’m super excited to see what it’s all about and I think that an hour reminding myself how fortunate I am to be able to move, which is what his classes have always been about, is a great way to refocus.
I also have three additional goals for this week:
- Stick to two snacks per day at work (this free snack thing has really gotten me, and it’s not good)
- Decide if I want to do another race in 2019
- Plan out my run schedule for the rest of 2019 (and maybe even all the way through Princess?)
The lottery for the United Airlines NYC Half is on Wednesday, but I’m trying not to worry about it. If I get in, yay, but if not, I’ll either volunteer or cheer.
I still have a lot of work to do in terms of figuring out my future with running. But I think that focusing on running as part of an overall fitness program, and not as the main thing I do, will help me eliminate some of the pressure I’m feeling and remember why I started running in the first place.
I don’t know how much or how often I’ll be sharing here, but I do find that having a place to share some things helps, so you may hear from me somewhat regularly. Stay tuned to see exactly what that means and how I’m feeling about life and running and whatever.
And even if I’m not around much … feel free to come here and talk about your favorite coffee and life topics!