Happy Monday!

As I was winding down last night and preparing myself for the work week, I made a big decision. I was feeling really tired and have been for quite some time. I’m sure it’s a combination of post Center of the Nation and just jumping right back into my NYC Marathon training when I returned home.

65.5 miles plus a whole lotta jumping = FATIGUE

After reviewing my training log, it looks like I have been overtraining. Shocker! It’s not that I have been running that many more miles per week than I’m scheduled to. But I have had many extra long runs, and I’ve been bailing on plenty of short, recovery runs. Not to mention my cross training has been non-existent (unless you consider walking the dog cross training). In other words, don’t ever take my advice on this blog =) There was a 16 miler back in June when I didn’t even officially kick off my training until July. And then of course five 13.1s in a row doesn’t make for smart training. But I knew that going into it. So this week I’ve decided to replace my 2 weekday runs with easier 30 min cross training sessions at the gym. That will allow me to catch up a a few extra winks of sleep (I can squeeze the gym in at lunch) and give my running leg muscles a little mini-taper. I have the Rock ‘n’ Roll Brooklyn 10k on Saturday and the Staten Island half marathon (with 7 extra miles before) on Sunday, totaling 26 miles for the weekend!

This decision comes with the comfort knowing I’m not a newbie anymore.

I’ve got 3 marathons under my belt and I know that I won’t sacrifice my entire training by replacing 2 workouts. Also, I’ve thought long and hard about my expectations and goals for the NYC Marathon. While I wish I could say I’m shooting for a PR, that is just totally unrealistic. The course isn’t an easy one. There are 5 bridges and lots of elevation.

My first NYC Marathon was 5:28. It was my first marathon and I walked A LOT of the second half. I was SOOO happy just to finish.

Thumbs up! I didn’t die!

My PR is a 4:48 on a very flat course (with perfect weather). That’s a HUGE finish time range. I think I will just keep my expectations set to try and come in under the 5:28 time. While I’d love to break 5 hours again, I just don’t feel confident I have it in me. So my “A” goal would be 5:15 and “B” goal would be 5:25. But regardless of my finish time I am looking forward to enjoying the afternoon with close to 50,000 others.

I hadn’t planned on participating in any other races for the year but at the last minute I  just signed up for one more half marathon just 6 days after the NYC Marathon. It’s probably not a smart idea, but i’ll chalk 2013 up to the year of running too many races and make a promise that next year I’ll scale back a bit. My wallet and my non-running friends will be happy. So, I’ll be running the Trenton Half Marathon on 11/9.

I love bridges and this course has 2! photo courtesy of trentonhalf.com

I learned about this race from a girl I met while training for the NJ Marathon at the very beginning of this year. Her name is Jane and she is an ambassador for this event. We had such great training runs together I just knew I needed to run with her one more time this year (although I’ll probably only see her the first half a mile as I’m sure she’ll be blazing ahead while my tired legs will probably just chug along). And the swag/bling looks pretty awesome too:

photo courtesy of trentonhalf.com

So there you have it! My plan to fight the training fatigue and complete 2 really strong runs next weekend, my goals verbalized for the NYC Marathon, and my “lapse-in-judgement-just-for-the-bling” registration in what will be my 11th half marathon of the year and 17th event overall!

WOW: Listen to your body! You’ll know when to scale back and when to go for the gusto! You are your own best training tool. 

Question: Tell me all about your fall race calendar.

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