It’s been just over three weeks from my race and I’m definitely in a running rut now. Recovery has not been what I was hoping it would be. I took the week after the race completely off to allow my body some time to recover, but it feels like I lost all my fitness during that week. The last two weeks have been really difficult, my running feels very off. I expected my legs to still feel tired for a bit, but the real problem has been related to breathing. I’m constantly out of breath and my lungs are entirely unable to keep up. I blame some of this on the New Jersey humidity, but even on the days with low humidity, it hasn’t been much better. Sadly, this has been one of the negative side effects of transition and being on hormones, a week off now is like three weeks off used to be.
I was hoping to have put together a training plan for my redemption race by now, but with already being behind where I’d like to be at this point, it’s been hard to decide on a race. My first thought after the NJ Marathon was to tackle Eugene. I hear great things about this race and it’s a pretty flat course. Plus, it’s one of those bucket list type races that I want to do at some point anyway. This would give me three months from race day to race day. If I was bouncing back quicker from NJ, I’d probably be all over this, but I’m not. I’m thinking I’d be better off waiting another month or so.
I’m not exactly thrilled by the idea of running a marathon in summer, but I feel like I deserve another chance at a BQ before 2015 Boston registration opens. With the exception of September 13-14, the first half of September is already booked up with weddings and stuff, so realistically, I’m probably looking at the end of August. This gives me time to do almost a full cycle of training. If my body gets its act together and I can get back to running well, I’m hoping to be able to build a little bit on top of where I was leading up to NJ.
I know I won’t get to escape summer heat, but I’m hoping to find a race somewhere that experiences summers in the 70s instead of the 80s and 90s. And, of course, somewhere with low humidity which basically rules out anywhere on the entire East Coast. Lastly, a flat course will be a must. I like a good challenge and all, but this is strictly about getting that damn BQ already so I can quit being so obsessed with it.
Currently, I don’t really have a lot of options picked out. My front-runner is The Santa Rosa Marathon in Northern California. This seems like a great race and a solid course for a fast race. I’m also looking at the Wausau Marathon in northern Wisconsin. Kind of a random place and random race, but I have a friend who lives in Wisconsin who’s been trying to get me to come visit her. Though, when I mentioned the race, her reaction to where it was didn’t do much to sell me. Plus, the race takes place at over 1,000ft above sea level. While the elevation gains during the race don’t look like anything more than I run on my training runs, I don’t know about that 1,000ft. Honestly, I don’t know if it’s enough to make any difference at all, but I’m not sure I want to chance it.
That’s really about all that I’ve found so far, but I’m really, really open to suggestions. I’d like to settle on something soon so I can get the date in my calendar and put together my training plan. As it is now, I’m sort of flailing without having a plan.