Ok......now what?

To those of you who ran Eugene, Music City, or any of the other marathons on the schedule this weekend, my hat is off to you.......you are all ROCKSTARS.  And those of you who ran half-marathons, my hat is off to you as well, for that is also quite a challenging distance to race.  In fact, here's my salute to any of you who got out there this weekend and raced!

But this post is about something I can only describe as malaise.......I currently follow LOTS of blogs (love to read about everything all of my runner friends are up to!) and for those of us who ran Boston nearly 2 weeks ago, as well as many others who've run other marathons, there seems to be a fairly common sentiment, and it's what I've been struggling with ever since......

Now that I've run __________ , now what????

It's not that I need a training plan/calendar to follow, but considering that it was my focal point for nearly half a year, it's been a rough transition to not have any plan.  I knew this would be difficult, but I'm really having a hard time with it.  My plan was to take a week off from running after Boston, making sure to walk every day to keep the legs moving, but no running.  While my feet still look pretty nasty, my legs are doing pretty well, although my ankles are a little dodgy.  If I take my time building my mileage back up, things should be ok..........but as of now, it seems like my heart really isn't in it.

The week following Boston was our April vacation week, so I was able to recover and rest in relative peace, but last week was back to school......and the first week coming after vacation week is always VERY difficult.  The students never transition very well, so the pressure is on to get things moving without little help from them.  Many of them were glad to see me back and wanted to hear about my Boston experience, as they were actually following me online, as were many of my faculty colleagues. 

So now, what am I to do?  I do have another marathon scheduled (Hartford - 10/13) but my training schedule won't begin until June.....so in the meantime, May is on the doorstep.  The malaise will fade, and will be replaced by my determination to prepare myself for the next challenge, and thankfully the days grow longer, the temperatures get more favorable, and my teaching responsibilities for this school year will end in a few weeks, affording me the wonderful opportunity to train when and where I want. 

The light at the end of the tunnel draws closer, but it's still kinda dark and funky in here.  The only person who can change that is me, and I know what I need to do...........and that's get out there and RUN!  :>)