So, this past weekend was the ICS New York City Marathon. You know you’ve become a runner when you not only watch full marathons on television, but are actively following the runners you know who are running on social media. Watching the elite runners is nothing but awe-inspiring. You know that elites are being talked about when the race announcers call a 5 minute, 30 second mile “slow.” Or that a 17 minute 5K is “taking it easy.” Honestly, the way these elite runners are able to maintain the speeds they do for 26.2 miles is nothing short of spectacular. The women’s winner looked like she had just take a stroll in the park when she finished. Geesh! If only I could look that way at the end of 4 miles, I’d be thrilled.

If you’re a regular reader on this site, you’re probably wondering where my weekly recap is. After all, it is Monday and that’s the day I usually share my weekly workouts. Well, after running the Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon on October 25th, I made the decision to take this week off from running and any other workout. This is something that’s been coming since Chicago. During the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, I felt beat and in need of a break. Unfortunately, I had the Rock n Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon two weeks later. My training runs leading into RnR LA were difficult because I was so tired from the marathon. The RnR LA Half Marathon was also brutal and left me exhausted. It’s so weird to run a half marathon in close to your personal slowest times and still feel so wiped out. As I was on the course in those last miles, I decided that I would take at least the Tuesday after race day off. By Tuesday, I realized it would be a good thing for me to take the entire week off. I needed this week to not only rest my body but to recharge the motivational batteries that we all need to get out and train in the first place. As I watched the elite runners at the New York City Marathon and followed along on social media with the non-elites, I could feel all the motivation returning. You see, a couple people I know set new personal best marathon times at the NYC Marathon. These people work hard on getting better. That’s how the personal bests work. You do the work and don’t give into excuses.

With my race calendar coming to an end at the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon in a few weeks, I’ve already started thinking about 2016 and things I want to achieve in the year. I’ve realized that some of the goals I’m coming up with need to start happening now if I am to reach them. I started off 2015 with some great goals. By summer time, a lot of that came off the rails. Mostly, this happened because life got too crazy busy and out of balance. Many of the things I wanted to do this year, I didn’t because I simply didn’t take the time to figure out a plan of action. Training plans aren’t too hard to put together for me now because I’ve been doing them for so long. However, sticking to those training plans has been another issue. I’m trying to do too much with very little time and need to find a better way to balance things out. I don’t have this all figured out yet. However, as the year comes to an end, I’ll be making it a priority to put time into my schedule for working out the plan so I can go into 2016 running.

Since I won’t be running the 2016 Los Angeles Marathon, I’ve decided, beginning this week, to hop into the training plan for the Star Wars Rebel Challenge. There will be a slight alteration with the Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon Weekend. Other than that, I’ll follow this plan religiously. I’m hoping that, with lessening the miles, I’ll be able to start building up a stronger base for half marathon running. This coming weekend, I’ll be running my first Magic Mile time trial since training for the 2013 Disneyland Half Marathon. I want to put these back into the training plan to give me a better gauge of what to expect from the Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend. No 20 mile training runs sounds amazing to me for now. I really need the break from marathon training. I’ll also be putting the gym workouts back into the plan. It’s been really hard for me to keep the gym workouts going once the marathon training mileage got to 17 miles. So, by lessening the miles, I should be able to get them in.

The Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon Weekend is less than 2 weeks away. This week, it’s time to get back to work!