#7 is in the can - my 7th marathon was completed on Sunday, May 6th, and it turned out to be better than I thought. I went into this race a bit undertrained (no mid-week long runs at all!) and expected to finish in about 4:35 - 4:40, but finished up in 4:25:27, and actually felt really good when I was done. I walked far less than I had expected, and had a steady (and controlled) pace for the first 20 miles. In short, a decent race on it's own, but I was even happier given my expectations.
Since then, however, I've had the blues. That's not unusual for me after a race, so I'm not taking it all that seriously, but it's still a bummer. I think it's the lack of exercise for the past few days, combined with my stagnant (increasing?) weight. I can only blame myself for that latter bit - the week after the marathon often includes a celebration, but I bought myself a few extra weeks of high intensity workouts before I hit my weight goals.
They say one way to beat the blues is to set new goals - that part's easy; I set those goals BEFORE the race. I'll run a triathlon in four weeks in my town, and I've started the P90X program to build up some strength (especially upper body) and hopefully do some body reshaping. I'll need to get back on the bike and in the pool; all told, I'll essentially need to double up my workouts for the next 60 days. If I can keep my diet under control, it could be a great couple of months. One pound a week of weight loss would be an awesome accomplishment, and would have me where I want to be by Independence day. The key is daily discipline, and I need to focus on that. It's not the 6 month plan, the 3 month plan, or the 1 month plan. It's today, it's this week, it's making the time and doing it when I don't. The phrase of the week was "A month from now, you'll wish you had started today". Rather than wishing, I'm hoping to be thankful that I started today.
