13.1s and 50s and 70.3s, oh my!

You know when you haven't eaten enough all day, you sit down at your favorite restaurant, and order half the menu because you're so damn hungry? Then barely halfway through your monster dinner, you literally feel like you're going to explode? It's because your eyes were way bigger than your stomach. That's where I feel like I am right now.

Combine that with having zero clue on how quickly my run fitness will come back, and it makes race planning incredibly difficult. Mentally, I feel like I could climb Everest (okay, slight exaggeration) by July 1st, but I know there's going to be a stark reality that faces me once I start hitting the roads again. That reality is going to say something like "hey.. psstt.. guess what? turns out you CANT actually run a 20 minute 5K after 8 weeks of not running a step..."

I have tossed around a few different ideas, all of which I'm mentioned here at neauseum. I just can't seem to commit myself to any one thing, because everything seems like it would be so damn awesome right now. There are a whole lot of delicious races happening the end of summer into the fall, and I want to do it all.

There's also the big re-injury factor to consider - I don't want to end up sidelined because I was careless into my re-entry to running. I didn't go through this surgery and recovery, only to end up missing out on the last 4 months of the year. It's going to be hard as hell, but I *have* to be smart. Sounds so obvious, but anyone that's been forced to take extended periods of time off knows how hard it can be to behave when you're finally off the leash.

In an ideal world, I would run Yankee Homecoming 10-miler for a "test" of fitness, followed by a half marathon in late August Early/September. I would then throw in a marathon as a training run (October)  for the finale of The Stone Cat 50 Miler on November 3rd. And to add a little more crazy into the mix, I would love to do another 70.3 this fall. I had SUCH a great time at Pumpkinman last September, and it would be fun to knock off that distance again. I have my eye on the REV3 Old Orchard Beach 70.3, which is August 26th.

I feel like all of this time off from running has reminded me just how much I love it. I'm being given the opportunity to have running back in my life, and be more healthy than I have been in years. While I absolutely cannot wait for that first real long run again, I don't want to crush this opportunity because I was too greedy.

I've already picked my mantra for when I'm back on the roads, to remind me of the 8+ weeks that I wasn't able to run.

Happy Training!