Set goals that make you want to jump out of bed in the morning!

While recovering from Grandma's, I've been pondering goals for my next marathon build.  I will be running the California International Marathon again this year, and I hope to:

1. Set myself up for a fast marathon on December 2.  I've been working with the same coach for nearly 3 years now (my only coach as an adult), and I trust he will structure my training to accomplish this, so running what he tells me to run each day is an easy goal.  I imagine he will bump up my mileage a bit this cycle, but I'm not sure what else is in store.  I'm excited to find out!  My 2:45:00 or faster Big Dream Goal hasn't changed, but I also recognize I can achieve the fast marathon goal without hitting the 2:45:00 or better goal (2:45:01-2:48:59 also = fast marathon, for me -- and not that 2:49 is slow, just that is not my goal).
2. Improve my get-up-and-go speed.  I have a hard time getting up to speed, which in some aspects is helpful (e.g., I negative split everything), but hinders my speed work and short distance running.  If I'm running a 1:25 400 m, I'm running the first 200 m in 0:45 and the second 200 m in 0:40, which really isn't ideal.  I'm going to work on this with strides that have walking/standing recoveries between, by incorporating more explosive plyometrics, and by lifting some heavier weights.  It's not essential for the marathon, but if I get faster I hope that will make marathon pace feel slower and therefore easier.  Currently there is not much differential for my pace across different race distances, which again favors the marathon so isn't the worst thing ever...it just seems that my 5K pace should be more than 20-30 seconds/miles faster than my marathon pace.
3. Vary my training routes even more.  When I was training for CIM 2017, I got stuck on running the same routes, in particular what I thought were the fastest routes, even on easy runs.  Everything I run from my house is hilly to some degree, but how the elevation is distributed makes a difference in pace for me  (the "fast" routes are gentler rollers with more even elevation distribution).  After Houston, I made a goal to start exploring different routes, and I've been running a lot more courses than I was before then, but I am very blessed to live in a rural area with countless safe options.  During my recovery running, I've already added several new routes to my repertoire.  They've all been hillier, hah.
4. Get more sleep.  This will be the most challenging goal for me, because it's hard to get enough sleep when you're getting up at 4:30-5:00 a.m. every day.  Even when I don't set an alarm, and no matter what time I go to bed, I pretty much always wake up between 4:30-5:30 a.m. (the latest I managed to sleep on our whole Minnesota vacation was 5:40!), so I simply have to get to bed earlier to accomplish this.  Since it takes me at least 30 minutes of reading in bed to fall asleep, I really need to be getting in bed my 8:30 p.m., which is Albani's school night bedtime.  8:00 p.m. would be better, but since I typically don't get home from work until close to 6:00 p.m., that's difficult!  If I run a double in the evening, there is truly no hope, so I try to do most of those at lunch. 
5. Balance running what I want to do vs. the "perfect" training cycle.  In my 2017 training cycle for CIM, I was really focused on making everything "perfect"...I skipped races that I wanted to run in favor of workouts or mileage that I thought was slightly better, I wanted to hit certain paces on every run, and it was really important to me that all of my data showed I'd had my best training cycle ever.  I did, but I obsessed too much about it.  Then my cycle for Grandma's was the polar opposite...I felt like very little went right until the very end.  My performance was about the same at Grandma's as it was at CIM when you account for course differences, which is kind of humorous based on all of this.  There is definitely a happy medium in there and I am going to strive to find it!  I am confident it includes training well, but not worrying about each mile pace or every single workout and long run in isolation; it's the big picture of consistency day after day that matters most (plus our bodies know effort, not pace).  The biggest "imperfect" part of my current plan is that instead of running a 24 miler 3 weeks prior to CIM, I am going to run a local marathon at training pace 4 weeks prior for my longest long run.  I wanted to do this last year, but didn't due to that effort for perfectness ("It must be 3 weeks before and it must be 24.X miles in the same total duration I want to run the marathon in").  I am really excited about doing it this time and it also means I "only" have to wait 17 weeks to run another marathon, instead of the 21 until CIM!  To make it even better, I will be pacing a friend in her sub-3:00 attempt that day, since 6:50ish is an ideal training pace for that run.

While I'm excited about these goals, I've also gone through a bit of a post-marathon slump.  This is pretty normal for me, and I have learned that when we vacation immediately after marathons, the slump is delayed.  That tricks me because I think I've avoided it, and then it hits!  I am mainly falling prey to negative thinking...I am worried that I'm never going to be able to make improvements beyond where I'm at right now, or, even worse, that I am getting slower every week.  I feel "behind" where I was in 2017 at this time, and I also worry about my lack of speed.  I am sharing this bit not to whine or complain, but to be real.  I appreciate when other runners share both their highs and lows, because we can all certainly relate to both!  I'll keep plugging away and let this next cycle bring what it may.

Looking forward to our 1 year reunion in
December, CIM!