Now what?

So, the marathon excitement has waned...at least enough that I can walk around like a normal human being again, and not some superhuman.  (Yes, I did walk around like I was all that, because I WAS ALL THAT MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM) But since that's worn off, all I have left is the now what?  For the first time in months, my Sunday will not be spent long running.  I don't have to worry about making a wrong move and breaking a leg, foot, ankle, toe, etc.  My running shoes don't need to be in the forefront of my closet anymore.  I could actually wear non-workout clothes on the weekends.  (I could, doesn't mean I will!) So, seriously, now what? Suddenly I'm afraid I'll fall completely out of shape and end up not fitting into my wedding dress, even though it hasn't been sized or anything yet, so that's basically a non-factor.  Of course I plan to continue boxing/kickboxing at Title.  I was going three times a week, and I might be interested in upping it to four times.  Boxing is a lot of fun, the trainers are a blast, and it really is a great workout. Actually, if you're ever interested in going, I recommend the Alex or Lucas classes.  They're CRAZY hard, and somehow lots of fun, as long as you don't mind sweating all over the place.   However, I'm not sure that ONLY boxing all the time is the best workout plan.  Now that I don't have to run 10+ miles every week, I don't mind going out and running when the weather is nice or just if I feel like it.  Yesterday I did a quick 5K around Lake Q in just over 27 minutes actually.  I have noticed that running everything at marathon pace has brought my 5K time back up a little bit, from 25 back to 27, but really that's not a huge deal.
The question really is, where do I go from here?  Do I want to run another marathon?  Maybe I want to stick to only running half marathons.  Perhaps I should work on my speed and get my 5K back down to a 24/25 minute run, or lower if possible.  Should I try a Spartan race, Warrior Dash, or Tough Mudder? How about trying to lower my marathon time and make an attempt to qualify for Boston in a few years?  See how complicated this all is?  I know I'm probably over thinking everything, but I just like to have a plan.  Seems to me that everything in my life works better when I have a goal to meet.
For example: I wanted to be a teacher, so I went to grad school, passed my MTELs, worked as a sub, aide, etc, and got a job.  Goal met.  Check that off the bucket list, if you wish.
Goal 2: I wanted to run a marathon. I went out, trained, and ran a marathon, in a reasonable time at that.  Goal met. Check that off.
Both of these goals were long term goals.  They took a lot of time, effort, and mental as well as physical strength to complete.  So it seems weird to me that I don't have a looming goal to meet.  Obviously there's a wedding coming up, but that's not a goal, that's a life changer.  It's not the same as having a goal to work towards.  Alright, so I've gone on about this and gotten no further in my thinking.  If you have an answer, throw it at me.  Now what?

Case in point: Every race bib and medal I've used/won over the past year (except the MCM, that one has a special spot and is still on display on my bookshelf.  Maybe I'm not QUITE over it yet) That's a lot to just cut out.

Btw, here's a picture of my Halloween costume.  I consider it a minor failure, because the children thought I was, a) Lala Loopsy, b) The White Rabbit c) Abraham Lincoln. (No, that last one is not a joke).  If you're not sure, I was a snowman.  It was a fairly easy last minute costume considering I had the shirt from a Christmas themed 5K we did last year, the scarf because scarves are still in (I think?) and the hat, which I had to remake just a little bit.  All I really added was a long sleeve white shirt and white jeans.  Perfect last minute costume even if none of the kids got it. 

Happy Halloween.

PS: Sox won the World Series, at Fenway last night. If you're not from Boston, you won't even be able to understand that. If you are, you know why that's some of the best news out of Boston this year.

Busy running weekend

This weekend I had two races. On Saturday, we had the 2nd Will Run for Beer race in the series.  There was actually supposed to be a half marathon a couple of weekends ago, but due to a snow storm, it was cancelled.  Not that I was running it anyways, but that's so not the point! So, Saturday, the race was at 9 am up in Salisbury, right along the beach.  It should have been a nice easy course.  It was an early race and the entire course was flat.  Not a big deal, considering I've been running basically that every time I run Lynn beach. Yet, for some reason, it was the worst race I've ever run.  I don't mean time-wise, in that aspect, it was fine, just under 28.  4 seconds under, nothing to write home about.  But the race itself was miserable.  My body just did not want to run.  I could blame the wind or the fact that I didn't feel great, but I know the truth.  It was the Wendy's I ate on Friday night.  For real.  Normally I don't care too much about eating good food 24/7, but I should not have had Wendy's the night before a 5K.  It was seriously miserable, to the point where I thought I was going to throw up when I crossed the finish line.  That hasn't happened in a long time, so I knew that was a problem.  There were a lot of us running yesterday and we all finished right around the same time.  Cynthia's husband as well as her brother and his girlfriend came in around 24 minutes, maybe a bit sooner, but Cynthia, Katie, and I came in right on each others heels.  The others were just a couple of minutes behind so it wasn't too bad.  I mean, the time, not the run.  Ryan came, which was lovely, but I'm fairly certain he was bored out of his mind.  On top of that, the sea was churning and it was high tide, so the waves were washing up into the start/finish and causing puddles and problems.  It definitely wasn't my favorite race, which is sad, because the course itself was gorgeous.

This is everyone that ran and a few that didn't as well.

Ryan and I after the race, in between crashing waves.

Today, Sunday, was the third race in the Wild Rover series, but really, the second due to the same snowstorm mentioned earlier.  This was a 5 miler in Lowell, set to take place at 1 pm, and I was not looking forward to it.  To make matters worse, last night was Daylight Savings, so I lost a precious hour of sleep.  I also think I'm getting some type of chest cold, and was covered in vapor rub.  I was a little concerned that I would have trouble breathing during the 5 miler, but as I had already paid, there was no way I was skipping it.  If anything, I figured I would walk it if I had too. Going in, I knew there were hills but I wasn't sure how large they would be.  Turns out, they weren't too bad.  It was a nice day for a run, sunny and warm-ish.  I regretted not wearing my sunglasses, but it wasn't too bad without them.  My knee hasn't really been hurting, but my toes haven't been comfortable in my Clima-warms, so I thought I would go back to my old Clima-cools.  Turns out, I think I found the root of the knee problem.  Looks like those shoes have got to go.  Time for new running shoes? I think it might be.
Before the race, I decided I wanted to try something new to listen to on my run. I thought Zombies was using a lot of data, so I decided to cool it on that, but I was wrong and it's actually not using that much.  Today though, I went a different route and tried Audible.  Strangely, I felt like I was getting sick of my running music and when that happens, it makes for a very boring run.  So I bought a membership to audible and threw on an audio-book while I ran.  I went with a book I already knew and loved, and I figured if anything, I would have my music as a back up.  I actually enjoyed listening to the book while I was running.  It gave me something to focus on besides the people around me and the same old music.  I think I'll keep that up for a little bit, at least until I finish listening to the book.  Plus I have one more credit so that's two books.  Those should get me through a couple of runs at least.
As I was running, I kept passing the time signs and I was little bummed out because it seemed like I was doing worse than usual.  The times were around 10:50 for each mile. It wasn't until mile 3 that I remembered that I didn't actually cross the start at the gun time, so I could cut off a couple of seconds at least.  Then, the last mile was all downhill, so I put on a little extra speed for that.  I crossed the finish line at 48:56, but my actual time was 48:05.  Not bad for five miles with hills. I was proud of myself.  Since this was supposed to be the last race of the Wild Rover, the medal was huge.  Somehow I walked right by the guys handing them out at the finish and almost didn't get one.  The race volunteers were directing those of us who came off the finish line around the corner and they wouldn't let you go back and get a medal, since it was right after you crossed and lots of people were coming in.  But there was no way I was leaving without my medal.  The volunteer was kind of rude, but as I wasn't the only person who missed the medals, I tend to think that perhaps it wasn't the best place to hand them out.
Overall, not a bad weekend, but I definitely enjoyed today's run a lot more than yesterdays.  There aren't any races for another week or two, (thank god!), so I think in the meantime, I'm going to practice my speed.  Someone mentioned interval training, sprinting and then slowing down to regular pace, so I think I might work on that.  Maybe by the next race, I can take another 35 seconds off my time.  I'm aiming for 1 minute, but I'll settle for half a minute for now. By the final race though, I'll be 1 minute faster.  That's all for now, and in case you didn't believe me about the medal being huge, here's a picture, of course.