What I miss about being in training

Hello!  It’s been awhile since I last blogged!  Things have been very busy for me at work and so I haven’t had much time to focus on anything else.  Also, I’m not training right now, so I don’t have much to talk about.  No one wants to hear about a boring 3-mile run, right?  Which is about all I’ve been doing these days….

I’m not currently training for any races, which feels really weird to me.  For the first week or two, I enjoyed not having a running schedule.  If I missed a day of running, I didn’t stress about it.  Five miles has been the longest run I’ve completed since I did my second half-marathon about a month ago.

I’ve realized something over the last several days, though.  I really, really miss being in training mode.  Here’s what I miss:

1.  Seeing the number of miles I run go up each week.  As it is right now, I’m running about 10-12 miles a week, which doesn’t sound nearly as impressive as 20-25, does it?

2.  My Sunday long runs.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really do.  I miss waking up on Sundays with that feeling of both dread and excitement at the thought of running a big number of miles.

3. Post long run pancakes!  Pancakes don’t taste nearly as good when you don’t work for them.

4.  Pancakes are just the start.  I miss eating whatever I want because I’ve been running enough miles to justify the extra calories.  Since I stopped training, I’ve gained 5 pounds.  No bueno!

5.  I miss having a goal.  I’ve realized along this running journey that I need goals to keep me motivated.  If I have nothing to work towards, I lose interest and it’s a struggle to put on my running gear.  I’ve tried other workouts just to mix things up and I don’t love those workouts like I love running!

So here’s the deal:  at the start of the new year, I’m training for a marathon.  I don’t have a marathon picked out yet, but I’m looking.  I really want to starting training like TODAY, but realistically, with holidays approaching, I know that this won’t go well.  So I need a goal in the meantime.  I’ve decided to do a holiday running streak.  I tried this last year and failed, so this year I’m trying again.  Basically, starting today, I’m going to run every day.  The requirement is to run at least a mile every day.  If I start today and end it on January 1st, that’s 50 days in a row I will have run.

Having goals makes me stay on track!  Plus, having a goal during the holidays will hopefully keep me from gaining a bunch of weight from overeating.

How about you?  I’d love to hear about your goals and plans for keeping the holiday weight gain at bay!  Or just about any new fitness goals that you have?