running and plans for 2016

I can't believe I ran a marathon in April. It feels like it was ages ago. But I also wasn't as obsessed with it as I had been two years before, so it didn't leave as much of a mental marker. Anyway, after the Blue Ridge Marathon in April I took a break from training, and was just running short distances a couple times a week, maybe with another visit to the gym thrown in. I felt pretty lazy. Then I decided to train for an October olympic-distance triathlon, so I spent a few months swimming twice a week, biking twice a week (usually on the trainer), and running three times. But when my grandmother died and I went to New Mexico for the funeral, I decided to stay there as long as I could to hang out with family, and thus didn't fly back to Virginia in time for the triathlon. (I felt better about this decision when I learned the swim portion of the tri was cancelled due to lots of rain. The swim is definitely my weakest portion, but I wouldn't have wanted to skip it.)

So I found myself in mid-October with no more than seven miles of running or thirty miles of biking at a time on my legs, and no triathlon accomplishment. I couldn't ramp up safely for a fall half or full marathon, and I'd never make it on a fall century ride (or even a metric century). The season for everything was going to be over, I had nothing to show for my summer or fall, and all I could see was a long bleak winter of floundering ahead. This made me anxious to start a training program and go big as soon as possible. So I searched for a winter marathon in driving distance that wouldn't have a good chance of being canceled due to inclement weather. I found the Charleston Marathon, which at the time was fourteen weeks away. Ding ding ding, I found my plan.

I'm going to hold off on actually registering, in case my body (namely my IT-band) doesn't make it. But I'm five weeks into my marathon training. I like having a plan to follow to keep me running regularly, and I like how running makes the winter more bearable. I also like the thought of getting a marathon done early in the year, leaving plenty of time for other events.

So here is my tentative plan for 2016:

• January marathon in Charleston, SC

• May or June olympic triathlon somewhere in Virginia

• September half marathon in Hawaii (!)

• October century ride

I'm excited.