A Tough Decision, or Taking Some Down Time

I'm kind of starting with the end on this one. I'm going to post my Brooklyn Half-Marathon race report in the next day or so, but for now let me start with what I got out of this weekend: I realized something important on Saturday during the Brooklyn half, I need to take some time off of training.

Trying out my PowerPoint skills.

In December 2010 I began training for Boston 2011. After Boston (a PR) I took a week off and then began training for Bay to Breakers 2011 which was roughly one month later on May 15. Following Bay to Breakers I did take it easy for about two weeks, but then I dove into marathon training for Chicago which dominated the rest of the summer. After Chicago (another PR) I dialed back the mileage for a week but then ramped it up again since I was running New York. Although I ran New York for fun it definitely took a lot out of me. Unfortunately, about two weeks after New York I began seriously training for the Houston Half (not a PR). After Houston I began training for Boston 2012 (anyone who reads this blog or is even slightly connected to the world of running knows how that turned out). Of course, I took a week off after Boston but then it was back to training for Brooklyn.

The point of that long paragraph? It's been a long time since I took some serious down time. After a less than stellar performance on Saturday I've realized that I need some rest. Except for one workout on Thursday (a quarterly benchmark workout that won't take too much out of me), I'm not running at all this week. Next week I'll let myself run, but my rule will be no watch, and no schedule (though I'm doing a 3 miler on next week, the Wall Street Run). Basically, the plan is to pretty much take it easy until the Portugal Day 5 Miler. I'm not going to do any speedwork between now and then and I'm going to keep my mileage light and easy. I have a feeling this is going to be tough mentally, but I think it's what my body wants.