I haven’t run a race since the marathon. On Saturday, I am running the Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day 10K. Today when I was picking up Carlos from preschool I had to make my way around cones in the road that were protecting the freshly painted shamrocks along the race and parade route. From everything I’ve heard about the race it sounds like one of the best spectated races to run. I’m excited about it and unusually nervous. The route is quite hilly. I always strive to do better each race I run, however, this time I’m not overly optimistic that I will achieve a 10K PR on this race.

I have been training for this race since a couple of weeks after the marathon. I adapted my training plan following this Hal Higdon Intermediate 10K Training Guide. Wednesdays were my speed training days. Saturdays or Sundays were my longer run days, though I also threw in a few longer runs of more than 5 miles during the week. Like last winter I have maintained a promise to myself to run at least one double digit run a month. I did a 10 miler in February and I have already completed a 10 miler in March. Initially I was also doing plyometrics and weight training at least once a week.

I have had some mental ups and downs with running since the marathon. One of my running goals is to improve on my time, particularly my 10K time. I’m striving to get my 10K time just under 60 minutes. My current 10K PR is 1:04:16 from the 2011 Shelburne Falls Bridge of Flowers Race. I plan to run this race again in August. It is a challenging race with a very large mountain hill that spans almost all of mile 3. It’s a pretty course and the race festivities are very family friendly and it’s the only race I’ve run more than once. This year I’m hoping to really push myself in order to come close to a sub-1 hour 10K.

My intention was to see some improvement with my time throughout this training. Things were going well. My time was getting better and I was consistently running under a 10 minute mile. Then I took an entire week off from training when my son was on school vacation and ever since I haven’t been running the same. I never blame anything other than myself for my short comings. For whatever reason I got really focused on my weight which only backfires on me. The more I obsess about my weight it seems I only fail to lose weight. The mental game got a bit out of control. I felt fat. My legs felt heavy.  I gave myself permission to run slower to accommodate how I was feeling. Life has been busier than usual and I stopped making time for plyometrics and weight training. Instead of progressing with my training I regressed in many ways.

I am committed to running on Saturday. PR or no PR I will have fun and run the best race that I can. One thing that hasn’t changed is how much I love running. With the early appearance of spring this week I have been enjoying outdoor runs again. I’m more centered. I’ve been intermittently tracking my food intake on Spark People just to stay accountable and to understand where I might be overdoing it. I have put away the scale for now. I’ve also started packing up all the negative thoughts. Spring is here and it’s time for a fresh start.

So starting next week I hope to resume my regular training posts as I begin training for my 4th half marathon. On May 5th I will be running the Shelburne, VT spring half marathon.