#post-collegiate

Driftin’ Along

It’s August already. It felt like it took forever for Memorial Day weekend to get here and then in the blink of an eye we’ve blasted past June and through July. I’m sure that part of that is because I was still in class throughout June, but still, where did the summer go. I’ve got an anniversary, a birthday, a family vacation, and I’m planning on using up a little more than a week of PTO this…

Hi and welcome to my attempt at a blog post series! Three days ago, I ran my final race as a college athlete. I PRed in the 5k for the first time since indoor track sophomore year, won the race in 17:19, and as I said to my coach, it was the second-best scenario for how this season and my career could have ended. Now, I’m a post-college runner and I have no idea what I’m doing. I went for a run yesterday because I wanted to, and today I slept in instead, because I wanted to. And I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, and it’s freeing and overwhelming and exciting and terrifying and hopefully this blog post series will help me sort out my feelings and thoughts.

I’m not quite ready to reflect on my season and my career yet. That will come in the next few weeks as I decompress and realize that it’s actually all over. So for now, I’ll look to the future! My first post in this series is all about what my future as a runner will look like for the next 6 months. Here we go!

Right now, I’m running when I feel like it and taking one last trip along some of my favorite Minneapolis routes. At some point I’ll probably take a week or two completely off and do some yoga, bouldering, and biking while I let my body recover from 8 years of almost uninterrupted running. 

Come summer, I’ll start running regularly again and aim for 30-40 miles per week. I like my long runs loooooooong, so I’ll probably run at least 10 miles once a week and then fill in the rest of the days with 3-6 miles. But if someone invites me to go biking or hiking or climbing or to yoga, I’ll adjust my mileage for the day or take a zero day. For the first time in my life, my exercise is not already scheduled for me, and that freedom is pretty cool. This summer will be all about exploring: my interests outside of running, my new city, and what my relationship with this sport will look like going forward. I’ll probably try to do some trail running and maybe mix in a 5k, 10k, and some workouts too just to keep things interesting. I’m thinking a track workout and tempo each week, plus strides and lifting when I feel like it. 

Fall is where training gets serious. I’m running my first marathon on December 1st and want to train for about 3 months before. I’m probably going to find an online training plan somewhere and not take it too seriously, but focus on making my long runs closer and closer to marathon distance and fill in the other mileage along the way. And then on December 2nd, who knows! I’m not trying to plan out the rest of my life, and I don’t even know if I’ll follow this short plan in the first place. All I know is that college is over, but I’m far from done with running!

Here's to 2015

This is the year I… Run Confidently

Last fall was a big step for me in my post-collegiate career but last fall was last fall and its now 2015. I can’t rest on previous accomplishments and I cant expect for this season to come easy. I like to feel like each season I am starting from scratch working my way back up from nothing with no expectations just goals. So now after a long holiday season of…