Beaches, Beer, and Unicorns

After my goal race last weekend I decided to take a break from running. I toyed with the idea of not running for 2 weeks but have decided to just keep it to a one week vacation. So instead of my normal weekly recap of training I am going to tell you some of the stuff I decided while on this little mental vacation.  Before I do though I would like take this quick minute and try to pursued you to take a mental break after a goal race. I know it sounds crazy that you wont be running for a week or 2, but it will give your body time to recover and it will also give your mind time to recover.  What do we all say?  the hardest part of training is the mental part, am I right? I think we all deserve a little time to just sit back and relax. I will be honest when I say not running for the week felt great and it is just what my mind needed. It was like my body was still here but my mind was on a tropical beach sipping beers and catching some rays.

So like I said earlier, while on this little mental vacation I came up with a few things.  First, I toyed with the idea of giving up the blog. Don't get me wrong I love doing this and it has actually led me to many great products and races. I felt like it was getting to repetitious. Then I looked back and remembered why I started this blog, the idea was to show people who felt they were not good enough to run that anyone can be a runner. I decided that during the off months of training( I am obviously always training, but if my goal race isn't until spring then I don't need to give weekly training recaps until I am in full training mode) I would try to do some new things, whether it be high light a runner or just talk about training methods and tips that may be able to help a new runner out. 
Secondly I decided that after my race last week, I am content with just running. By this I mean I am content in not always going into a race and looking for a PR. Last week at the race I made the decision to not look at my clock, and it made the race so much easier for me. If I PR a race great and if I don't, oh well. I know what I need to do to train for a good time and I still plan on training that way, but I am not going to let me watch dictate my actions in a race.
My last decision I have made is it is time to go chase a unicorn.  I have put full marathons on hold for over a year now. The reason I did this was I wanted to work on halfs and build some speed and I think I have accomplished that goal. Now it is time to find a full and go see if I have what it takes to get to Boston.  I don't have a particular race in mind or anything like that but I have never been confident with my training and what I have been doing to better myself. I am thinking a mid-summer race. I am more of a hot weather runner rather than a cold weather runner.
So expect to see some changes on the blog in weeks to come. In the meantime I am going to enjoy this last day of my runcation and try to put a dent in my beer fridge.

Cheers Mate!!!!