What now?

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17 half marathons later and 3 weeks until my next race I am more than ready for a break from racing! Don't get me wrong I'll still be running and doing CrossFit but I'm going to be more relaxed about it for the next month. In July/August marathon training will really be ramping up and my distances are going to be getting longer and LONGER so there won't be time for a lot of rest.

Lots of times after races I sort of have to pause for a couple of days and consider "what now"? This year has been hard with a race almost every weekend I haven't been specifically training for each race but rather just trying to maintain... after my 13th half for 2013 on June 23rd I'll be completely focused on Marathon training and honestly I feel kind of relieved about the whole thing. As much as I've enjoyed the past 5 months I don't feel like I've been able to give it my everything at each race for fear of injury or not being able to run a race the following weekend. I can't wait to see what I can do putting my everything into training for the Surrey International World Music Marathon on September 29th!

Yesterday was National Running Day so in spirit of running just because it was a nice day to run I joined my local run club for a very toasty 7 kilometers:

Don't forget to enter the LockLaces Giveaway that ends tomorrow!

Do you feel like you should always be training for something specifically or do you enjoy a break now and then?

WOW... I can't believe it's over.

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Yesterday I began my day by taking my 2nd taxi ever in New York City to central park making my way to my corral along with 18000 other runners. After a VERY chilly wait I began the race of a lifetime around Central Park, through Times Square, past the new World Trade Center, and through the Battery Park tunnel ending finally at the South Street Seaport.

There are so many things to say about this race and this trip and I just haven't had time to process it all just yet. I've been up for nearly 24 hours now and I need to go to sleep and digest everything that's happened. My race report will be up in the next couple days complete with some great photos!

Until then I will share a couple of things:

1. This was the coldest start to a race I've ever had.

2. I've never run while that sick and I'm STILL sick... seriously.

3. It was not a PR despite my best efforts. Not sure how I feel about this yet.

4. NYC was completely different than I imagined.

5. This could be the MOST memorable race I've ever done.

6. I have never been this sore post-race before.

7. I love Vancouver and I'm so happy I live here.

More to come. I hope everyone who ran on St. Patrick's Day had a great time, I look forward to reading about it but now I need to rest and recover.

Also, I have some more great reviews/giveaways coming up so stay tuned!

13k IS enough.

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So I had planned to do 16k today with a group out of the Running Room. When I arrived a group that I had previously trained with in the summer was only doing 7k, as tempting as that was it was a HUGE group and I didn't feel like that today. So, I opted for a smaller group running 16k with some hills, I felt good, tired but good. When we hit the hill that was about a mile long I didn't feel that bad at all, I powered through it at the front of the pack, thanks Nevada! But come about 10k my ankle started nagging me and I realized that there's no point injuring myself now and it was still 3k back to the store so I waved goodbye and off I went by myself.

It was a peaceful run, I'm thankful for that. I'm okay with only 13k, it IS enough. Sometimes I think I start feeling guilty about the shorter distances when I know I could go that whole 21.1k, probably further at this point. But I'm learning that there is a time for rest, that is going to be very important this year to avoid injury. In preparation for the first half on February 10th next Sunday will be a shorter distance as well.

Here's to a restful week. Is it bad that I need a vacation from the vacation we had?!