The past 6 months have been about running.  Not that a lot of my life isn’t usually about running, but when I’m training for and running marathons it is particularly prevalent. 

By the way, two days ago – on October 17th – was our 6 month wedding anniversary!  I can’t believe it has already been six months.  I got a surprise at work.

So a year ago, everything was about the wedding and planning for it.  Six months ago, as soon as the wedding was over, I was ramping up my mileage for the San Francisco Marathon.  After that, I kept up the high mileage for the NorCal marathon, and then had fun at the Rock ‘n Roll half marathon.  And, if you remember, I was supposed to run the Nike marathon last weekend.  A couple of weeks ago I found out that I would have to work all night on Friday 10/14 (until 6am on 10/15).  Knowing that, and after thinking about it carefully, taking into consideration some doctors advice plus the way that I feel right now physically and mentally, I decided against it.  It was a hard decision to make, although truth be told it was more because I wanted the Tiffany’s necklace at the finish line than that I actually wanted to run it.  Also, the Nike marathon is pretty tough to get into and I got in this year through a lottery.  So I might not have the opportunity to do it again.  Oh well!  Sunday morning, I was really, REALLY glad that I wasn’t in San Francisco running 26.2 miles!

Now that it’s over, though… I don’t have any races planned.  Well, except for the Turkey Trot, which is just for fun and doesn’t count   I am going to take a break from the long distance races and let my body recover a little bit and give myself some time and freedom to try something different.  I love, LOVE running.  But whenever I am training for marathons, running consumes a lot of my time.  And if it’s not running, it’s THINKING about running – what I will wear for long runs, eat before long runs, music I will listen to.  How will the weather be?  Where can I fit in all my mileage this week?  Plus, the day before my long runs is a rest day because I have to be prepared, and the day after is a rest day because I have to recuperate.  I go crazy during taper weeks, and the weeks after races.  So my world revolves around running.

Now, all of a sudden, it doesn’t.  So…. what to do?  Now I have time to do all the things that I wanted to do during marathon training but didn’t have time.  Like… yoga.  P90x or Insanity.  Getting back to step aerobics.  Swimming.  Zumba??  The possibilities are endless. 

So far, though, the newfound time I have on Sunday mornings has been used for…  sleeping   Since I have German class on Saturday mornings, Sunday is now the one time that I have to sleep in past 7am.  I don’t sleep in late, but a couple extra hours – until 9am or so – feel like heaven!  I could get used to this.

So… what should I do?