What next?

After a somewhat disappointing performance in Warsaw, I immediately started thinking about my next marathon. And my previous ones, too. Something seems to be seriously wrong. I run my first marathon in 2003 in 3:23:53. Till today I run 7 marathon in total, but all their results are roughly scattered around my debut time. I got my personal best in Rome, in 2005, with 3:15:17, mere 8 minutes faster than my first marathon ever. Now, given the fact that I knew very little about running in 2003 and that my "training" back then hardly deserved such a label and that I believe now those two things have changed quite a bit... well, it seems that something is seriously wrong.

My bet is on regularity. I was always trying to train 5-6 times per week, but trying was one thing and practice was another. It's so damn easy to miss a training! Being tired, unexpected obligations, trips, holidays, sickness... you name it! Therefore my resolution for the new running season was to be regular like a clockwork. 6 times per week is pretty much impossible to maintain consistently (especially while doing other sports on the side), so I settled for 5 trainings per week. 5. Per week. Every week. If that won't allow me to finally give a push to my personal best, then I don't know what will.

I was hoping to take October off and start this regular training routine on 1st of November, but unfortunately that was not to be. I had a cold, which I most likely got during the Warsaw marathon and the bloody bastard would not go away. For months. It was extremely frustrating to stay at home, unable to do any sports. It was only shortly after Christmas that I finally recovered and decided that in this case I'll start the training symbolically at 1st January 2011.

The final question was where to run my next marathon. Nothing motivates better for hard training than a pending event :). As I'll be going to NYC this year, my first idea was to run in the Ocean Drive Marathon in NJ, USA. The date was perfect, 27-03-2011, allowing me to give myself a nice birthday present ;). Unfortunately because of the cold I didn't have enough time to prepare for that one. And as it later turned out, it would not be very practical for me to be in NYC that early. So in the end I settled for the New Jersey marathon, on 1st of May. That gives me 16 weeks for preparations, which should be enough to get into the form that would secure a decent result.

So... the clock is ticking. Time to do some running!

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