I intended to save this post for tomorrow, but I think I will sleep better without thinking about it anymore. Plus I've had a lot of time to think as I've alternated between ice and frozen veggies on my balls all day.
First though, @igbomb you're correct, I am fortunate to have such awesome people in my life. My Good Samaritan was with the others at the mile 26 mark when I sent the mile 23 text. She sprinted to find me during mile 25. I was too overwhelmed to think about it at the time, but a few tears came out looking at our blurry picture at mile 25.99 when it was sent to me hours later -
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10103839526809500&set=a.763411605070.2351567.20905504&type=3&theater. Without people like her around me I wouldn't be who I am today.
@pbm107 despite how well this year went there's good reason I never got too ahead of myself about BQ'ing my first try. A lot can go wrong over 26.2 miles, especially with no experience. It took me how many years to figure out how to run a 5k? It's going to take time to get the true long distances down. Only way to figure it out is by making mistakes...and in order to make them you have to go for it. If you hold back all you're doing is preventi a learning opportunity. I don't know when my next marathon will be, but I assure you there will be more.
@Ned I think it all comes back to the even effort runs. By neglecting them I walked into other problems. Where did the groin pulls come from? Lack of strength because I all but abandoned strength training mid August, about 5 weeks before I wanted to. Do they happen if the back issue never surfaces? Who knows, but I put myself in a position to not have an out when they did. Speaking of the back, where did that come from? Probably a steady dose of over use. Cutting it loose late in a run every now and then is great, but one or more times per week? Cruising in is just fine, save yourself for another day. If you look at my training in a 9 month vacuum this over use doesn't really stick out. Look at it over the duration of my lifetime running career and you'll see I am in foreign territory. I took it slow, but I needed to take it slower, especially as the miles mounted up.
Sorry, bit of a tangent. Short version - progressions and hills will still be a part of the regimen next time around, but it'll be lower in priority to the even effort runs. Those are a weekly necessity.
@Juxtatarot I have not ruled out a spring marathon, but based on what I think I need to do before starting another training cycle it will be tough. I hope I'm not on the shelf too long, but I'm not going to have a better idea until at least later this week. Once I get going it'll be mainly slow miles with progressively more strength training. Ultimately I think I need to get my strength training back to where it was in March (only this time, maintain) while increasing the mileage before I can consider starting another training cycle. A lot needs to go right for me to be ready by January. I'm just going to take it a week at a time then once I get to where I want to be physically I'll re-evaluate where I am mentally. I don't know exactly when I'll consider myself physically ready, but on top of strength being what it was a couple/few 50 mile weeks probably need to be completed with relatively low stress.
Gotta go now, time for another session with the frozen peas. Thanks for the listening ear (eye?) though. You all rock.
definitely wasn't a breeze, but thanks!
