Holding Out for a Hero

As tends to be the case, when I don't have a set plan I find myself wandering around a bit in my training. I am following my RunPlan that I have but it's not really geared towards anything so I'm at about 25-29 miles a week with a long run of ten miles. I have dialed back to only three runs a week because I tend to log two runs also at OT which are anywhere from 1.5-3.1 miles so can add up. I'm climbing a bit more, still only once a week, but I'm seeing some improvement so that's kind of fun. Not sure what I'll ever do with that, but it's a nice time to share with the husband. I do have a 5K tomorrow and I'm slightly wondering if I will be able to potentially when the women or, at least, my age group. It's funny because aside from an Arizona run I did and the Shrewsbury Turkey Trot, running has never something that I go into think I can win unlike some frisbee tournaments or skating competitions. So when I have a race that I think I can actually make "a name" for myself (as much of a name as that may be in a little 5K race) I find it's fun and exciting. I love competition. Always have and I probably always so it's fun to me when there is something more to a race than just the internal competition. The other thing that I like, though, is that I'm not expected to so anything so if I don't do what I think I can do, it doesn't matter. Unlike my other events, specifically skating, there was an expectation which made it stressful. Frisbee had a team component which made it stressful in another way (you had to rely on other people and people relied on you not to mess up). Here this is just me and, really, no one knows my thoughts about what I want to accomplish. In addition to just trucking along with no plan, is that thought that I don't know what I want to do next. After Providence I was so positive about running. I still am, but when I run as the heat and humidity have started to come back, I find myself feeling that exhaustion that I had last summer creep in. I don't know if I WANT to push myself through long runs in the summer or speed workouts after work in the heat. There is something so draining about this weather that is actually a bit of the opposite from what most people think about running. I sometimes just cannot handle this weather and it makes me super frustrated and disappointed in myself so I find summer running to also be harder than winter in the mental sense. So I don't know what I'm up to this training season. I think I may try to run some shorter races and also really try to PR in a half. I'll keep up my distances, but I'm not sure if there's a fall marathon in my future this year. I may lay-low and look to tackle Providence or another spring marathon with a little more vigor than I did this year.