Post Marathon Funk

The first comment from my post yesterday referenced the post-marathon down-cycle.

You can find hundreds of posts at the Runner’s World Forums that talk about people going into serious depression after completing their marathon goals. There really is something wired in us that has a hard time adjusting to the total focus pre-marathon training and goal setting to the wilderness afterward.

After running the NY Marathon and qualifying for Boston, both major lifetime running goals I had a really hard time staying motivated afterwards too. I managed to keep up about 20 miles a week, but that’s down from 70 and when I headed out, I was rarely able to push the pace past a trot.

While the marathon garners the most attention, it is just one style of race. There are probably a hundred other interesting races to run out there. Some interesting races I can think of:

• The Continental Fifth Avenue Mile – one of my favorite races.
• NYC Half Marathon – big city marathon feel at half the distance.
• Cross country races in Van Cortland Park in the Bronx
• Reach the Beach Relay – Long distance relay in NH
• Comrades 89k race in South Africa (they alternate an uphill route and a downhill route year to year)
• Thursday Night at the Races – track event at the Armory uptown

As I mentioned yesterday, training for various distances and surfaces is more similar than it is different. Last year, I ran the mile race and the following day ran an 18M race. Same training, different race pace.

I’m also going to try and recruit some people into joining me in signing up for the Greenbelt 50k in May.