WTF Am I Supposed to Do Now?

Isn't he so stinking cute?! Snagged a picture with Meb Keflezighi at the TCS NYC Marathon Expo. He's like 5'5 y'all. He's my runner bae!

I had a Reese's Stick for breakfast on Sunday morning.  I forgot to set my alarm 3 times like I usually do.  At 7AM, I contemplated going to the gym but my mind was still playing BlackJack trying to get my money back from all of those races.  I think the only reason why I got up was because my son kicked me in the face that morning.  His foot is heavy.  He's 9 and sleeps like a bear.  My husband and I auctioned off his bedroom for a few days since my cousin and his wife are in town.  In short, I don't know what the hell to do.

In October, I was overwhelmed with emotions about traveling solo to different states, completing Spartan races and marathons and got homesick.  It's November now.  The NYC Marathon is over and all of these people who wanted to drag me places are nowhere to be found.  I have ice cream that sat in my refrigerator for over a month.  That's unheard of in this household.  

​Guys, if you have a precious little marathoner or obstacle course runner in your lives, give that person a hug.  We are all grieving right now when we ran out of races to run.  I feel like the walls are closing in and the only thing that's willing to save me is my fat ass and my endless stack of dirty workout clothes.  

Every day since the NYC Marathon, I told myself to sit down.  Some days I listened because of the muscle spasms and once because my sciatica wanted to be disrespectful.  Other days, I screamed at the voices in my head and told it that I do what I want.  Realistically, my body needs to repair after two months of being a weekend warrior.  

What have I been doing?  Stretching, light walking for hours to nowhere and at times, not listening and doing light strength training sessions at the gym.  

What should I be doing right now?  Avoiding the mannequin challenge.  Not becoming a couch potato.  Making sure that I don't overdo it with my workouts.  Look for races to kick off my 2017 calendar.  Go on the train to sell candy or use my pole dancing skills to dance and raise funds for all of these events.  I'm shamelessly broke guys.
​

---

Post marathon and OCR blues is a very real thing.  In my opinion, here's the hardest things for athletes in this sport to do:

1. Tapering two weeks prior to the marathon/half marathon.
2. Resting after the marathon.
3. Talking themselves out of going for a "light jog" in the park after a major run when they should be recovering.
4. Getting motivated after taking too long of a break.
5. Not worrying about being a fat ass in a matter of days during your rest period.
6. Spending money for seven thousand other races.  
7. Being a nuisance to your friends and family members by trying to catch up on the list of nothing that you missed while training.

Last week, I spent most of my time vegging out on my sofa to documentaries about boxing, running and screaming out expletives about the election.  I'll do my best not to bring my political views to this blog, even though I will admit that I was one of those people mentally slitting their wrists when I found out we had Garfield as the President-Elect.  Okay, I'll send myself to the corner now.  

But seriously, what do you do after the season is over?  Go nurse your sore limbs and open wounds.  Curl up under a book or your favorite television show with the fattiest thing that you ever had in life.  Tell your loved ones thank you for being so supportive and patient for your lack of attention to them while training.  Go look for another race and create some new race goals.  After all, we'll be back on the pavement in another week or two.  This time goes by really quick if you're a hard core runner like me.  

In the meantime, I happily skipped to the neighborhood IHOP to join a few friends because food runs my life.  I was fortunate enough to squeeze in a hour gym session yesterday.  Became a self professed bad ass with my medium French Vanilla Swirl iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts, hold the milk and ate two slices of pizza like a boss.  Tonight, I'll be making another pan of Chicken Parmigiano for my family with some pasta.  I promise you that you're not going to gain 60 lbs. in one night for having a cheat meal.  There's more to us than being an athlete.  Life is filled with more than just treadmills and jumping jacks.  Go find your life outside of the race track.  I hope to see you there.

---