Day after thoughts

I like to do some reflecting on the day after a race. What did I do right? What did I do wrong? What did I learn about myself and what can I take away from this race to help me in the future? I'll allow myself 24 hours to do this and then I have to put it away and focus on my next goal.

I'm more convinced than ever that running on roads is not what I was meant to do. I was joking with Mike that when I was training for a marathon I did my first 50K race in Niagara Falls in under 5 hours. The reason was that I had trained for speed during the months leading up to that race. This winter I didn't do any speed work and focused more on endurance. Now, whenever I start to speed up I really feel it and I know that I'm not prepared to run a speed race right now. When you run on roads, though, it's easy to get caught up in trying to run faster. Running in trails forces me to take my time and concentrate on the terrain rather than trying to run faster. Whenever I do start to run faster in the trails it almost always results in me tripping and falling over a stump or a rock.

I know that if I concentrated on speed work then I could reverse this but right now it isn't my focus and I have to keep reminding myself of that. This is the reason why I'm doing mostly trail races this season. I may only do one more road race in Niagara Falls in June just so I can accumulate more points in the OUS series.

Yesterday I ran with hand-held water bottles and preferred that over the fuel belts. It's funny how I've changed so many different things through the years. I'm also at a point where if I see another gel I think I'll be sick. I've been eating more food during these trail races than ever before. Yesterday during the race I saw a runner with a piece of pizza in his hand while he was running. Maybe I'll have to have pizza pizza on speed dial on my cell phone just in case.....

Today I'd like to do some light biking or go for a walk just to get the kinks out. I'm feeling pretty good right now but getting some lactic acid out of my legs would be a good idea. I'll resume my running on Tuesday morning and do some weight lifting on Monday.