High Five By 55

My Miami Marathon pacing experience has put me in a place I have rarely encountered since beginning running in 2016. I am completely and totally devoid of motivation to run. I'm so bummed by the entire experience that I just don't feel like heading out the door right now. This is not an uncommon experience for runners as I understand it, but it has been uncommon for me. In fact, I can't remember a single time in at least the past 5 years when I've felt this way. Sure, a day here or there where I didn't want to run crept in. Or a series of days where I wasn't super excited about it, but still mostly wanted to go. But this time is different. This time I really don't want to go run. So I'm going to just go with that for a little while...sort of. I have a dog that needs his exercise and loves running, so I'll run with him daily. But I'm not going to do any specific training, at least for a few days, perhaps even a few weeks. I'll let the funk be ...

One of the things I plan to be more deliberate about during these coming years of the High Five By 55 project is recovery. Nah, that's not a fair statement. I've practically avoided anything "recovery" for the past several years, anything other than not stacking hard workouts on back to back days. So let me restate that. One of the things I plan to be is accepting of and focused on during these coming years of the High Five By 55 project is recovery. One of the recovery practices I'm working on making habit is a three times per week recovery yoga session. I ran into this recovery program through Uphill Athlete and have been trying it out kind of irregularly the past couple weeks. It has been a wonderful change for me. An opportunity to slow down, to breath, to lightly stretch some things. At least in Level 1, which is all I've tried so far, there's really not much to it. Breathing, some light movement, long holds of just a few poses. And yet, it is tremend...

I'm terrible about taking time off from running after races. I usually take two or three days a little easier, then jump right back into a structured and disciplined training pattern. I am committed to not doing that on this occasion. So, I've set myself a little challenge. I have a short 3.5 mile loop in my neighborhood that I often run as a double or on recovery days. I'm challenging myself to see how many days in a row I can run nothing more than this 3.5 mile loop. Nothing longer. No joining the Sunday long run group. The only exception would be the short runs I take with my dog. I'd love to make it to through the month of December doing this. I have not had an unstructured running period since I took 10 days off after Ouray 100 in 2022. I'm just three days in so far, and I'm feeling real joy in having no running focus or structure. But I know I'll struggle to make it nearly a full month. I do really enjoy the structure of a set plan and having to practi...