What's next?

What's next in running? I don't think I have ever been this slow in April, perhaps with the exception of my intern year. I have run essentially no intervals in months. My only speed work, if you can call it that, is going fast whenever I feel like it. I just don't feel like running intervals this year. The reason is probably my commute from hell, which forces me to go to bed relatively early. In the past, I have almost always run my intervals at night between 9 and 11. My new schedule includes lots of overnight call, so I have a fair number of days off. On days off, especially after call, running slow on the trails always sounds better than intervals. I haven't even touched a track this year.

On the other hand, I feel like I am in decent shape. So what's next? We have a marathon this weekend: the Copenhagen Ultramarathon. Ultra? Yes, but there is a marathon too, which I suspect is more like a fun run supporting the real races. The big deal is a 100K that often serves as the national championship (but not this year). I'll run this as my last long run before the Copenhagen Marathon on May 23rd.

The Copenhagen Marathon sounds like a big goal, but I'm basically running it because there is nothing else to run. If I could find a long trail race, anything longer than a half marathon, I would much rather run that. But those races are scarce here, unfortunately.

What's next for the Girl? She is running the marathon this weekend and the Copenhagen Marathon, too, and should be ready for a big race on May 23rd. I'm a little worried that she is overdoing it. Just two weeks after a tough 50 miler, she PRd solidly in a half marathon. I'll have to make sure she runs the marathon this weekend very slowly. It's a flat course, so she'll probably run a PR anyway, but I'll have to make sure she views it only as a practice race. I don't think she will have much competition, so I may succeed in making her run slowly.

What's next in life? We have had a rough couple of weeks. Natali is missing her mom terribly after our trip back to La Crosse a few weeks ago. It's put a bit of a damper on everything. I think we all had a great trip, and coming back to work and normal life was a little disappointing. The Girl's PhD project has been stalling for a few weeks but seems to be taking off very soon. She has been waiting for some software to set up the study and it's finally coming.

I hesitate to write about this, as real people from my life read this. As a segway, I have to admit that my imaginary ideal reader is a midwestern runner, but lately, through the Girl's blog, more and more Danes are reading this. But anyway. We finally came up with a Five Year Plan. The Five Year Plan came about on day out of the blue and everything has seemed better after its inception. I won't divulge too much, but keeping in in the running vein, it does involve us running lots of UMTR races.