The off-season: a blessing and a curse

I am officially in the marathon training “off-season”. Training for the Marine Corps marathon officially begins the first week in July. I will have had half of May and all of June to “rest.”  Rest, schmest – lets face the facts. The facts are:

a. I’m still eating like I’m in marathon training

b. I’m still running because I’m eating like I’m in training

c. No one wants to play tennis (my official off-season plan that hasn’t panned out)

d. I have a reputation to maintain (although I’m not sure what that reputation is exactly)

Being in the off-season is a necessary evil in the running world. If you continuously train, you will probably injure yourself and curse the day you ever purchased a pair of running shoes. The idea of the off-season during the last few weeks of marathon training is like looking forward to a Disney vacation when you’re a little kid. I dream of the Saturday mornings when I can sleep in instead of jamming down a peanut butter sandwich and a diet coke at 7:00am on the way to the running trail. What happens when the off-season arrives? I wake up early on Saturdays anyway because I’m use to it. I question the fit of my jeans. I start to worry about my pie intake.  Where is the sweet relaxation that the off-season promises? This is no way to live! The off-season is never really an off-season.  It is probably better named the “everything but the super long weekend run” season. My gal pal, Megan, and I hit the steamy streets of Columbus tonight and celebrated our 4 miler with a glass of wine and some North Star dinner.

I’m thinking that I must run forever.