What's next?

I'm floating along with no plan right now, and while unstructured running is perfectly fine, it's also a little worrisome for me. I don't want to lose the gains I've made, but I do want to rest and recover before going into 2016.

2016 races planned:

• Shamrock 15k in March (goal: course PR so under 1:28/9:26, but ideally closer to 9:00)
• Athens Half-Marathon in April (goal: sub-2/9:09)
• Cleveland Half-Marathon in May (goal: sub-1:55/8:46)

If you do the math on another 18-week training cycle, that would have me start training either December (Athens) or January (Cleveland). I just don't know about another 18-week cycle that long, through winter.

And then there's the fact that Athens is an easier race than Cleveland (but it's a month earlier and given winter, it seems more likely that I could PR later).

In more short-term talk, I've been considering doing a 5k to see where I am speed-wise, but the last couple of runs haven't left me convinced that I can get close to PRing. I don't know if it's lack of confidence or real fatigue, but I'm hesitant to do it, lest I get depressed. I have the Home Run for the Homeless, which is a hilly 4-miler that will give me a good idea of where I am too.

In any case, I am hoping to hit 20 miles this week and then back up to 30 next. The plan is to stick around 30 until I hop back into a training plan. Perhaps I should do shorter cycles. Like find a February race (Dirty Love 10k perhaps - difficult trail run) and just train for it, then make a plan for Shamrock and so on.

Hmmm... Kinda liking that idea. And I also like that typing this out helped me come up with a plan. I think I'm going to write a plan for Home Run and go from there.