Training for Life

This weekend, I had an email correspondence with a friend who had the blues after finishing her first full marathon. She wasn't feeling the running motivation anymore since she finished what she saw as her ultimate goal. I knew what she was feeling as I also got the blues after finishing my first half-marathon. You train for months, and it's over in a few hours and you're left with sore feet and a lot of free time on your calendar.

Some deal with these moments in different ways:

• Sign up for another race, or even multiple races
• Focus on a different goal such as finishing a triathlon or a cycling race
• Go into couch potato mode (no judging here - been there, done that!)

I suggested for both her and I to just enter "play" mode

This summer, we will explore things that we did when we were kids on summer vacation. This could include:

• Walking around the neighborhood with friends
• Walking the dogs/Mowing the grass/Checking the mail (all the fun stuff)
• Play hide and seek with the kids you're babysitting next door
• Use sidewalk chalk to create a hop scotch board
• Dig and make mud pies 
• Have water balloon fights

These are all fun, active things that have no end date. They can be done nearly any time and with very little resources. If you decide to camp out in your back yard, it's not like you'll need to stock up on gels and liquids to stave off dehydration! 

The point is to just live life with joy. We can train for thousands of different races and keep pushing for more, but once those races are over, we have to embrace the life that we have trained for. 

What fun are you going to have this summer?