After running the Marine Corps Marathon in late October, I had met my goal for the year and didn't have any short-term goals in mind. I got my MCM Tatt that I promised myself as a reward and reminder, but lacked motivation to train. BTW, I intend to add a little runner for each race over 26.2 miles. Hopefully I will have an anklet by 50. I know this may be a bit self absorbed and silly at my age, but I don't really care.
After recovering from the marathon in a week, I started back on my 6 day a week 5 mile regimen, but also gained about 5-8 pounds in the process. The primary reason for the weight gain is that I didn't have any incentive and I also didn't watch my diet as closely. I read several articles that said this often happens after meeting your long-term goal. After about two months into 2012, I finally made a short-term goal of adding a 10 mile run to my weekly plan and have stuck to it. I also added a long-term goal to enter and run (with a little luck from the lottery) the 2012 NYC Marathon and intend to change my training strategy.
So I guess the moral of this piece is that goals do matter--they keep the undisciplined disciplined.
