Some things I've learned

So last night I was dead tired when I was posting and also didn't want to leave a super long post. Therefore, I want to share a few things I learned from the race.

1. I CAN do it. I doubted myself a lot throughout training. It was hard, but I did it. I finished. Maybe not with my intended time, but I definitely finished. AND IT FELT GREAT!
2. I learned that as I train for the full marathon, I want to take some new approaches. One of the things I want to implement more of into my training is a lot more strength training, speed work, and core work.
3. I want to start paying a lot more attention to my times, and recording them to see if I'm improving or not, and if not, coming up with a different plan so that I can improve on times.
4. When on a run, and I feel like stopping, instead find something to distract myself on the run. Like I said in my race summary, on the run I started counting things to distract myself and it worked really well. I think an essential part of long distance running has a lot to do with getting yourself out of your head.
5. I want to take less rest days and use the rest days as cross training days. In training for my half, my last day of the week I ran before my long run on Saturday was Thursday. I took Friday off to rest. I think this is good. I also took Sunday off, however, to rest, and Monday was an actual scheduled cross training day. Instead, I'd like to implement a Friday off day, Saturday long run, Sunday cross train, and Monday back to running routine. This way I only have one day a week without any workout whatsoever and I'm also running 5 days a week.

Someday I'll write a blog post not about running.