I still haven’t exactly found my running mojo and that has gotten me a little angry.

I had two weeks of not so great race results. The Central Park Half Marathon last week and the Coogan’s Salsa, Blues, and Shamrocks 5k today. Very different distances, but same sluggish results. But there are things that I was able to take away from these two races that can help get me back on track as well as a couple of things I’m doing on my own.

First, even with the minimal amount of running, I’m too far off from where I want to be. I was looking back at my running log for the year, yes, it’s only March but the one notation I have for every single week is to “run more consistently.” I feel confident that things will fall into place if I just start running more consistently.

One of the challenges I have faced for the past year is that I am not able to run in the evening due to other responsibilities that I have. While switching over to the early morning run was a challenge it quickly began to embrace it and enjoy that time. But winter took a toll on me and that became harder to accomplish. I’m still going to get my ass out of bed at 5:00 am but I joined the gym right next to my office. The treadmill is not the most ideal place to get my daily miles in but at least I can get them in during lunch.

The treadmill also plays into a bigger plan for my upcoming training. Due to the time constraints I haven’t been able to log all the miles that half marathon and full marathon training plans require. I’ve been able to get the weekend long runs done but during the week I can rarely run longer than four miles. Enter the two a day work out. I’ve done this in other sports and have read a lot about runners doing the same. So that is the plan as training ramps up for the Brooklyn Half and then the NYC Marathon. I’ll run my three miles in the morning and log the remaining miles during lunch.

Brooklyn is my next goal race for getting a new half marathon PR. Training for that will officially starts on March 11 but that is the week of the NYC Half so it will be a low mileage week. I’ll have to pay closer attention to my body and realize that on some days the two a day workouts may not be the best thing. But I’m optimistic about the results that this can bring me.

Just getting this plan together has me excited about running again and that in itself is the start that I need.