Uncertainty

Coming off the half-marathon I was pretty sore, more than I expected to be honest. I've also been battling some issues in my groin and abdomen, so I decided to take it easy and see how the week progressed. My legs felt oddly out of sync with the rest of my body on when I race for the first time on Wednesday, and again on Friday, but they seem to have come around. 

I'm a little unsure of what my next course of action should be now. I have stated to some people that I would like to race the Ottawa Marathon in May if training progresses favourably. However, it's too early to start training specifically for that race, and I admittedly want to do some faster work while also building mileage. I'd also like to do some running with other people given that almost everything I did this fall was solo, and darkness in the mornings and evenings now makes it harder to get out the door. I definitely need some sort of plan here. 

This can an issue with self-coaching: doubts can creep in about what you're doing, and what your next step should be. I feel I have a rough handle on the elements that make for good running in the 5k-21k range (note that I said "rough"), but the marathon is a completely different animal, as evidenced by struggles of those in the Schumacher Oregon group (among others). And because the volume of the workouts needs to increase to prepare adequately for the marathon distance, having training partners for even a few days a week is even more crucial. 

I'll see what I can do in the next week to:
a) Resolve the abdomen and groin pain
b) Acquire some training partners 

And then take it from there.