What to do next?

During the lapse in my blogging, I completed two half-marathons - the inaugural ING Georgia - right in my own back and front yards - and the Nashville Country Music. Earlier this year, I was very excited to register for the Chicago Marathon, but as fate would have it, my niece's wedding is that same weekend. I'm waiting until I get the invitation before I formally drop out, but it's pretty certain that I will.

I don't want to jinx myself by saying this, but I seem to have licked the knee issue. The magic bullet appears to be the strap of fabric-covered rubber tubing that I place just under the knee-cap of the bad knee. It stabilizes the knee-cap and I've not had problems since I've started using it.

I will come off my break from running this week, although motivation is not really present. Having a race in mind to train for is great motivation, but at the same time I feel like taking a break from the long races. Not sure what to do. The Peachtree is coming up on July 4th, but it hardly seems like I need to do all that much training for a 10k. Maybe I should focus on time improvement. Maybe I should rejoin a running group. What to do, what to do.

One thought was that I should just do easy runs through the summer and start training for the Georgia Marathon (full) in the fall. Long training runs are much easier to do in the cooler winter months, a March marathon makes perfect sense if you live in the Southeast.

I have decided that while I am dedicated to running, I don't want to be a marathon junkie - it just takes up too much time. I need to start commiting more of my time to art and enjoying a well-balanced life. Running is great, I love it, but it's not the only passion in my life. On the other hand, I want to get one more marathon out of my system before I give them up for good. End on a positive note.

Not another passion (yet), but I purchased a bike a couple of weeks ago. I'm excited about tooling around town on it and taking it out for longer rides on bike paths around Atlanta. I still have to get used to it - going downhill frightens me and there are a lot of hills in Atlanta. I've had two bad face-first spills in my lifetime - one broke my nose, and the other chipped and left tar on my teeth so engrained that the dentist had to use a plaque scraper to get it off. I feel determined to get over that fear though and enjoy the bike. Maybe sign up for some recreational rides in different parts of the country. I don't want it to sit around and collect dust - it has too much fun to offer.