You Achieved Your Goal, Now What?

You've trained for weeks to reach a fitness milestone -- your first 5K, a certain number on the scale, a half-marathon, benching 250 pounds. Now what? Blogger Mark Remy over at Runner's World discusses the dilemma of finally pulling into the station after a long, carefully planned fitness journey. What do you do when you've retired a major fitness goal and the endorphin rush is over?

Readers weighed-in:

• Adam says after a recent marathon his strategy was to put on his shoes, run, then stop running. Basically he's staying the course without any rigid goals.
• Matt immediately scribbles a new plan.
• Lindsey says she heads to new scenery and runs for the sake of running. No training plan in hand.
• Shellerz focuses on falling in love with her sport again. For one week she ditches the training plan and runs, sprints or walks -- whatever her body tells her.
  

For this outdoor girl, bagging one peak usually means I'm immediately eyeing the next summit, backpack trip or cool day hike. In the gym I rarely have a detailed plan, I mix up my cardio and strength exercises every few weeks. But reaching my goal on the scale often gives me license to overeat. Not so good.

Lifting, running, aerobics, whatever -- now we need to hear your ideas. How do you keep your fitness spark alive?