Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

I managed to get a long run done outside on Sunday before another storm rolled through. It was the same route as last week, plus a mile and went so much better. I think some of that was due to the cold that occupied most of my thoughts for the first two miles, including the making deals with oneself that I'll go so far and turn around, but once you get to the turn around point you're finally warm and in a groove. 

The pace was quicker too although I hadn't made that a goal. I felt overall pretty strong and like some of the fitness that I've lost, but had in my back pocket is coming back around. It's a positive feeling and I hope that it continues throughout the rest of this spring and will remain somewhat present during the summer when the "real" work begins (or so I hope).

Then we go walloped (although not as bad as some places) with more snow. Yesterday was a very lazy day, one of those where you sort of wonder if you're in a mild depression, but with the crazy wind and snow, I think there was a better reason for the laze. I did a short bike ride because I'm still trying to add that in and it was dull, but I was watching some TV so not the worst. Today, because of work closures, I was able to do a mid-day seven miles which was just lovely. I forget how nice running is when you are shoving it in at the end of a busy day. The four days off of work, without travel, have been nice and it'll be a real reality hit tomorrow when everything is rushing for three days but so it goes.

For right now, I'm happy and that's what matters.

Getting Back Some Joy

Last year was really not a great year. It wasn’t awful, but it had a number of low points and stressful times, more so than other years. Those moments and, I think, me pushing through those times, took a lot of my joy away from running. And running less than joyfully didn’t give me the stress relief I wanted it to give me. And so it was a vicious circle. 

Many of the stresses still remain: the house and work namely, and some low points linger, the loss of our pup and the disappointment of Bayshore, but those lessen with time. So I’m looking to find some of my joy back in running and, in some ways, it’s slowly coming around. 

I’ve started to move past my leg and back, now knowing it may just be “one of those things”, and looking to challenge myself a bit. I’ve felt small fitness increases and, with those, some ease with some of my runs. I’m trying to remember why I run and want to run and race. Honestly, the Olympics help a lot with that. 

All of this I suppose is just acknowledging different seasons in running and embracing all of them for what they are. 

Circled

​In a way, I guess I just full circled myself. 

After taking many months off or limited exercise while trying to figure out what was going on with my back, turns out that my back is just me being old. I’m still not 100% sure if I think that’s the outcome but post MRI I guess I’m just going to try and focus on proper nutrition recovery, and easing back into running. 

The spring is looking different than it has in many years. I’ll probably end up doing 2/2 marathon or that is the goal. No Marathon for me. It’s a little bit nice not to have the long runs during winter, especially with the winter that we’ve had, but it’s also kind of weird. Because of that, I think the goal is then shifting to do a fall or early winter full marathon. My husband is doing Chicago, so trying to line up the training between the two of us, but we will see.

I’m still trying to find some of the excitement and our motivation for running. It’s coming back incrementally which is nice and I’m hoping that I can just flip my season and have an enjoyable yet hard summer of training.

We’ll see how that goes.

I’m also trying to still make the switch to work out in the mornings during the week. I’m an endless broken record about that, but I am just finding getting home at night later and not having the motivation to run. Abstinent being something to do with my iron or energy levels I think it just is how my life has shifted. Ideally, I’ll be able to motivate myself for the half marathon because the runs are longer to get up and go in the morning. 

As someone said, it’s a muscle you have to train it like anything else so we shall see.