Yoga Pants Life

It’s been over a month since my last post (shocking!) and I feel like I should probably just start this darn blog over again.

I ran two half-marathons in the last 28 days. I should probably use ‘run’ loosely, as I did an awful lot of walking during each half. My times were not my best, but also not my worst and I feel like I learned a lot from each one. I won’t bore you with details on fueling, pushing through discomfort and feeling like a failure, but I will share the two most important takeaways.

• Stay in your lane
• This is supposed to be FUN

Staying in my lane: I have a few really athletic friends. Some are naturally talented, some make the time to work really hard and some fit into both categories. Sometimes I feel embarrassed by my turtle-like speeds and I don’t deserve to call myself a runner. It’s nearly impossible to remain positive and focused once those thoughts pop into my head. However, I feel like I finally let go of that somewhat and instead of getting down on myself and crying in the middle of a race with thousands of people, I embraced where I was at and just enjoyed the journey. I’m not trying to qualify for Boston, nor am I a professional runner. I’m a ‘hobby jogger’ who just wants to see some improvement in MY times. My friends will likely always be faster than I am and that’s ok. I need to stop focusing on their times and just stay focused on mine.

The fun factor: I’ll be the first to admit, running is hard. Oftentimes, it’s NOT fun.  But, again – I’m not trying to break records here, I’m just trying to push myself to be the best I can be. However, when I start focusing on how much I ‘suck’ at running, I stop enjoying it. Races are too dang expensive to not enjoy. It’s okay to let go and soak everything in (this is such a poorly written, inarticulate paragraph…but I’m not sure how to else to say it.) As much as I’m an introvert who has no interest in socializing or group activities, there’s something about the camaraderie of races that I love and I’m not ready to give up on it.

So, what’s next? As of now, the only thing I have scheduled for the rest of 2017 is the Chicago Marathon in October. While I really WANT to run it this year, I’m open to deferring my entry until next year, if need be. I’m not willing to run another crappy marathon, so we will see how training goes.  Plus, I don’t want to spend money on hotels and travel to run/walk a 6+ hour marathon. NO. Just no. I’d like to run a few more half marathons before October to help prepare me, but I’m also trying to save money and there aren’t a ton of races in the summer. I know I will definitely sign up for the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half in May 2018 and the San Diego Rock n’ Roll in June of 2018 and I’m already excited about those, so at least there’s that.

This is the first official week of training for Chicago and while most of it has been a ‘rest’ week (since I just finished the half a few days ago) I have a great base to start off with and I feel like I’m in a much better position than I was before. I already increased most of my ‘easy’ runs during the week to 5-6 miles (vs the 3-4 I was doing before) and I’ve added a lot more hills in. I know I can do this – I just have to put in the hard work and stop letting my brain give up before the rest of my body does. I also need to clean up my diet. I’ve been eating bundt cake like it is its own food group. No bueno.

Until next time, my friends.