Hooray! Hooray! I haven't posted in a long long time--almost two weeks--which, in the blog-o-sphere, seems like quite a long time! I wish I had a good excuse, like some simply fascinating travels or exciting life experiences, to cite as reasons for not posting in a while, but I don't....Life has just been busy and "Skinny Mary-Michael" has dropped to the bottom of the list, below "Apartment-Shopping Mary-Michael," and "Job-Hunting Mary-Michael," etc. Seriously, just seeing how activities of daily living can quickly derail my regular blogging has given me even more admiration and respect for those bloggers who manage to post several times a week for years and years. So impressed! Also, this morning, my email was hacked. I sent 200 involuntary messages to friends and acquaintances, several of whom I have not contacted in years. My spam was pretty clever too "Hi Kim, I thought you would need to see this! It changed my life!" And the website would be something completely random like germanshepherds.com. As a result, all kinds of far-flung friends emerged from the woodwork today. It was an interesting day, needless to say.
Anyway, I'm trying to get my routine (fitness and otherwise) and my blog back on a regular track. I this weekend was a good start. Aside from some questionable high-calorie decisions on Saturday evening, I got some great workouts in and I "officially" started my training for the Marathon (October, November & December) and the Goofy Challenge (January). I'm saying "officially," though I realize it might be a bit early. It's May and, according to my weekly agenda, I don't have to start actually "training" for another month or so, but I want to get some extra running-time in before July-August, when it gets too sticky and swamp-like outside to blow through a twenty-mile run. Also, I just ran the good ol' half-marathon-plus-5K combo two weeks ago, so my mileage is technically ahead of where my training plan indicates it should be. (My current "official" plan has me starting out running 9-12 miles/week.)
Saturday I had my first BodyPump class in over two weeks (painful, but a good pain!) followed by a particularly difficult spinning class (Those Saturday morning instructors are hardcore.) Then Sunday, I had a nice 4.25 miles run. (Not a long "long run" but it felt good.) I really want to work on getting in more frequent but shorter runs. I worry I've been running too infrequently, but long distances and that it has taken a toll on my knees. I have to protect my knees for this Fall/Winter running extravaganza!
Also this weekend, I went to my girlfriend's housewarming party. At the party were two other people who had trained for the Frederick Half Marathon earlier this month. Sadly, only one of them ran. The other one, Carrie, got a stress fracture one week before the race, and couldn't run. She actually was wearing a walking cast at the party. I felt so bad. I would have been hugely disappointed if I'd trained for my first half and got an injury only a WEEK before the race. But, she had a really GREAT attitude about the whole situation. I would have been so annoyed, but Carrie still went to watch the race and cheer all the runners on. She said she had a great day. Very admirable! And fortunately, she's planning on running the Baltimore Half in October, so she has time to recover. No Maryland Double...boo. :(
The other guy, Rich, ran the half "because of a drunken St. Patrick's Day dare." I think that's interesting....Should I dare more of my non-running friends to run races while they are drunk?! Maybe I'd recruit more running buddies that way! :)
Anyway, it was an interesting conversation. I think I take for granted that running a half-marathon for me is no longer a "big deal" like it used to be. In one sense it is, because I look forward to it and I love running it. I love the sense of occasion. I really like to run and, even though at the Frederick Half, I didn't feel like I was in good shape, I was still able to finish running it, and then do the 5K a few hours later. It wasn't my fastest time or my best effort, but I wasn't nervous about it.
I remember my first race ever. It was a half marathon. I had never run thirteen miles before and I was so petrified that I wouldn't finish. I get that way now with full marathons, and I'm sure I'll be a bundle of nerves right before the Goofy Challenge!
Talking to Carrie, who had trained so hard that she'd fractured her foot, and Rich, who swore he'd never run one again after this, brought me back to reality(?) a little bit. I think that's one of the reasons I like writing and reading running blogs so much. There are other [crazy] people out there who like running as much (& sometimes more) than I do. No one will blink if I say I'm considering running howevermany races in a short period of time. I don't have to downplay how often I run/race. And people tend to understand that I can say "I just ran a half marathon" and "I am out of shape" in the same breath and it makes sense.
Now, I just have to maintain my regular blog writing....that's the tricky part! ;)
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