So here we are in week 2 of 13 and my body is like
For most of March & April it was a few easy miles here & there, karate when I felt like it & wasn't too busy with work (read: almost never), & I hadn't touched a dumbbell since nigh on February (maybe? Let's go with February). Now here we are in Week 2 & it's back to semi-real mileage, karate twice a week, & regular weight training, & my body has no idea what is going on.
To recap: I am definitely going to run an 8K in SF in a month, and I am definitely going to run Wharf 2 Wharf 6-miler in 2.5ish months. If I can manage to actually-for-real train between now and then, so much the better!
After a pretty packed and stressful late winter/early spring, my days have freed up a bit latelt, my weekend travel commitments have abated, and I have been in SUCH a better place psychologically now that there is more light and warmer weather and it's not pouring rain every day. A girl could actually-maybe enjoy getting a workout done in this?
Let's get the preliminaries out of the way. I am a) still running, and b) still blogging. (At least, when time allows.) Since Hellyer 5K the rule has been "do some running when possible, if you feel like it," with the intent of following a real training plan starting in May. My next goal race is Wharf to Wharf 6 miler, and while my original goal of finishing in the top 100 women is almost certainly out the window, I am still planning to train hard (read: whatever life & work allows) & do my best.
(I mean, like. It *could* feasibly still happen, but going by recent years' results, I'd have to have one HELL of a three-month training cycle with no interruptions & basically turn my recent best 5K pace into my 6-mile pace, and then I MIGHT squeak into spot 100. So. Not impossible, but if I were you I reaaaaalllllly would not put money on it!)
From a running perspective, April really was lovely. All in all I wrapped up the month with 120 mellow miles, no workouts and nothing over 10 miles, just a bit of easy jogging here & there to keep the cobwebs clear. Sure, there were days when I would have preferred to get a few miles in & didn't; such is life. There was also a lot of travel, especially on the weekends, and although I did get a little running in in exotic locales, I didn't push it. The weather has been beautiful and I am digging on the extra daylight both in the morning & evening.
This is the first Marathon Monday that I've had anything to contribute so please enjoy some of the insanity if you missed it the first time around (or even if you didn't):
If you caught this post, you know I've been feeling overwhelmed at work and also a bit burned out on running and especially hard training lately, so I've been giving myself a little break from the pressure of sticking to a training plan. I decided not to run Stowe Lake since I am now in terrible (or at least far from great) shape and had not actually registered for it yet. However, since I'd paid for this race and it was just a low-key community 5K, I decided to go ahead and do it.
Originally this was supposed to be an all-out race pace effort, sort of a dress rehearsal for Stowe Lake in two weeks. But given the burnout situation I told myself that the point was now just to have fun and enjoy running (remember how you LIKE running and it's actually FUN when you don't put tons of pressure on yourself???). All I had to do was show up, run whatever pace felt good, and if it was slow and bad, oh well, at least I got out of the house & got a workout in and an Alice in Wonderland medal & had fun.
(Now, here is some honest talk that I don't know how I feel about. I think I've always placed in my age group at Brazen 10Ks and sometimes been top three overall, but I took a peek at last year's Hellyer 5K results and, based on the times, saw that if I ran it with any amount of speed, even way off my recent 5K times, I actually had a shot at winning overall. And I would be lying a little bit if I didn't think to myself, "You know, San Jose is a long way to go for a 5K, but if you have a chance at actually winning..."
So, fleshing out a bit more of something I mentioned in my recent race report.
First is just the simple fact that work (and work travel) has been taking over my life lately. A couple of my work projects are legitimately high stakes right now (like, people's jobs on the line if I can't make some things work out) so I've been under a lot of pressure. Those things really do have to be my A-#1 priority right now. Unfortunately, the rest of my work hasn't conveniently shrunk to allow me to spend a greater portion of my day on the high stakes stuff, so I've had a lot of very long days. Working a 6-8 hour day in the office and then coming home to work *another* 4-6 hour day in the late afternoon/evening has, sadly, become a thing, as has working on the weekend (sometimes in airports and on planes).
I suspect it's probably not unrelated, but I've also started to feel really burnt out on running. No one is super excited about every run and workout all the time (I don't think??), but usually my bad days are limited to feeling super tired and unmotivated when I get home, forcing myself to put on my shoes and get out the door, and almost always feeling better. Lately it's been so much worse--lots of days when I'll think about the fact that I have a run on my schedule and want to burst into tears. Or I feel tired and sour about going on a run and then it never gets any better. Sometimes getting ready for a track workout and feeling like I'm about to have a panic attack, except it doesn't go away once I've gotten started.
Long time, no post!
To be honest I've been a bit down about running lately & didn't even bother running the March 3 5K I was signed up for a couple of weeks back because it was stressing me out so much. I have more to say about that, but the tl;dr of it is that (thanks in part to bt), I WAS able to psyche myself up for a local 10K over St. Patrick's Day weekend and it went relatively well, so for now, let's all just enjoy a relatively positive race report!
I found this race when I was just going through lists of races that could work with my schedule. There were a few different Bay Area options for a St. Patrick's Day race, but this one was the closest & looked to have the best course and was also put on by Represent Running, a reputable Bay Area race company, so it made it to the long list and then the short list of spring options.
It was the first one I was really supposed to RACE-race, but given how spotty my training has been lately, it was hard to get too excited about that. I did not feel like I was in great shape and it's hard to get psyched for an all-out effort when you're pretty sure you're only going to end up with a mediocre result. Sure, I could just go and do it as a workout (or even just an easy run), but I never find that very satisfying, and if I'm just going to do a workout or easy run, let's be real, I'd rather not get up at ass-o-clock in the morning and drive for an hour.
