Hello? Hello? Anybody out there?
It has certainly been awhile! Last time I checked in on this little blog, I was one week off the Santa Rosa Marathon, which was almost FIVE months ago.
Sorry to say, since then running has been relatively…non-existent.
I was doing great for about a month after the race, and I was even considering an attempt to capitalize on a summer’s worth of hard training with a half-marathon PR at the Duke City Marathon. And then my body said NO. Santa Rosa caused some hip issues, and while I could run without incident for a few weeks, by October the things that connect to the other things all decided to do one big pull, causing what I believe were/are shin splints. In any case, I had minor throbbing pain on my shin bone almost constantly. With nothing major on the racing calender, I decided to just lay off of running for the first time since I started running and do some actual recovery.
Not running did drive me a little crazy for a bit, but truthfully, once it got cold and dark, I lost the desire to put in some miles. Couple that with new, demanding responsibilities at work that left me exhausted at the end of the day (whatever hour “end of the day” came), and you have someone that really gave up running cold turkey. SIDENOTE: even though I’ve never thought I had “runner legs” with muscle definition, I’m amazed at how much muscle I lost (that I didn’t even know I had) over the last few months just from not running.
One of our few runs since October, in the snow!
So, in summary, I’m not in running shape and I have no running muscles.
And I have a half-marathon on Sunday.
When I signed up for the inaugural Run Disney Star Wars Half Marathon, I knew I wasn’t going to put much effort into training for it. There is no point in trying to speed through a race where Darth Goofy is available for photo ops and where light sabers are a common accessory. But I was at least planning on maintaining the base and getting 12 mile long runs in, and not running so slow that my Athlinks average got completely wonked.
I was able to build up to 9 miles on Sunday, so I guess I’m not completely unprepared, but I really don’t know how this is going to turn out. I’ve never run any race aside from my very first 5-k without adequately training for it, and I’m kind of worried about how my legs will feel after the fact. I know I’ll be able to finish, and I can probably still come in under 2 hours, but will I be able to walk the next day? Apparently I’m willing to take that risk because no matter what, I’ll be running on Sunday in my Leia costume.
And after a cold winter so far (and super slushy weather today), I’m REALLY looking forward to spending a few days in 75 degree SoCal heaven.
If you are interested, I am actually far more active on Instagram than I am here lately, so if you want to see the Star Wars Madness and/or wondering just how badly I bonk, then I will likely update there first before I get a race recap up here.
Other news:
1) If you didn’t already know, I decided not the register for the Boston Marathon, but, as expected, it would not have mattered anyway because my time was not fast enough to get me in. I can’t believe it’s been two years since I started training for the 2013 Boston Marathon. Time is just flying.
2) I do promise to do a post in the near future about Race Raves, the cool new website for race reviews developed by blog friends, but I think most of the people who read here were also part of the beta testing group.
3) We’ve been playing around with “plant based” diet (the less intimidating way of saying vegan). Not exclusively, but during the week, we are mostly going vegan. I don’t want to advocate for this too much right now nor do I want to argue about the benefits, but I will say that this diet choice has really forced us to eat the recommended amount of vegetables for the first time ever while really helping us to think more critically about food choices, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We’ve also really reduced the amount of times per week that we eat out because the world isn’t exactly on the vegan bandwagon.
Hope everyone is doing wonderfully! I’ve noticed that so many blog friends are either not blogging at all or really reducing the frequency of their posts which does make me sad, but I’m so happy that we’re staying connected through other ways!
