My last post was such a depressing one, wasn't it? I'm not going to lie and try to convince you I'm totally out of my woe-is-me frame of mind, but I'm dealing with it and beginning to, day by day, embrace where I am as far as my goals and fitness is concerned. I'm still running....quite a bit....and swimming....and doing quite a bit of core. And, starting this weekend, I'm back to racing!
Now, I'm more than likely not going to set any records. Heck, it might not even be pretty. But I"ll be racing, and I'm hoping that by getting my competitive juices flowing just a bit I might be inspired to set some new goals and get a better focus for bigger and better things down the road.
The GERMinator and I have been doing all of his long runs together lately, and honestly, I think both of us are excited about trading a long run full of spousal quality time for a real race at our own respective paces. Don't get me wrong....I love the fact that we've been able to share our weekly long runs together this summer. I like being able to encourage him and share in his 70.3 Ironman training journey since I'm totally not ever going to tackle that beast of my own accord. But, jumping into a race at the last minute has really gotten me excited about tackling my own race-goals once again.....even if it IS just a local 10K. Actually thinking about taking a REAL rest day to prepare for a race (as of today I haven't taken a total day of rest in....um......20 days....can that be right?) has me a little big giddy. And on a holiday weekend nonetheless. How frivolous! We are also racing less than a week after that in a team relay, so I'm betting on this next few weeks of running to give me a real kick-in-the-keister and help me set some real, tangible, BIG goals!
Since cross country season has really gotten underway full-swing I've gotten more excited about running. It's hard not to get excited about putting high school kids through grueling workouts, hear them complain non-stop about how much they hurt, and then see them improve even though they really shouldn't cause they aren't giving anything near their best. I mean, if I can go out and run a kid into the ground.....who WOULDN'T get pumped by that? One struggle has been having to split my own workouts due to simply not having enough time to fit it all in at once. I'll get a few good miles in during practice, stop, slog through my hour commute home, complete with 3 stops to drop off kids, then attempt to get in the remainder of my miles on sore, stiff, dead legs that don't want to be called upon again to get up and move. That sucks. But I've been dealing with that for five seasons now, and I'll get through that. It's totally worth it to be able to run with the kids, if only for a few miles. Encouraging them and trying to get the best out of them probably does more for me than it does for them. Sneaky old coach!
Regardless of all my mental madness, with all my disappointment in my lack of focus, I still love running and will get through this funk sooner rather than later. And I'm hoping it's with this weekends return to racing.
Happy long weekend.....use it wisely!
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