Friday the 13th

Oh, another busy week…and apparently I’m feeling exhausted. Last night I got home from work, went for a run, started out around 5:15, was done just before 6:30, I went 8 miles…I got home, I did a couple small things around the house, tried to get some GMAT studying in and was asleep by 8:30…umm…yeah…

My running has been lackluster lately. I’ve been very frustrated by it and I don’t know what to do about it. Justrun summed it up in her blog today pretty much exactly the way I feel. I have been able to get out and plod along, I sometimes wear a watch, but most times lately haven’t. Regardless, the run almost never feels ‘great’ and sometimes I think “why am I doing this” other than the obvious one of wanting to still lose a couple of pounds and not gain back where I’ve made the headway. The main thing is, I’m not doing it because I want to run some races and/or because I’m training for something. And I really don’t care and/or don’t feel like I want to train for anything either. I have been considering a fall marathon, it’s still been on my radar, but man, now I just don’t know. I don’t have the energy/motivation to run hard. And to get my goal time I have to run hard. Every run goes out about the same time frame…anywhere in the 8:45-9:15 (9:30 for my 15 miler on Saturday, but that was a longer run and it was hot and if I took into account full running time, it would be much slower than that as I had a few stop points for water and discussions on where I was running next). I hate this feeling of not even being out enjoying it. I don’t HAVE to run and I still just don’t seem to care and/or like what I’m doing and I hate that. It’s in part due to the glute/hamstring issue I’ve been dealing with, oh, probably close to a year now. It’s tight, it never feels 100%, runs never feel “great” (although that run in the rain last week was nice), and I just don’t know what to do about it. I feel, at least partly sometimes, like I’m not fueled enough. I know my eating has been bad and I haven’t been as diligent about eating a nice afternoon snack to get energy going. I also haven’t been eating the same time frame and same types of things I used to eat when at my last job. I’m still working on getting a new schedule going, but not having my eggs and toast everyday that I was used to, and then a later lunch, has caused problems that I know I need to remedy either by getting up and running in the morning, or eating something in the afternoon to fuel for that time. I just want to feel good about running again. I want to enjoy it and not do it cause I “have to”…I want back the feelings I had last spring when every run felt great, I enjoyed training, I was nailing the tempos, had great times on my intervals and the long runs were almost always great too (OK, a few were bad, but not many). I maintained that for almost 6 months and I ran my 3:42:54 that June…I just don’t know what is different now, what I had then that I’m lacking…I actually am less busy too. I don’t have a 2nd job now, I had more free time…


Just so it’s not such a downer post, I’m including some pics and a few fun things from the last two weeks. Lack Harriet bandshell, where I watched the guitar players with a friend and then had ice cream after. A sunset over Lake of the Isles (one of the chain of lakes that are a great place to run in the metro), downtown from Lake of the Isles and finally this license plate that I found hysterical for whatever reason and since I had my camera…

Tomorrow I'm up early as I'm helping out with the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon, a really big Tri that goes on not far from home. I'm volunteering at the finish line so that should be fun. It's even broadcast on NBC, so watch Saturday night, you might see me out there among the volunteers, although I have been informed we are not allowed anywhere near certain areas when the pros are finishing...and I'm not one holding the tape, darnit...it should be exciting though and I haven't volunteered for a while so helping L at the one a couple weeks ago and doing this one this week, I'm giving back. Even if it's not actually at a road race, but hey, tris aren't something I do, so I don't feel the "why am I not running this race since I'm here" thing that I sometimes feel at road races.