It's been a long time since I've blogged, mostly because it's been a while since I've run anything near consistently. Around Memorial Day I ran with a really good friend Ryan and I was feeling in great shape, but didn't get around to blogging it. Over the next week the weather started to peak and anyone that knows DC humidity, knows that running at 5-6 PM is unbearable then with all the humidity. The only decent time to run is 5 AM and that just does not work for me anymore. As a result, I was pretty much forced into a break for the summer and now that it's cool I'm back at it.
I ran today though, which is what is bringing about the next bit of rambling about my new training regiment, my goals for the next few months...and whatever else comes to mind in the process.
So last week I got in 2 miles, first time in a while and I felt like I might have hurt myself a little bit, but with the cool weather that is upon us and some new ideas for what I want to accomplish I felt that there was no better day than today to start myself back up and I did a nice and flat 3 miles by doing 6 laps in our apartment complex parking lot. I was not worried at all about time or how fast I could do a loop. I was purely focused on how my heart felt, how I was breathing, and making sure I did not have any aches or pains. I felt great, my left foot has a bit of an injury, I think I hurt it while walking in my dress shoes earlier this week, but it's nothing a little advil can't fix.
Training
Since my wife went back to work after the baby, 5 AM runs are now impossible. I wouldn't get hope from my run until about 6:15-6:20 and my wife needs to leave for the bus at 6:30. Once she's gone I'm in sole charge and need to be ready for work already...not gonna happen in the 10 minutes before my wife leaves. My new routine is to bring running clothes and my fuel belt to work, and run home. My fuel belt can hold my cell phone, ID, and metro card so that I can get back to work the next day, missing is my blackberry so I have to hope that I don't get any time sensitive work e-mails after hours. Running home is a 5.5ish mile run, mostly up hill, and it will help get me in pretty good shape for my next goal.
What is my next goal?
Since I started running I have run the Marine Corps Marathon every year, until now. With the new arrival I new my training was going to fall off, and did not want to get mad at my self or create unnecessary stress when runs were not being made. With the winter rolling around and the cool weather, I know that my runs will become more consistent so now I have entered the goal setting stage. I am thinking I might want to run the Shamrock Marathon down in Virginia Beach on March 20. This race has always seemed really interesting to me, I blogged about it before I knew we were expecting a little bundle of joy but with the due date being that race weekend, I wisely did not pursue it. I have a friend running it this year, and he has some family and friends down there and if I run it, I might be able to find cheap board which would make it an affordable race. It is my birthday weekend and the day after my daughters first birthday, I don't know about you but I cannot think of a better way to spend a birthday weekend! After all, soon she will be calling the shots, I need to take control while I still can.
Despite my lack of running recently, I still managed to get in all of the races requested of me as a Pacers Ambassador
. I'm hoping that I get to do it again next year as I think I will have a much easier time getting in races and going to volunteer for races I am not running in. I started off the year making it to almost every race, but as life got more complicated with the baby, it became a little more difficult to get my running in. My favorite part of being an Ambassador however, is volunteering at the various 5k races and learning how the race system works and the components that bring a race together. I will definitely be applying again next year, hopefully they accept me and life won't get to crazy again.
