Where have I been? Random update.

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How is it almost summer? I can't believe we have been living in this house for almost a year, in some ways it feels like yesterday and in others it feels like ages ago! The last couple of weeks I haven't had a lot of time to put aside for blogging unfortunately, so I thought I'd share a random update about how things have been going.

We built a playground in our backyard. Seems like it should be a simple endeavor, but it most certainly was not. It took over a week and now I have a bunch of landscaping to do to finish it off.

I went for a not-so-great 14k run on Sunday. With the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle half in about a month, I'm trying to maintain the half distance comfortably, but this run just wasn't meant to be. It's unrelated to my injury, but I haven't been feeling 100% and I'm not totally sure what's going on, but it better sort it self out soon!

I'm getting ready for my first Color Me Rad race this weekend in Surrey! I'll be doing it with a friend who is not a runner, so we are planning on walking it together and enjoying the event. We've even created our own team called "Chase the Rainbow"! Be ready for some awesome pictures!

I'm still working on that HUGE chapter for school before my practicum. I'm a little over half way through which is a lot less than I wanted to be at this point considering I wanted to finish it by the end of this coming weekend, there's still hope, but my chances are starting to look slim... So my blogging may be intermittent for a while until I get my new routine sorted out. I've been getting up at 5:00AM about half the time so that I can get 3 hours in before my "mom duties" completely take over the day. Ideally, when I'm working I should be doing 5 hours a day, so right now it's just finding a way to make that a routine that I'm struggling with.

So with all of that, potty training, and preschool visits, it's been hard to sit down and write, never mind read, bake, and run!

I don't want to run.

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There I said it.

I don't always like writing when I feel like I'm lacking inspiration, but I'm all for honesty and I haven't written in almost a week.

 

This doesn't happen very often but I'm just not feeling it right now. It probably has a lot to do with the strep throat I'm still getting over and my foot injury, but mentally my head is totally out of the game.

I went for a slow 7k run yesterday as I was unable to run on Sunday, still being ill. Today was really "blah", just felt like getting it done. I have work to do and races to get ready for. And though I'm not feeling inspired, I know that there's a run around the corner that will be the amazing one I need to clear my head and forget all about this. I just wish that run could happen tomorrow but unfortunately I have no control over that. 

I always feel so conflicted when this happens. Over the last year I've come to define myself as a runner. It's part of who I am now, so what does it say when I have no desire to do something that I love? I know it's temporary, but it feels so wrong, so unlike me. 

Now tell me about your running and send me some inspiration cause I'm gonna need it. My next race is in 10 days...

Struggling

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Yup, this is not going to be a happy cheerful post or race report... I am really struggling wrapping my head around Marathon training. Why?

1. I'm just not there yet. Normally when there's a big race coming up I try to imagine what race day will be like and that helps get me through the long training runs. Because of all the other things happening in my life right now (news to come soon...) my head just isn't focused on the training.

I think is part of the reason I felt awful on both my runs this weekend... The first was only 5k! Yup after 100's possibly even 1000's of kilometers I'm complaining about a measly 5k run. I should specify that I started basically at the top of a mountain and had to run down only to turn around and come back up, not my favorite type of training! Also I saw a bear so that definitely threw a wrench into my pace:

 

It's hard to see the bear (right side of the road in the center of the photo) because I decided I should back up quite a bit before taking a photo. When I spotted it I was running towards it and I was worried that perhaps some cubs were following close behind so I waited a safe distance away before continuing on. The bear paused for a moment in the middle of the road and looked at me before disappearing into the bushes. Black bears aren't really an unusual occurrence where we live but I was visiting some family in a more secluded area this weekend and I knew I should have come better prepared with a whistle or a bear bell in the event of a closer encounter. Though I really didn't love the added hill training it was a really beautiful day and nice and cool in the shade of the trees:

 

On Sunday I was scheduled to do a LSD (long slow distance run) with my run club, it was only 16k but I dreaded it the entire weekend. I'm not sure why after all the running I've done this year it felt so far but I just wasn't into it especially knowing that if 16k was that painful, how am I going to feel at 35k or even 42.2k...? I know I'm just in a rut and I'm tired but still this is not the time for that!

 

2. It's hot.

No matter how much I may want to be I am NOT a hot weather person. Yes I love looking out my window at a sunny day like anyone else but I hate being too hot. I would much rather go for a run on a cooler sunny day in the fall. As the temperatures rise I find myself less and less motivated to get out there and run. Knowing all of these things from running through the entire summer last year you may be wondering why I signed up for a full in September. Well, I was more considering the temperature on race day as opposed to the majority of my training runs. Which is silly really because obviously my training runs are going to total a lot more kilometers than just on race day. That's a lot of time out there on the roads in the heat of the summer.

 

3. I've got hydration issues.

This is perhaps my biggest problem right now especially combined with the heat. I drink a lot of water, on Sunday I had drank both 10 oz bottles I had with me by 6km. Up until now this year, it hasn't been an issue because most of my longer runs have been races which of course have water stations. In the event that I had been doing a 10k+ run on my own I've just been stopping at a gas station to fill up but as we get into the 20k+ runs that's going to waste too much time. So I've made the plunge to try something completely different: a hydration pack!

So maybe now when I encounter a broken water fountain:

I won't be quite so disappointed...

I hope you all are enjoying the summer heat more than me!