Return to Running!

The last year or so has been a pretty challenging one, personally (who doesn't have those bad weeks/months/years), so I mostly stopped running. I can't recall if I've talked about the whole not-running thing, but it was mostly due to a lack of motivation/enthusiasm/time.  It was weird because I WANTED to run, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  I had other priorities and no motivation to add running into the balance. 

Fast forward to August, and I finally decided to give it a go again.  I had run maybe once or twice a month for most of the last year, so I knew it would be a challenge.  Although, I was much better off than I would have been if I hadn't been doing Orange Theory the last several months.  Thank God for Orange Theory (yep, still going, still loving it). 

As a motivational piece to running again, I signed up for the Boundary Waters Bank Half Marathon (AKA Ely Half Marathon) again.  This was the last race I ran...a year ago.  It's an extremely hilly race and I decided to "crash train" for it. Again.  I crash trained last year too, but I feel like that was a bit different because at least I was coming off a full marathon in June and had still been maintaining at least some short runs.  This time around the only thing I was coming off of was a year's worth of logging almost no miles.  My first training run was 6 miles, and the rest of training consisted of Orange Theory twice a week, a few 3-4 mile runs sprinkled in here and there, and long runs of 7, 9, 10, and 7 miles. That was it, that was my training plan. I don't recommend it for a new runner, that is for sure.  I think there is something to "muscle memory" at least, and I also had a mindset where I knew I was fine with walk breaks, etc. Over time I worked out a system where I'd run 5-10 minutes and take a walk break NO MORE than 1 minute long. That seemed to go really well!

So this past weekend, we did it. My friend Pamela and I (and our families for added fun and support), headed up to Ely to tackle this beast once again.  We stayed in the same cabin we stayed in last year and it was a super fun weekend. The race itself was about as expected given my year off, lack of training, and the tough course.  I ran with some short walk breaks here and there, and finished in around 2:31.  But that's okay and it was definitely one of the only times in any race where I truly didn't care. It sure did feel good to be back though!  Now that I am trained up (well, somewhat), I decided "What the hell" and signed up for the Monster Dash Half Marathon on October 28th.

It felt crappy to fall off the wagon so long, but it feels amazing to be back on.