Here come the fall blues

It's been a while since my last post.  Lots to update!

The Charleston Distance Run was Sept 4th.  I can't believe I have not been on here to post about it.  It was the most beautiful day and weekend we have had in a long time.  The weather was super cool and it was just perfect.  I started off in the back with my friend, Mary Ellen.  I felt great.  She was running without a watch, and I was running with her, but I knew we were running too fast starting out.  I was wanting to keep a 10:15-10:30 pace the whole time, and she was running at a 9:30.  We got to Capital Punishment hill about 3.5 miles in and I was feeling good going up.  Mary Ellen needed to stop about half way, so I stopped with her to walk.  We walked a good bit, then started up again, but only for about 45 seconds, then she needed to stop again.  She got frustrated and told me to go on without her, so I did.  I managed to get through the rest of the hills without having to walk but only a few more times.  I didn't want to wear myself out on the hills, anyways.  I came down and over the bridge and still felt pretty good.  Great, 7 miles left.  I was managing about a 10:00 min/mile pace for a while, then I started to get really tired around mile 12.  I realized that I was killing my last 13.1 time by about 5 minutes, so I tried to push myself to get to 13.1 before I gave in.  I didn't quite make it, but still had a better time at this point than the Parkersburg Half.  That made me feel good, but boy was I hurting!  I ended up walking/running the last 2 miles.  I managed a slow slog the last mile or so and finished in 2:37, which reached my goal of under 2:40.  I ate a donut after I finished.

Last year, I finished in 2:28.  I had a great training year last year, it being my first time ever training for a big race.  I am still proud of my finish this year, considering the lay-off I had due to that ankle/achilles injury.  Instead of giving up on running all together, I overcame it and trained my little heart out in barely 10 weeks.  For that, I am proud.  The future of the race is still undecided, though.  We are definitely having a race next year, but they aren't sure if it's going to be a 15 miler, or a half marathon.  I'm glad I got to race this year, just in case it was the last 15 mile race we had.

So, last year after CDR, I pretty much quit running and gained weight.  I ran out of motivation and didn't want to get up and run anymore.  I even signed up for a half marathon and ended up not going!  Well, this year I am determined for that not to happen again, but I'm already suffering from the lack of motivation that I had last year.  I have read that this is common, though, going through post-race blues.  I don't think my problem is just post-race blues, though.  It's fall/winter blues.  You see, it gets so dark so early here this time of the year, and it's going to be way worse when we set the clocks back.  This means, it is very dark when I get up in the morning to head to work, and dark when I get off work at 6pm.  Do you know how depressing that is??  To lose all daylight to work??  All I want to do this time of the year is sleep because it's dark outside.  Well, I can't let that happen this year.  I have worked so hard and lost 14 pounds, and I'm not going to give that up.  I want to keep going!

I took a lazy two weeks of recovery after CDR.  I totally regret the second week.  I failed to plan for any of my runs, so a few of them didn't happen.  I tried to get back on track this week, and have almost failed again.  If I don't run about 9 miles tomorrow, I'm going to be behind.  I need to keep my mileage above 30 miles/week.  I have the Columbus Half Marathon on the schedule for Oct 17, and was thinking about running a marathon Nov 7, but I think I'm going to just do another half.  I may think about a full marathon in the spring, but i'm not sure yet.  I really enjoy the half marathon distance.  Personally, it's an easy distance to train for with my schedule, and I can keep my long runs under 15 miles.

I really think another way to keep my motivation this fall/winter is to hit the gym and lift weights.  I feel so much better about myself when I'm lifting.  It's another thing I can do to clear my head.  Instead of lying around the house on my days off, I should go to the gym and pick up some weights.  We will see how I do with that.

I have a friend, Shaun, that is weight training pretty heavy right now.  His blog is very motivational to me, and he is a rapper, so he's very good with words and inspiring people.  I'm copying this from his blog because it just gives me so much motivation:

   "i dont do this to look good, i do this because i love waking up and visualizing my goal and day by day     
   watching myself get closer to that goal... i am the competition, i am my competition, the only person who
   can stop me is me... i go to the gym when im tired, and i lift when im so sore i can barely lift my arms, i do
   squats soaked in sweat with sweat in my eyes, i deadlift until my hands bleed and i bench press until the bar
   bruises my chest (true story)... yea i love this sport... bring on the next 96 days..... "

Stay motivated, my friends!