Thursday, December 17, 2015

Life lately

I have not been running frequently enough to warrant any sort of training recap so instead of telling you about all of my extra rest days, I thought I would just provide a general life update.

Running
I've been keeping my "training" very informal. I followed a pretty good 22 mile week with a week of only running twice. I have been reminding myself almost daily that I designated November-January as my off season and that NOW is the time to be okay with skipping a run.

I ran last night without my Garmin. I think I am going to stick with that for the rest of the week. Last night's run felt amazing. I'm starting to feel excited about my next training season and racing again. Yay!

Graduate School
The reason that I skipped so many workouts last week was so that I could focus my energy on my graduate school application. I have been alternating between feeling really confident and excited about going back to school and scared to death that I won't be accepted. In terms of actual work on my application I have completed one of the two required essays and received confirmation from 3 colleagues that they are willing to provide me with letters of recommendation.

The deadline for early consideration in January 15, the same day that I leave for California. I expect the next 4 weeks to be very busy with finalizing my application and am looking forward to a nice vacation as my reward for completing it.

Cross Training
Ugh. No. I have not even thought about P90X since that time I tried to do yoga and ended up skipping it. Part of me doesn't feel too bad since this is technically my off season, but the other part of me knows that I would benefit from being a more well rounded athlete.

Since I haven't been able to stay motivated with P90X I have been looking into other stretching/strengthening options that I could try. I don't want to sign up for a yoga class since I have tried that before and I hated it. I have been considering signing up for an adult ballet class (not Pure Barre, an actual ballet class). And by considering I mean my coworker mentioned it to me yesterday, lol.

I took dance lessons from age 4-17 (with a 2-3 year hiatus at some point in there) and took a semester of ballet when I was an undergraduate student, so at least I know that I would enjoy the class. I feel like this could really benefit me by improving flexibility and strengthening my hips, legs, and feet.

Holidays
I have been loving this holiday season! I decorated our Christmas tree a few weeks ago and love seeing little kitty sleeping under the tree (thank goodness she doesn't try to climb it!). I sent out all of my Christmas cards this week. I even have 95% of my shopping handled, but I still need to wrap presents. Now I just need my actual holiday break to get here; just 5 more days of work.

13 comments:

  1. Good luck on your application!

    I know this is easier said than done, but don't worry so much about skipping runs. I'm not even going to mention how often I've run the past few weeks, but the plus side is that the runs I have done felt amazing because I actually wanted to be out there and wasn't feeling worn down. Your body needs the rest, which may sound counterintuitive since you're not running, but stress does take a physical toll on our bodies, and in some ways a hectic life week can be just as taxing on the body as a 45 mile running week. We all have the best laid plans for our off seasons but life happens. Focus on your application and don't worry about the running and the cross training. You can always get back to that later.

    Your kitty is an angel. I don't even want to think about what our boys would do to a Christmas tree. Luckily one won't fit in our apt...

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    1. Definitely easier said than done, but keep saying it! Some days it feels easy to skip a run because I can that I really need a day off (no joke, I went to bed at 8pm last night because I felt so exhausted). The days I struggle with are the days that I want to be running, but just can't find the time. It is so easy to feel frustrated, but I just keep reminding myself that I'm not even training for anything!

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  2. It's your off season and you should enjoy it! Your body needs this time to rest so that you can come back even stronger when its time to start training again. Good luck on your grad school applications!!

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    1. Thank you! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my application will be accepted.

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  3. Grad school applications are so time intensive. No wonder you feel like you could use extra time! Off seasons can be great for things like this.

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    1. Yes I am so glad that I am not trying to balance a training plan and working on the application. It is also serving as a nice reminder that when my classes actually start I will probably need to cut back on training.

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  4. I think it's great that you're taking the holidays off! We all need some down time or else we get burnt out. Enjoy your rest and focus on more important things :)

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  5. Good luck on getting into grad school and enjoy your holidays!!

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  6. Until last week, I was so informal about running! I missed 20 days total. I took 10 days off post marathon, ran a few times, and then 10 more for a nasty cold. It took a few weeks to get back in the swing of things, but I am starting to feel better. You will be back and feeling better than ever soon! I've been really making it a point to enjoy the recovery and the holiday season this year!

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    1. I haven't even taken the time to count how many extra rest days I've taken...probably a lot! I've been running without my Garmin this week and it has been so good to just go run by feel. I know at some point I will need to add a bit more structure, but right now it has been so nice not to have to worry about distances/paces.

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  7. Adult ballet classes sound awesome! I've always wanted to take ballet, but I feel like if I tried it now I'd just look like a hot mess. That would probably be an awesome way to cross train though!

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