My blogging goal was to post every week and apparently I'm the worst blogger ever since I can barely manage once every 3 months! To be fair, the holiday seasons of November and December are the busiest pet sitting times of the year so I had my hands full (literally) with walking dogs and petting kitties. Here's some highlights:
In my last post, I spoke of minor setbacks. During the end of last year up until the present, I hit the wall of setbacks (sorry, running pun!). My fab running partner, Bria, was graciously accompanying me on the longer marathon training runs. We made it to 15 but I felt horrible after that run. I choked it up to too much training too fast. Previous weeks were 10, 12, 13, 13, then 15 miles. Something felt wrong physically though. Long story short, I was having a CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) flair up. My previous posts explain how I live with CFS which sucks but flair ups are worse. Every muscle in my body aches, like I have the flu, and I have sparing energy to make it through the day. Running takes most of that energy, leaving little else for work/normal daily life. So I took a break over the holiday season and made the decision to downgrade to the Clearwater half-marathon instead of the marathon.
The last long run before the holidays with Bria. 8 miles over the Clearwater bridge.
And my new compression tights. Very comfy.
Then January came. Over the holidays since I wasn't running, I made the excellent decision to eat horribly (only fitting right?). I have several food allergies that I stupidly chose to ignore which in turn caused health complications that lasted the first 3 weeks of January. Fun! So I spent almost all of January laying on the couch recovering.
Yesterday was my first run outside in over a month. 4 miles completed with some difficulty. It's crazy how much endurance my body lost but I'm choosing to be positive and take the challenge of working my way up to double digit running again. See, I'm smiling after the run!
As with anything, setbacks are temporary. I've learned to embrace them. After all, I did have the opportunity to catch up on all the Netflix shows/movies on my list.
But now I'm ready to get out there again and improve my fitness! Next up, The Claw 10 mile trail run at Alafia River State Park in May! The very same race, my loving hubby proposed to me after in 2013. It's our favorite race and they also have a 5 mile run so put your running shoes on, get some miles under your belt and join us out there this year!
