My Monday morning run through the foggy streets of Murrieta. As I ran through the foggy street of Murrieta this morning with my running buddies, it occurred to me that I have been in a personal fog since I started my 100-mile training on April 1, 2015--a 100-mile fog. Coach Ed warned us all that after the EC 100 we would feel a little absent-minded and that we might feel a bit out of it for a while, but it wasn't until this weekend that I realized that I still feel a little out of it.
It started when I began to reflect upon the 2015 year--I do this every January to assess where I am and what I need to focus on for the coming year. I look at my training logs, see how my clothes are fitting me, and look back at the blogs I wrote for the year. When I looked at my running workouts on Strava, it occurred to me that there were no workouts before mid-April. It was then that I realized that this was because I didn't get my Garmin and attach my workouts to Strava until April. I did this so that people could follow me for the Zero to 100-Mile Hero challenge that Coach Ed put together for us on Facebook. This reminded me that before April, I was recording all my workouts on RunKeeper. I decided to look back to calculate the miles I ran from January to mid-April, and what I saw didn't make sense to me.
It started when I began to reflect upon the 2015 year--I do this every January to assess where I am and what I need to focus on for the coming year. I look at my training logs, see how my clothes are fitting me, and look back at the blogs I wrote for the year. When I looked at my running workouts on Strava, it occurred to me that there were no workouts before mid-April. It was then that I realized that this was because I didn't get my Garmin and attach my workouts to Strava until April. I did this so that people could follow me for the Zero to 100-Mile Hero challenge that Coach Ed put together for us on Facebook. This reminded me that before April, I was recording all my workouts on RunKeeper. I decided to look back to calculate the miles I ran from January to mid-April, and what I saw didn't make sense to me.
My January Run Keeper workouts. What I found was that I was running crazy miles for the first three months even before I began to train for the EC 100. At first, I thought there was something wrong with the app, but then I remembered that I had been training for Nanny Goat before I injured myself at The San Diego Half in mid-March--how did I forget that?? I really had completely forgotten that the entire 2015 year was spent running (well, before April I also had a few swimming and biking miles, but mostly running). It's not that I had forgotten that I trained, it is just that I forgot that it was THIS year. I guess the training with Coach Ed was so intense that it felt like a whole year's worth of workouts even though it was really only six months. See what I mean about my brain still not being back to its normal functioning capacity?
My April to December Strava statistics. The funny thing is that as I looked at Strava, I was so proud of the number of miles I had run for the year. According to Strava, I ran almost 2,095 miles and spent over 465 hours of the year logging those miles. Those statistics are impressive, if I must say so myself. I am not a bragger, and I rarely bring up my accomplishments outside of my blog and Facebook, but I never thought I could finish a 26.1 mile race let alone an ultra marathon. So imagine my surprise when according to Run Keeper I could add another 323.05 miles for 2015--a whopping 2,418 miles total for the year! Do you know if I ran from my house to the lake in Winston-Salem, NC where I did my 50K, that would only be 2, 094 miles and a run to Boston MA would only be 2, 553 miles? When I think about it in those terms, I can see why my mind might be a little foggy these days.
I did give my legs, and my brain as well, a little rest over the weekend. Hopefully my fog will be lifted soon. I did have enough brain power left to remember that on January 24th my blog will officially be five years old. It is hard to believe that I have been throwing my thoughts down here for so long. Here are some of my first thoughts in that very first blog:
For those of you that have known me for a long time, you may be wondering, why a blog? I am going to let you in on another little secret. I really care what others think about me. I am hoping through this blog I can let you in on a few little gems I have learned along the way, and that if you know about it, I cannot slide back into my old obsessions with food. It is kind of like writing something in your diary that you really want someone to stop you from doing, and secretly hoping someone will read it…so you leave it out on the table.
Well I am leaving it out on the table. I am not self-centered enough to think I will have hundreds of people reading my blog, but if I can help just one person have a healthier relationship with food than I have had over the last 30 years, then I will feel this blog will have been worth it.
I am hoping that over the last five years I have inspired others to take control of their lives, to dream the impossible (because dreams can come true), and to be kind to themselves when they fall a little short of their expectations. I hope my strategies have helped people to make at least small changes in their lifestyles, that my detours along the way have shown people that it is possible to come back from perceived failures, and that I have encouraged people to go out and find a way to move their bodies on a regular basis. If I have have encouraged even one person to do any of these things, then I am a happy, although somewhat foggy, blogger. Thanks for all your continued support--Here's to a successful 2016!
I did give my legs, and my brain as well, a little rest over the weekend. Hopefully my fog will be lifted soon. I did have enough brain power left to remember that on January 24th my blog will officially be five years old. It is hard to believe that I have been throwing my thoughts down here for so long. Here are some of my first thoughts in that very first blog:
For those of you that have known me for a long time, you may be wondering, why a blog? I am going to let you in on another little secret. I really care what others think about me. I am hoping through this blog I can let you in on a few little gems I have learned along the way, and that if you know about it, I cannot slide back into my old obsessions with food. It is kind of like writing something in your diary that you really want someone to stop you from doing, and secretly hoping someone will read it…so you leave it out on the table.
Well I am leaving it out on the table. I am not self-centered enough to think I will have hundreds of people reading my blog, but if I can help just one person have a healthier relationship with food than I have had over the last 30 years, then I will feel this blog will have been worth it.
I am hoping that over the last five years I have inspired others to take control of their lives, to dream the impossible (because dreams can come true), and to be kind to themselves when they fall a little short of their expectations. I hope my strategies have helped people to make at least small changes in their lifestyles, that my detours along the way have shown people that it is possible to come back from perceived failures, and that I have encouraged people to go out and find a way to move their bodies on a regular basis. If I have have encouraged even one person to do any of these things, then I am a happy, although somewhat foggy, blogger. Thanks for all your continued support--Here's to a successful 2016!
RSS Feed
