A Runner’s Balancing Act

After another LOONG hiatus, I am back. This time I’m not making any promises that I am back for good. I come and go as I please on this blog and at this point I’m making no excuses.

I thought I’d just give a little update incase you are wondering if I fell off the face of the earth. I am here! I am well. And yes of course I am still running. The summer is upon me again and so my running has been relegated to mostly very early mornings or the treadmill. I’m doing about 17-25 miles a week at the moment, and happy with that since I’m mostly just trying to stay in shape. Race specific training won’t start up again until mid-September.

I am excited to report that I’ve been doing resistance training more regularly and really enjoying it! I have a good friend that is a personal trainer and she agreed to give me a 8 sessions if I paid for her 3 month gym membership – working out to $20 a session. I jumped that that opportunity! After those 8 sessions, I feel stronger, much more toned and way more confident in the gym. I’ve become pretty comfortable with different types of resistance equipment and I’m able to throw together an a routine on the fly that covers all the major muscle groups. Upper body and core anyway. I’m still shying away from lower body work because I don’t want to compromise my runs by making my legs sore.

I’ve been kinda fascinated with this new world of fitness that isn’t 100% cardio and even more fascinated by the results I’ve had. I feel like I’m getting more fit, with less work, and less boredom. I’ve been soaking up all the information I can get my hands on and trying a lot of new things. I’m hoping that this summer I’ll be forced to get out of my comfort zone even more with the oppressive heat limiting my running to the treadmill.

If I’m lucky, I’ll be inspired enough to blog about it.

If you want to follow my training more regularly please friend me on Facebook or Daily Mile.

Happy running.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post. I really appreciate all of your encouragement and insight. It’s comforting to know that I am not alone in my experiences.

The clouds are starting to clear –  figuratively, not literally, since it has been raining for the last two days. What I mean is that I’m starting to feel at home in my own skin again. I felt surprisingly good on my 9 mile run this weekend and over the last couple of nights I have fallen asleep easily and slept all night long.  After work most nights, I’m finding that I’m able  to sit on the couch with my husband and enjoy his company while watching an un-interesting war documentary without losing my mind. In fact I’ve spent quite a bit of time on that couch over the last few days just taking it easy. I find it amazing that I am able to do this. Usually anxious thoughts would prevent me from taking time to rest and I’d feel guilty for being unproductive. As I’m coming out of this, I am realizing just how much my body and mind are needing to recharge. I’m also noticing just how much I have used running to relieve anxiety. I honestly feel a little bit like I’ve already run on days that I haven’t! Hard to explain, but it feels a little bit like those lingering endorphins you have throughout the day after you’ve had a good early morning run. Its so weird!

So what’s next with running? I’m not sure. I am supposed to be doing a half marathon in Tucson at the end of this month, but I have a feeling I will let that pass. We shall see. I don’t have any huge goals for running at the moment. I’m sure there will come a time when I’m ready to make some, but not today. I’m definitely going to keep running. But I’m talking it day to day.

I’m sorry for the lack of commenting on all your wonderful blogs. I hope to get caught up in the next few days. Have a wonderful week and happy running!

If you haven’t noticed, I’m changing things up here at Balancing Act. Cleaning up the design, and hopefully the content as well. It’s Balancing Act 3.0! In the future, I’d like to make this blog a little more well-rounded. Product reviews, recipes, current events, discussions about physical and emotional health, body image, and spirituality (as they relate to running) are all topics I’d like to touch on more. Of course I’ll keep blogging about my own training and racing too, but I don’t want every post to revolve around ME! I’m tired of constantly recounting my miles and workouts.  Sometimes there just isn’t a whole lot to say about my training and I don’t like having to make excuses for myself. I’m not obsessing about training plans and miles per week right now and I have to remind myself that is a GOOD thing. I am thoroughly enjoying every run, and that is my highest priority when it comes to running. That is, after all, what Balancing Act is about… keeping my life in BALANCE.  I may be a little less of a runner these days, but a lot more of a WHOLE person… well on good days at least! That IS the goal.

So hopefully in the next few weeks you will start to notice the change around here. It’s about running related content for people who are so much more than just runners! Hang on for the ride!

PS – A post explaining the t-shirts is to come!