A crazy thing happened earlier this month: My Garmin found its way back onto my wrist, and I went for a run.
Actually, between August 7th and today, I went on 4 runs. Of course, all the things that happen when you haven't used your Garmin in 3 months happened: it took forever to find satellites, I couldn't remember my Garmin Connect password and had to reset it, and my cardio is in the cellar. Big time. I won't bore you with the details other than to say that my pace is really, really disappointing after how fast I was in November. Or even March.
Some people yo-yo diet. I yo-yo run.
First, I have an awesome season training and meet/exceed my expectations for a peak race. After that race, I realize the amount of time spent training and the need to recalibrate and to refocus my time and energy elsewhere for a bit. Then I come back on to the asphalt 6 months later, and the first 100 miles (I'm just guessing here) are murder. And then that fall racing season is pretty mediocre, and I vow never to do that again, so I train through the following winter, spring, and summer and have an awesome fall.
Rinse. Repeat.
This year, I ran a solid half marathon in Richmond in November, planned only January and February off, and wanted to focus on shorter distances for the fall. I came back in March with surprisingly decent cardio, thanks to spending most of February in Tahoe. But something was wrong with muscles behind my knee. So I rested. Then I found myself needing to be in the library as much as possible to study for a crazy licensing exam. Tack on my regular job and teaching yoga, and running took a back burner.
So here I am. Transferring my Army 10-Miler bib.
Random aside - the message board is really clunky. Seriously, ATM organizers, you can do better than that. I'm pretty sure that half of your users are first-time message board people, and that thing is one of the least user-friendly things I have ever seen.
So anyway, I'm back on the asphalt, and I've got a couple of 10Ks slated for the fall. I'm hoping this ego-busting breaking-in period of slow runs is short, and I'm pretty excited to see where my legs take me this season!
