Getting it in gear

My tuchus that is, and this is woefully overdue.

I finished the 5k to 10k training pretty strong on February 19th and then just sort of... petered out. Life, the universe and everything (and by that I mean my Kindle) intervened, and so my mileage, endurance, and ability to fit into my wardrobe went kaput.

So what am I doing to fix this?

Well, in about an hour I'm heading out to do the first race of the NYS Parks Summer Run Series in  Heckscher State Park (and potentially intermittent thunderstorms) with Gigi of Running On Candy. That will be a  five mile run and the first of eight weekly runs of differing lengths across different regional state parks.

I'm really looking forward to this! (and not just because it's NOT at eight in the morning) so I'll get back to you on how it went soon.

I've also started using Jeff Galloway's half marathon trainer app on my iPhone in the hopes that having a more rigid training schedule will keep me on track. I think I just have to face the fact that I'm not working consistently without some sort of goal or guideline. I don't really have a problem with this, it really just means I have to focus a bit more on what goals I'm looking to achieve.

I suppose you can call it a comeback if you really want to.

Do you find that there specific are things you lean on to make it easier to get out there?

Bloggerfail!

Okay, so I have totally been a piss poor excuse for a fitness blogger for the last month and a half, and while I can't say I have any good excuses I will say I have some contributing factors I'd like to put on the table and hopefully you'll forgive me.

img via http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2010/09/16/sad-puppy-wallpaper/sad-puppy-wallpaper-2/

As I mentioned in my last post oh these many moons ago I got a Kindle (Fire) and as a result I've literally read more books in the last two and a half months than I had in the previous two and a half years. So that was totally cool for my brains, but not so good for sitting down for hours at a time at a computer.

I also started busy season at work - I work for a company which deals heavily with schools and the ends of the semesters are astoundingly busy, so I've been trying really hard to keep my daytime internet abuse down. Blogging takes a bit more attention than I can reasonably divert during billable hours and still look my boss in the eye.

Here is a barely relevant photo of David Bowie. You're welcome.
Img via http://www.mademan.com/how-to-look-busy-at-work-without-actually-doing-anything/3/

Mainly I've been distracted by some personal stuff that came up in late February/early April and have been TERRIBLE about regular exercise and I am FEELING IT. My legs are doing okay but for the last month or so I've been running at most once a week. Because of this I'm running out of gas or severely side stitching and walking it in after two miles and that needs to stop.

Clearly I cannot be trusted to keep up consistently without some sort of training program so I think I'm going to have to figure out a new goal to commit myself to. I do want to start hitting the ZombiesRun! app and I may repeat some of the 5k to10k weeks just to work back up to some distance. I think it's time to start looking at some half marathon programs as well.

The really good news on the overall fitness front is that I have a new source of motivation and as a result I am going to have to *finally* take up some sort of that long needed cross training. As much as I DO enjoy it, running is only going to do so much toward giving me wedding-dress-ready shoulders.

Pro tip: don't announce your engagement on April Fools Day - It takes a good week before anyone will fully believe you

Happily I'm already pretty sanguine with my overall shape and am not worried about having to do any of the "bridal diet"craziness, but I would like my arms and shoulders to look tip-top for the day (which isn't going to be until next fall anyway) so I would like to add some more disciplined yoga and weight practice into the mix.

Fear not, this isn't going to become "Jogging Jawa runs to the Altar", I'm keeping things strictly fitness here. But it happened and I'm pretty excited and it's been eating all of my internet time for a bit and it WILL be shaping my workouts, so I thought I'd let you know what was up.

I do have a few random races already on the docket (see over there on the right!) and Gigi of Running On Candy finally get me on board for the New York State Parks Summer Run Series, though I've apparently missed out on regging some of the races.

So what have y'all been up to?