Trail Time!

With no races planned right now--save for the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in March--I refocused on trail running again. Training for my half marathon was fun and all, but I sure missed my trails. Not only do I love running in nature, but I also enjoy just running for fun, with no paces to hit and no set distance to complete. With the weather improving, the timing is just perfect. I'm looking forward to watching spring arrive. My spidey senses are tingling for an early spring, as the birds have been singing and the deer are frolicking. We've been hitting record temperatures this week, with more predicted for next week. Stay tuned!

It's All Good

On Saturday, I always sit down to finish up my weekly rundown. I write up my workouts in all week long and at the end of the week, I try to find a common theme to come up with a title for my post. This has been a pretty uneventful week and I have to admit that I was at a loss for a title! In fact, it's been all good this week. So there it is...

Moving Forward

I runfess... I am happy to have that half marathon behind me. 

Every race teaches us something new. What will I take away from this race?

I won't play the age card or blame my struggles on RA, but long distances are definitely becoming more difficult for me. This week, it felt good to dial it back a bit--to just run and let my body recover. I'm trying to sort out what happened on the race course and why I struggled with my breathing. Did I run too fast at the start? Was I affected by the poor air quality? Was I anxious? 

For sure, I wasn't properly fueled, having forgotten my smoothie at home. My on-course fueling plan was a bust. But the other factors? 

As I put this race in the rearview mirror, I'll continue to reflect on what works and what doesn't. I'm not ready to give up on the half marathon distance!

F3 Lake Half Marathon Race Recap

The F3 Lake Half Marathon is Chicago's unofficial start to race season. Although it's been around for 15 years, I've never done it. The weather in January in Chicago is unpredictable and usually awful. This year, except for one week in January, we've had really mild, sunny conditions. My friend and fellow Brooks ambassador Frankie put pressure on me to sign up. I took a leap of faith and hoped for the best as I filled out the application. My youngest son wanted to join me, so I signed him up too!

Life and a Race

My anxiety level was high this week and it wasn't just due to my impending half marathon. 

There was last week's sad news that my young patient had passed. This week, my parents asked me to fix their computer again. Like many of us, they are struggling with many passwords, however, their solution is to keep creating new user names and passwords, which eventually gets them locked out of their accounts. I arrived with new solutions and was greeted by my mom, sporting a black eye. My sister had warned me that on the day before, my mom was on her treadmill when the phone rang. She forgot to stop the treadmill and fell on her face. It looked pretty bad, but she seemed ok when I got to their house. 

It was also her birthday and when I set her up for a Zoom call with her high school friends, she asked me what happened to her face. I calmly told her, and my dad and I exchanged worried looks. The next day, I called him to check on her--he thought she was fine, but I urged him to take her to be checked out. I was worried about a brain bleed, and she had a head CT which was clear. Whew. 

My sisters and I have been worried about my mom for a while now. She always took care of everyone, including my dad. Trying to get him to step up after all these years has been challenging. I'm the only one who is local, which is also another challenge. We'd like to see them downsize and move somewhere that would provide more support, but my dad isn't ready to give up his garage and his old cars. I get that.