The Campaign Begins!

April was a quiet blogging month for me.  OK.  Technically, I think it was silent.

Part of that was deliberate, but mostly it wasn't.  I always quiet down a little bit right after the calendar quarter ends, because work gets very busy, but this time, I also didn't want to record what was going on.  It's not too traumatic, just not much good to blog about.

My annual Lent practice fell apart on me, and while I thought I could get it back together after Lent was over (what I called Re-Lent), that didn't work either.  The result is that I'm still heavier than I have been in a while, my running still isn't working the way I'd like it to be, and my overall attitude in April was pretty poor.

So taking matters into my own hands in late April, I went to see a podiatrist about my nagging foot problem.  His diagnosis (bursitis) was not what I expected, and the treatments have been working for the last two weeks, so hopefully this is something I can get past.  I've also decided and started acting to get myself back in shape in different ways.  I'm no longer mourning the loss of my running ability (in part due to the loss of time when I can run) but I'm taking steps to work out in other ways, while I build my running back up. 

I still need to learn to like strength training, though - I think that's my biggest weakness.

And today, I'm out for my 2nd race of the season - the Redding Road Race.  I'm running the 5K and then the half marathon (10 minutes between them).  I ran the Danbury Half marathon in March in 2:08:59 - Not my worst, but certainly bottom 5.  I'm hoping to match my time from last year in this race, but 2:02 doesn't seem to be in the cards for me today.  After that, two triathlons, and then I race direct a 5K, so May will be a busy month.

After that, I'm planning on doing a 1/2 Marathon per month for a year, with a full or a 50K thrown in for good measure.  That's my campaign - two months to get back in shape, and then a year of something wonderful. 

I woke up on May 1st feeling refreshed and energetic.  Now I just need to find a way to bottle that energy and keep it.