The End of an Era...

There is something soothing about the early morning. You know...that brief period between "This is a ridiculous hour to be awake" and "Ugh! Why are there so many people on the road?!" Early in the morning has always been my favorite time to run, and my absolute favorite time to swim. When I woke up at the "ridiculous" hour this morning I wasn't 100% sure I wanted to get out of bed; but...

(Speedo was right)

Today I swam approximately 1.25 miles...

It's Only Tuesday...

~ Adam Goucher

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Christmas was great and my vacation (which is still ongoing) has been uneventful, but training has been hard. On Boxing Day (Dec 26th) I did a 3.5 mile run on the sand...

...followed by an hour of plyometrics. Running on the sand is not easy at all! I managed to maintain a pretty decent pace for the first two miles, but by mile three I was exhausted...

The Struggle Is Real...but so is the Triumph ;)

Through a combination of a "congrats on finishing your marathon" gift card, a "take an extra $10 off" coupon, and an in-store discount at Dick's Sporting Goods, I was able to treat myself to an early Christmas gift...

There are a lot of great features the Vivoactive has that my Garmin Forerunner 220 doesn't (like the ability to track swimming and daily steps etc). The swimming feature was the biggest selling point for me because it's one of the forms of cross training that I tend to gravitate towards (albeit rarely) and I've never really been able to track my swimming sessions apart from mentally counting laps. On Sunday I did a very short swim to test out the watch (about 1/4 of a mile) and this morning I swam for 1/2 of a mile. I ended up stopping the swim session half way through in error but I completed the overall distance...

We're Different...

We've all seen "You know you're a runner when..." memes or other such social media posts that highlight (and sometimes make fun of) the things that make us runners different. And if you have any non-runner friends (NRFs), I'm pretty sure there have been conversations where they try to understand why you pay to run 13.1/26.2 miles... for fun. You know those conversations right? For me it normally starts with a NRF seeing me icing my knee or massaging an achy muscle and they ask "What did you hurt this time?!" immediately followed by "Please tell me why you do this again?"

If I had a great answer to that question I would tell you (and them), but the reality is, as much as I love running, sometimes I wonder the same thing: "Why am I doing this?" To be fair, I only ask myself that question when I can't run (usually because of an injury) and sadly I'm in that situation far too often. The "why?" question immediately precedes the "It's so unfair that running is so hard for me" whining statement; and if I allow it, I'll fall into a very sulky mood. 

So that's kind of how my day went today. At least five people asked me if I was limping (I was) and provided sage "advice on caring for my body" and "making my joints last". But my sulky mood wasn't just because my knee is still bothering me (it's been a week so that should have been reason enough), but also because I'm disappointed that the goals/plans/desires I have are not going to happen the way I hoped.

Updates, Reminders & Favorite Things...

Ok guys, if you signed up for the ZOOMA Run Love Virtual Challenge here are the training plans:

5K plan starting on Jan 4th 2016...

10K plan starting on Jan 4th 2016...

If you haven't signed up (but want to) you can register HERE.

**~**~**~**~**