Making the call

As hard as the decision was to make, now that it's made I feel a million times better. I decided this weekend to not register for the "goal" race from my training group, a half marathon being run on Sept. 21st. I have also deferred my registration for my original goal race, The Wineglass Half, until next year.

I had a lot of reasons that I shouldn't run either race: I had injured my leg in August, I had not been following my training plan in about a month, I still don't know what caused my fainting spell early in the summer, and my heart was just not in it.

I had one big reason I wanted to run both: I had said I would.

I thought a lot about my reasons, and had a discussion with my mom which went kinda like this (paraphrased): "Well, can you do it?" "Physically? Yeah I can finish the distance..." "Ok, but how would you feel at the end?" "I don't know." "So you could go out there, have a horrible run, and feel awful about yourself and running, Or you can not do it, and still enjoy running?" "Basically." "Ok, don't do it."

And really she had the only important point in my entire discussion with myself over it. I *could* do it, but it might be the last run I do for a long time if I do, and do I really want that?

So I'm canning the races. I'm scaling back on my running for a while, adding in more cross training, and resetting my sights on the same spring half I ran this year.

All that being said, This weekend was a very active one!

Saturday, while my daughter napped, I decided to try out a new fitness app Popsugar Active (you can also get it for the iPhone here.) I thought it would be a good way to start my new commitment to cross training (read: everything that is not running.)

I really liked the way they had their video's organized, and the fact that most of them were short 10 minute mini-workouts. I stacked up four of them: Waistband Relief (5:00) Arm Jiggle (10:00) Lazy Girl (10:00) Vinyasa Flow (10:00). I really liked that by the time I was ready to quit, I was almost done with the video, so was able to push myself to finish it out. The Vinyasa flow was intense, and I had to modify a few poses. In all, by the end of my 35 minutes, I was tired and sweaty, and I'm still a little sore from it two days later!

I felt like a slacker still, so I hopped on the treadmill to get in as much running as I could before my daughter woke up, which turned out to be 20 minutes. I ran for right around 1.6 miles, and varied my pace quite a bit to keep my legs active. Not a bad short run, but nothing to write home about.

Funny story, when she woke up my daughter came and stood in the doorway watching me run on the treadmill. She was talking and I couldn't hear what she was saying so I paused the treadmill to let her talk. She got upset, and started signing "more" and saying "run mommy!" So I started running again, and she grinned and just watched for a bit, waving at me occasionally.

So that's where I'm at. This month is going to be about cross training, and getting the love back with the running. I'm also recommitting to watching what I eat, I'm back to logging my food at MyFitnessPal again. We'll see where I'm at by the end of the month, and then I'll decide on a training plan with a goal of the Flower City Half in the spring.