Breaks Can Be Good...And Bad

For most of this year, I've taken a break from running and racing. In January, I did the Star Wars Half Marathon at Disneyland, which was awesome and super fun and I'm sad I'm not doing it next year, and I'm doing Wine and Dine Half in November.

Taking a break was really good for me in some ways and not so good in others. First, it allowed me to have more time to focus on showing my horse. Louie and I have had a great couple of years, so it's been worth the sacrifice of not going on too many racecations. 

Taking a break also allows your body to rest and heal. Before the 2014 New York City Marathon, I injured my knee. I wasn't able to run for the month prior to the race, so showing up at the start line feeling fairly unprepared wasn't really any fun even though I did finish. I had also been battling an issue in my hamstring. Putting running on hold helped both of those issues heal. As I've slowly started getting back into training for W&D, I haven't had any issues with either problem.

I also felt really burnt out. My first race was in 2010 and in that time, I've run 20 half marathons and 2 full marathons. I had so much fun going to races, but I really did get fairly burnt out. I didn't feel like training, even if races were fun.

Post Goofy Challenge 2013
How is it possible to have running burn out, but still
want to run the WDW full again?

The downside of taking a break is that now running 3 miles feels super hard. It's like I'm starting over. I know that with a little work, I can tap into that base I had developed as a runner, but it takes a bit to get back into the groove.

A couple of weekends ago, I went up to the mountains and we found ourselves on a 9.5 mile hike up a mountain. We had done a 4 mile hike at the same trail before that and it felt really easy. So I reverted back to marathon thinking and my brain still believes that 9.5 miles doesn't sound that hard. Silly brain. My body does not agree. It was rough.

The other issue is weight gain. It's so easy to gain weight when you stop running. While running alone doesn't really impact the scale that much, it keeps it from climbing up. Not running makes it super easy for those pounds to stick.

Oh, so true.

So I've been back at it and training for Wine & Dine, but it hasn't been easy. I got a late start, as usual, but I'm trying to get myself out there as much as possible. A short two mile run is better than no run. So there you have it. I'm slowly getting back on track.