In a blink of an eye…

August 7, 2017

How is it already August? More than halfway through the year and I think it’s safe to say that I’ve been pretty neglectful of this space.

A lot has happened in that time. Shortly after my last post, I was offered a new job. I left my company of 8 years and moved. My new position has been a huge change, and a great opportunity, but it’s taken some getting used to. Mainly, because I go into the office almost every day. Gone are the days of working from home most of the week. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though… it has made a lot of sense in their business model for me to be in the office. A huge majority of the people that I interact with on a day to day basis are there, and especially being new, it has been helpful for me to be there to understand organization dynamics and structure. I’m not complaining of course, but, it has taken some flexibility out of my day-to-day life. I’ve adjusted to the new routine and made changes to my schedule so that I can still follow some practices from before. Mainly:

  • Runs happen early in the morning, especially in the hot Summer months. Like, 5am early. That’s rough, but it’s not every day. When the weather cools down again in the fall, I can go back to afternoon runs right when I get home from work.
  • I try to get in early and leave early. This doesn’t always happen (see: not a morning person), but when it does, I can get home before traffic gets crazy and get stuff done around the house. Prepare a healthy dinner, get a quick workout in, etc.
  • Meal planning has been crucial. The first couple of months were good, because I braced myself for the change and was determined not to fall back into old habits. But as things got busy, it was easy to drop this. I still meal plan weekly, and about 2-3 times a month I’ll order from a local meal delivery service, Tastefully Served. They prepare healthy, well-balanced meals that are ready made for a couple of nights a week. I usually order a couple of meals to help mix things up and supplement our regular meal rotation. It keeps us from getting bored, and helps us all venture out of our normal comfort zone.

I think because of this now extra hectic work week schedule, I’ve also had to focus on different things. I try to schedule more activities at home, especially on weekends. Less nights out and even girl’s nights. Which, I miss, but I was finding myself overwhelmed with trying to keep up with it all. So I’m trying to be conscious of what I can do, and what might be stretching myself too thin. In talking to friends about it though, it seems to be a common thread, especially as our kids approach school age.

I’m still signed up for some races, but my training schedule was a bit lax. I was burned out by constantly training for back to back races last year, however I also found I appreciate the discipline of a training schedule. I took a break from race training for a while, but that became evident at the Destination Race Napa to Sonoma half marathon a few weeks ago. While it was an amazing race… probably one of my favorites… I was not nearly as prepared as I should be. My time was still decent: approx 2:16, but I didn’t set any PRs and I just didn’t feel good for a lot of the run. I’m changing that up for my next half. I signed up for the City of Oaks half marathon in hilly Raleigh in November. My goal is to run it sub 2, so I’m ramping up my training and focusing on speed work and getting more comfortable with hills.

I still teach at the Y, but I limit it to mostly PiYo, Barre, and Water Aerobics, and alternate my schedule with a few other instructors. I especially miss teaching the Monday morning PiYo class, but getting it in at least a few Saturdays a month makes me happy, and I love incorporating it as part of my cross training.

You can probably see why I haven’t been around much. This past week gave me some forced rest as I underwent PRK surgery for my vision. It’s similar to LASIK but has a longer recovery time. I’ve been out completely since Wednesday, and my vision was completely shot on Friday and Saturday while I was at the most intense part of the healing process. Basically all light rendered me useless, so I was in a dark room feeling sorry for myself for a couple of days. I’m feeling much better today, though a little overwhelmed at the thought of being able to go to work and stare at a computer screen tomorrow, but my doctor assured me that my eyesight would continue to improve every day. The fact that I’m able to write this now should attest to something.

My plan going forward is to return here on  more regular basis. Get back into a routine as diligent as my training schedule. Provide some more updates, keep you connected with new recipes, goals, training plans, progress, etc. Thank you for bearing with me thus far, and I’ll be checking back again soon.

 

 

 

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