MIA to 10K

The end of the fiscal year is a time when my personal life seems to come to a halt. No, I'm not in finance; I have contracts coming to an end... At work.

I've meant to write about the beautiful autumn we are having here, how I've enjoyed running in the briskness of the setting sun, or the brilliance of the new stretches I learned. Instead, I'll post a picture and promise to provide at least a synopsis of my first 10K, coming this Sunday.

It's the largest one in PA and the 12th largest in the nation. I'm excited, but a little nervous. I'm wishing that I didn't have slight pain in my shins. (Possibly from the brisk trail running I did. :-/)

I'll finish. I know I won't let myself quit. I don't know how to quit. :-)

Anyway, the photo here is a white-breasted nuthatch. I was especially thrilled when I discovered him at my feeder because I've never been visited by this particular bird in the past. It's the small things, you know?

Back in action

Wow, so I hadn’t planned to take off this much time from blogging. I went on vacation and ended up getting slammed in both my professional and personal lives…

It’s been a struggle to get back into the swing of things. It’s so easy to break up the everydaying of life with something exciting, but I find that it’s more difficult to transition back to the same ol’, same ol’ afterwards. Isn’t that strange? I thought that humans were creatures of habit. I like consistency and planning things out. I thrive on knowing my next step in whatever it is that I’m doing. I just can’t seem to get myself back on schedule.

Anyway, the good news is that fall is here and the temperatures have dropped along with the humidity, leaving me free to run outside again. I’m looking forward to the races I have in the coming weeks. I ran outside a few days last week and felt great, so I am hoping the races will go well too. I’ve got a 10k at the end of this month so I’m trying to build my stamina right now—longer runs with a consistent pace. I’m not worrying about speed right now. My first goal, as always, is to finish the race. Other goals come to mind on race day, usually: don’t finish last, finish before some other person I’m pacing myself with… things like that.

My asthma is a little more under control, even though I still struggle with some breathlessness. I’m planning to meet with an allergist, though, to see if there are any triggers I should look out for. Evidently ragweed is really bad right now. I did not know that…