Live, Run, Grow

I’m back!

Sorry I disappeared for about a week, but after the holidays, the marathon and a busy few weeks at work I just needed a break…from everything!  Fortunately, “All-Star” break came just in time!  All-Star break is 4-5 days that Jason gets off in January (the only time he gets more than 1 day off at a time from September-May), so we took the opportunity to go away for a few days.

It honestly couldn’t have come at a better time.  It was nice to get away and spend some time together and I made it a point to “unplug” from the rest of the world – I didn’t check Facebook, Twitter, blogs or my work e-mail AT ALL!

I also took a bit of a break from running.  In the three weeks since the marathon I only ran 3 times (2-3 miles each) and felt sort of sluggish and tired after each run.  I think I was experiencing a sort of “post-race blues” I had heard about.  I had been training for and focusing on my marathon goal for so long, that with it suddenly done I felt sort of lost.  Today though, after getting back from our few days of vacation, I went for a 6 mile run and felt great.  Definitely ready to get back into a routine and start looking in to some training to improve my time for my upcoming half marathon.

It’s also time to start working on some of my other Goals and Growth for 2012.  In the coming weeks I’m going to try to start doing yoga again and look into planning a trip to Italy this summer.

Speaking of yoga, I thought I’d share this article from Runner’s World called “Prevent Postrun Butt Pain”.  The article has some yoga stretches and exercises that help to alleviate piriformis pain (unfortunately I received my Runner’s World magazine the day AFTER I got back from the marathon, would have been helpful to have before the race!).  I’m going to try to start doing these regularly since my piriformis muscle tends to really bother me on long runs.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK – 

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney