So, I'm just filling the void with a very very dull update...
December was great. I ate everything in site, loved Christmas season more than ever, and worked through a rough spell in running. I don't remember the exact problem(s?) but I messed my back up a little at work and things went downhill for a bit. There were also lower leg issues that may or may not have had to do with a brief return to track workouts. Anyway, I quit that loopy track shit cold turkey. (Mmmm, turkey.) Relaxing about things and cutting back to the basics seemed to do the trick and I finally feel like I've recovered from a pretty crazy fall running/race schedule (for me).
So, what else?
Life's hectic (and freaking AWESOME):
1. My wife and I are gearing up for baby numero uno. Due in 10 weeks! Yeah, so, we are freaking out and really praying that it's just a puppy that comes out on the big day. We could teach it to shit outside and "stay" and in a couple years it could turn into a manageable 2-3 yr child...
2. Some preliminary nesting chores had just begun to take place as we prepared for our new little human (science suggests it probably won't be a dog) to join us in our old little house when quite suddenly we found out we'd be nesting someplace else. A ten year plan that involved my grandparents moving from the original Zielinski homestead of 4ish generations was kicked into high gear and made into a 2-3 month plan. We are really excited about the new place but moving them then us is a huge task. Lots of work to do on 2 houses as we move into one and sell the other.
3. Logging the miles: trips for work and fun to Baltimore, MD and McCall, ID over the past month. I know compared to all y'all jetsetters this looks pretty amateur but I don't get out of the county much anymore. It's true--no matter how much I'd like to consider myself a worldly voyager.
4. Work is crazy. The madness of harvest/Spring is here at least a month early and no end in site (June lull? Maybe.) It feels good to be pushing the pace all day but damn working hard is hard.
And, as of late, I have nearly forgotten about running as a competitive endeavor:
1. No races anytime soon. Not even a rough schedule for the year. This would have drove me nuts a year or so ago as I considered races the primary reason I must awaken and run before the sun rises everyday (ok, almost everyday). If I didn't so it so-and-so would and man, then what?! But these days I am really liking just training for training's sake.
2. I keep up on and follow friends' races and results and just get really stoked for them. I mean, these are races I would love to do and see what I could do but strangely I am not even the slightest bit jealous that I am not there or whatever. It's weird, I used to wish that I had more free time to go out and be in the race scene like some folks seem to be; you know those people with flexible or at least consistent schedules and an endless budget for race entries. But now, I just pop in look over the results of some of my favorite races and shoot a friend a message to congratulate him/her on their effort. That's good enough.
3. Training is going pretty good despite all the interruptions life keeps hurling. I just take what I can get and it seems like it's working. I am focusing on pushing things a little more. That's too vague for you? Well when it's fast I go comfortably fast and when it's super easy I go super slow. I guess I've found myself working on 3 gears of training-high, medium and low (not just high and low, no medium or high and medium, no low--as I have had a tendency to do from time to time). That made no sense. I hope you're not all stupider for reading that.
4. I am not completely directionless, I am just not laser focused. I am signed up for the Mac 50k but my sights are really on a creating a fast/strong self by mid/late July. I want to fly and climb the best I can for a race then. Maybe I'll build on that with a fall marathon but that idea literally popped into my head yesterday and could be gone tomorrow.
Ok, gotta go. You, dearest superfan, hold on.
