holy shit it's 2015! what happened to January?!

I haven't posted in a little while...  since Thanksgiving.

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.