Rumors of My Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Ever have time just kinda snowball on ya?

Well...that's where I've been. In more ways than one, actually.  Between January and February, we were literally housebound for about 3 weeks.  Which for me means no running. At all. Period.

Why, you ask?

Because I live on the side of a mountain.  That's why.

My driveway is incredibly steep.  In fact, you must have 4wd in the best conditions to navigate it....comes in handy when you're trying to discourage visitors. Not so handy if you wanna go for a quick run.

Even in the best of times, the area where I live is not conducive to running in.  Either the roads are rocky, uneven, and one-laned, with drainage ditches lining both sides and no shoulder to run on if a car comes by, or they are rural highway...no in-between.  What this means is that in order to run, I must go into town to the Tweetsie Trail, or a school track, which I hate.  (If you're wondering why, just go see my last post.)  So...if I can't get down my driveway, I can't access a place to run.  My second choice would be to run at the gym at work...but if I can't get to work, it doesn't do me any good, either.  Third choice is to hike down my driveway, which is a 1/4 mile long, and back up, but it is literally so steep, it's virtually impossible to climb without falling...a lot. 

So...I sit. And I stew about how I can't go, and I can't do....and I vegetate a lot in front of the TV while thinking extremely bitter thoughts, and munching mindlessly on anything I can find that looks remotely interesting in my all-but-bare kitchen, because we can't restock supplies, and we've run out of pretty much everything....including patience.

It's a wonder cabin fever didn't cause us to off each other. For real.

And of course, in the process of all this forced inactivity and unforced snacking...I managed to regain about 13 pounds.

[insert heavy sigh here]

In the middle of all this (fortunately during a very short break in the snow), we found out that our very sick kitty was not going to make it, and we had to put him down.  This broke our hearts to the extent that we may never get over it.  And of course, it just added to all the stress we were already under.  Moving on quickly...

For one brief, shining moment at the end of February, I had a chance to run.  It was a little over two miles, and I felt terrific, thinking that spring was finally on the way, and I could get back to training for the Chasing Snakes 10k on March 19th that I had signed up for way back in December.

And then it snowed again. 

And in the meantime, because we've been so short handed for so long, and I've been out so much with the weather, the work has piled up at my office to the point that it is INSANE.  So, even when the weather was decent enough for a run, it was too dark and I was entirely too exhausted to give a crap about running.  And that's really, really sad.

Finally, FINALLY, it appears that the weather has turned for the better. Just in time, too...because I have literally hit my dizzy limit with inactivity.  Yesterday, I was finally able to get out on the trail, and did my first really good run since the middle of December.  Boy, did I pay for it after....I was so sore, I couldn't sleep all night, and I had to get up and take the good stuff to get any relief.  But it was so worth it...running in the spring-like temps was positively glorious.

So...yes.  I have put on a bit over the winter. As of last Friday, I've also taken a bit back off, already, so I'm well on the way to regaining (or rather, relosing) the ground I let slip since Christmas.  And I've learned a very valuable lesson about myself in the process.

At the beginning of this journey, my goal was to become an all-seasons runner. Before, I've always wimped out in cold weather, because the cold just seeps into my bones and makes them ache like a rotten tooth.  This year, I was actually prepared for it...but my circumstances didn't allow for it.

I need to be ok with that, and for me, mark my aspirations of running successfully in the winter off my list of future goals. Not because I'm not capable...but because it puts undue stress into my life that I honestly do not need.  I signed up for this 10k because I wanted a goal to help me stay active throughout the winter.  Now I find myself two weeks out, completely untrained, and on the verge of panic, wondering if I'll even be able to finish, much less finish with a decent time.  I refuse to throw in the towel on this race.  I'll run it, regardless of how ugly it is....but it will be the last time I sign up for an early spring run.  Next year, I will shift my plans so that when winter comes, I will step away from my running shoes, and find other ways to stay active indoors and challenge myself in different ways...not running related.  That will be very hard, because I love running so much.  But it's harder to watch myself derail completely because of situations I can't avoid.  Much harder.

Thank goodness spring has virtually arrived...just in time to save my sanity.