Friday Five: Organizing My (Running) Summer

Canoeing in Ontario.

I'm back and healthy! I'm joining the Friday Five ladies (Cynthia, Mar, and Courtney) for this week's theme: Five Ways to Organize your Running /Fitness Gear. I'm going to go off-topic a little bit to discuss some running-related things I've been pondering lately as I'm Organizing My (Running) Summer.

My running group has two sessions a year and I'm currently in the off time. I technically have to train (alone!) for the Medina Half on May 30, but I've been taking it easy. After my sick Cap City and no PR I took a step back to review the past season and look forward.

Reflect 
What did I enjoy? Running with the group, making new friends, being held accountable for milage
What didn't I enjoy? Waking up early, feeling bad for missing runs, not achieving all PR goals, getting sick (ha)
What improvements did I make? New race distance (10k), new PRs, I've toned up a little bit. Overall, it was much easier than last year and I am a faster runner.
What improvements remain? Confidence. Last fall I ran two long races without breaks or a feeling of defeat. That has not happen so far this year (though I've only run one long race... I'm scared for Medina!)

Rest
I plan to take a week off after Medina and when I start run club in June I'm going to take full advantage of the low miles in the beginning of the schedule.

Stop Comparing / Stop Obsessing 
I have a little bit of internet fatigue. I love the runner blogs I follow, but sometimes scrolling through twitter, instagram, and running groups on facebook I start to wonder: am I running enough? Am I fast enough? Am I signed up for enough races? Some of the people I'm comparing myself to are speedy folks on their 40th half. We're not in the same league! Plus, I need to remember my other interests outside of running. I found it to be a particularly helpful topic to think about before bed when I was extremely stressed at work, but things are better now and I don't really want to spend 100% of my time thinking about running and upcoming races.

Diversify 
I'm going to North Dakota the first week of June for a camping/hiking trip and then Canada in July for Alex's family's yearly getaway (see photo above). We're also volunteering at a beer fest and trying to do more non-running things during the summer. Besides needing a break from the non-stop training and race schedule I've maintained, I don't really enjoy running in the heat and humidity.

Refocus
What are my new goals? Always a new half PR, but that's going to wait 'til October. Recently I've realized I really like 10-15k distances. They're long enough to challenge, but not so long that I'm tired after or have to train a ton. Perhaps I can try to vary my race schedule to avoid an over-saturation of one particular distance.

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In the end, I think I'll take the summer to remember my other interests, attempt to get my house in order, and just enjoy the nice weather. I'm going to try and stop latching on to every race promotion I see and filling my weekends with races. In the winter I needed the distraction, in the summer I need to chill. ;)

That was a bit long-winded, but thanks for sticking it out. Don't forget to visit the host blogs! They stayed on topic and have some handy tips for organizing all the gear that goes along with running.