Bailout Plan

I've been putting off writing this post for a couple of weeks now. This coming Saturday is the Bentonville Half Marathon...and I'm not running it. My training was going great for about 5 weeks, and then I got sick. I stayed sick for two solid weeks, and I just didn't have the energy for any workouts. But you know how we runners are -- compulsive to check the boxes on our training plans -- so I still ran my long runs on the weekends as scheduled. No exercise at all during the week, then 7 miles. No exercise for another week, then 8 miles. Was this a good idea? NO.

It didn't take long until my still-sensitive hip was screaming at me, and I knew I had done too much. I haven't re-injured myself, but if I had continued on that path of not being smart about building up my mileage, I could tell injury would be imminent. So I backed off.

Can you spot where my training fell off a cliff? Um, yeah.

I went back to running shorter miles and tried to build up again gradually, but there just isn't enough time before the race to build up as gradually as what my body needs. Having an old lady hip is the pits. So no half marathon for this gal.

But I have a bailout plan! The nice race people let me trade my 13.1 registration for the 3.1 registration! So I can still participate, and it's only one number different. It's practically the same. OK, maybe not, but at least I won't have another race shirt that I shouldn't wear.

Since I decided not to run the half, it feels like a huge weight has been lifted. Now that I'm not following a plan, I can run mileage as short as I want, which means Trea can run with me again! He stopped training way back in February, and when I continued on, I was running too long for him to be able to go, the few times that he actually had time and wanted to go. So last week, we ran twice together -- 1.5 miles each time. It didn't take long, but it was so nice to run together again. So we're both building up gradually, with no real race plans as of yet, but we'll get there. Until then, I'm running for fun, so glad to be able to run the 5K this weekend, and I'll be wearing my new favorite shirt. Because if you're not running happy, then what's the point?