Running Into Joy

I don't know if I've mentioned it yet on this blog, but I am MOVING in a little over a week. Or two weeks, depending on if you count "moving" as the day my current lease ends or the day my new lease begins--there's a teensy bit of a gap. This is beyond a doubt my most complicated in-town move to date. Thankfully, UHAUL is amazing & gives you a month of free storage with the rental of a van, so the majority of my stuff has somewhere to live while I stay with my boyfriend for a few days in between leases. Still, it means moving everything twice and not getting to feel settled for an entire week. It means trying to clean while some of my stuff is still in the way, and having a carpet company come in mere hours after I finish getting everything into my UHAUL. Let's just say I can't be all that surprised that I've developed a headache doing all of this in 90 degree heat. I am trying to be gentle, take it slow, and embrace the uncertainty as part

I have written before about how hard it is for me to sit still these days. I love taking long walks, doing yoga, just generally moving. And while I've been trying to cultivate more intentional stillness in my life, life had other plans: forced stillness. Oh, how badly I handle having my independence stripped away. This week, I've been dealing with knee pain that has left me crying on the couch because the act of walking is too painful to be justified except in extreme need. And I have been cranky.  It's amazing what we take for granted when our bodies are well and whole. Making our own dinner. Getting the mail. Running to the corner store for a snack. Taking out the trash. All of these things felt suddenly painful and difficult as my knee seemed poised to snap out of position with every step. Yesterday, I went to the doctor and got an official diagnosis on my knee. It turns out, nothing is ripped or torn or broken at all--it's just patellofemeral pain syndrome, ak

I write to you from the couch, where my butt will be most of the day because, surprise surprise, I've got an injury! To say I'm frustrated would be an extreme understatement. Over the past couple days, my left knee has grown increasingly sensitive and unstable feeling, to the point where I'm now taking a full day of rest in hopes that it will feel better in the morning. Don't worry, I've got an appointment in with a doctor in case things don't improve. It's just that, with the recent experience I had in the medical system, I am not optimistic that doing so will really do much good with this kind of issue. The hours and dollars I wasted only to be repeatedly told different things about how to fix a problem that still hadn't been identified are fresh in my mind, and so I'm hoping this knee will handle itself. I am not good at being still. I love long walks, filling my weekend with the outdoors. I love running and yoga and being the able-bodied pe

A week of training for my fall 10K is already in the books! I've already started Week 2 off strong with my scheduled 25 minute run early this Monday morning, so I'm feeling pretty good. Week 1 saw the first real, hot, muggy days of a Pittsburgh summer come in strong. Consequently, my non-air-conditioned post run life has been sweaty.  I got in a total of 5.5 miles between my two runs, and did some Runner's Yoga with Adriene on the off days to keep myself stretched out. Saturday's long run was planned for 2 miles, but I pushed on for a 5K because it's Fandom Running Club Racery Season! (more on that later). On average, my pace was around 11:29/mile. This may seem slow to some, but to me, it's right on target for my goal 10K pace of 11:30/mile. This is a conservative goal, looking at what I had hoped would be my Half Marathon pace in the Race that Wasn't earlier this year. In theory, I should be able to manage a bit faster for a shorter race--but I want

Here we go again--I'm officially training for my next race! July 1st was supposed to be Day 1 of my training cycle for my first 10K of the year, The Great Race 10K. However, my past two weeks looked like this: Go on vacation, hike Mt. Marcy, drive 10 hours home, work three days, spend the next weekend in a cabin with 14 other humans, drive home to immediately meet up with my Dungeons and Dragons group for several hours of gameplay. I can count the hours I've had to myself over the past two weeks on one hand, which in introvert terms means I am running on E, big time. Plus, when you're on vacation or in the woods with friends or hanging out with your DnD buddies, the 9pm bedtime tends to go out the window. Needless to say, when my 5am alarm went off on Monday morning, I had zero left to give. I chose sleep instead of my first training run. And man, did I beat myself up about it for the next two days. Day one, how could I be failing at this already ?! The guilt is,