With a little less than three weeks to go until the WilliWhammer Half Marathon up in Connecticut, I am starting to ease into my taper. And by "ease into my taper" I mean that I am running even less than I have been in the lead-up to this half marathon. As it's been since I finished Philly way back in November, my running has been spotty at best and not-at-all at worst. There have literally been weeks where I haven't put on my running shoes. Whole weeks, which is rather unlike me.
At first, I figured I just needed some time. I had come off a really hard fall where I had an A race triathlon in September, Ragnar Washington DC in October, then two marathons in November. I was beaten up, tired and sore. I had nothing on the race calendar so I gave myself December to rest up and let my body return to a somewhat normal state. I figured that by the time January rolled around, I would be ready to get back into the swing of things. A whole month off - with no real plan of any kind - is unlike me and I thought for sure I would be itching to get back to doing something - anything.
But three full months into the year and I still haven't found my groove. Even with this half marathon coming up at the end of the month - which we signed up for in January and I thought might jump-start my racing flow - has proved to really be a non-starter. Sometimes I have good weeks where I put in 15-20 miles, but I have followed them up by a week of maybe going for a five miler. Running just isn't there for me right now. I can say it's because the weather has been awful this year and that it's been hard to get outside, but that would be a lie. Yes, the weather has been awful, but I don't mind running in the cold and it would just be an easy excuse. I've had plenty of time to get outside and put in the mileage, I've just chosen not to. I just need a break.
However, the one thing I have been doing is swimming - a lot. I joined a new pool last month and swim with a group of people on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and try and go at least two other times during the week. For what seems to be the first time in a long time, I have been consistently putting in anywhere from 6,000 - 8,000 yards a week. Considering last summer I probably swam 10,000 yards in total, I guess you could say that my groove is coming back. A large portion of the group I am swimming with happen to be coached by someone that I had been looking into signing on with before other life-issues started getting in the way of dropping hundreds of dollars a month on coaching, but I can already tell that I am getting the bug. They are all triathletes, so they are continually talking about what races they are doing, have done or would like to do in the future, and seeing as how I have also not planned a race calendar or even considered what races I would want to do this summer, I am starting to feel the pull.
Maybe choosing my races will get me back into it? Maybe a little change of scenery was just what the doctor ordered and all this talk about races is what I needed? Maybe I just need to sit down with myself and have a little mental pep-talk and tell my inner whiner that I just need to shut the fuck up and stop complaining - that it's high time I cowboy up, get a training plan together and get my ass in gear.
