It's Been a Year! Getting Motivated

Last year at this time I was in a hotel room recovering from a retinal surgery on my right eye, with my face down in a pillow, waiting for the time to pass until I could be upright again.



I had already registered The Captain and me for the Oak Bay Half Marathon which would not take place till May... and was working on putting together a training plan that would start in January.

We were living on the sailboat, knowing that we would be moving to our house/kitty-sit in December and that it would last time some time in May.  I had too many projects on the go.... and it only got crazier as time wore on.

During our training for the half we made the decision not to move back to the boat after our homeowners returned, so we rented an apartment, painted, furnished and fitted it out, ran our half marathon, spent weeks cleaning the boat top to bottom and hauled it out for annual maintenance, visited my sister in law in Vancouver,  and then my own sister in Calgary... have spent countless hours in the doctor's office and hospitals and labs for scans and blood tests and scopes, trying to find out why my blood protein levels are low and why my body does not hydrate properly, and why my left leg swells... an ogoing saga with no answers yet.



The summer passed by in a whirlwind!  My fitness activities took a bit of a back seat to everything else... until recently when I set up my own Fall Fresh Start Challenge to get myself back on track.  We have been running, but not a whole lot.  I am working out at home and really enjoying it.  I am challenging myself in new ways and my muscles are sore and complaining, but I am seeing results and quite excited about it.  I am spending lots of time in the kitchen experimenting with recipes and new ingredients.

But I am feeling a bit at loose ends...  I really want to commit to training for a longer run. I need something concrete to work toward.

Today while The Captain and I were running, and it was a bit windy and there was the threat of rain in the air, he said to me that he thought it will be really nice this winter, to just go out and run when we feel like it, and not feel like we have to run, to get training miles in.  And in all honesty, I had to agree with him.  I don't like to run in the rain, or the wind, either. 

But I do want to start running longer distances again.  I know that my body cannot take another half marathon at this point. I found out after my race in May, that for some reason, my body is not absorbing what it needs from all the water I drink or the electrolyte drinks I use, so that is why I experienced the terrible cramping that I did, and why it took me so many hours to recover.  I was dehydrated and salt-depleted.  Until I get some answers and get that under control, I am just not willing to put myself through that again.

Since that race in May I have not run anything longer than 6 km.  I think I could manage 10 km without worrying about the onset of these symptoms that plague me with long distances.  I need some event or even a virtual race to look forward to.

So, I am searching for a 10 km run to take part in in late November or December.  And now that I have made that little decision, I am quite exicted about it!

Do you need events or races to motivate you and keep you interested, or is just running or just working out enough?

Hey, little update!  SPUNKYSUZI, you are my 100th follower... so excited to hit this milestone. Thanks to everyone who follows my blog!