It's A New Year

I'm not going to lie. I totally forgot I made this blog until this morning. Yikes. So we went home for Christmas and I got some good runs in. Then Daniel completely surprised me with a trip to New York City the week of New Years. It was magical.

I was reading my previous posts, and the one about my Timex being unreliable is funny, because Daniel gave me a really nice Fitbit for Christmas. How did I live without this thing? I was super obsessed with my steps the first few weeks. Now that we are back into our routine I have no expectations of hitting 10,000 steps a day. But one day in NYC I hit 32,000!

My runs in NYC were amazing. Our hotel was on the Upper West Side about 3 blocks from Central Park. I had never run there, and it was spectacular.

Does life get any better than this? I'm completely obsessed with NYC. This is the Jackie Onassis Reservoir. 

The first day I ran a 4 mile loop around the park. Another day I realized there was a running path around this lake, but it was only 1.5 miles.

Then one morning I wanted to run up to Harlem, see Columbia University and the Apollo, and run back down to the east side and see where Jackie O. lived. I thought it would be 3 miles or so. It ended up being 6.35. Oops. Awesome run though.

I also walked from downtown to our apartment 3 times. The longest day it ended up being 7 miles. I walked a lot, and I loved every second.

We got back to Dothan, and just getting back into our little routine made my depression flare. Before I talk about that, I'll say that I made some pretty lofty (for me) goals for my running. I want to run a half in April, and also run 1,000 miles this year. Then I had this grand idea to run 37 miles for my 37th birthday. I knew I couldn't do it in one day, or even two, so I said I'd run 7.4 miles a day for 5 days over a week. After the second 8 miler, I was done. 

This contributed to my depression. I was so tired and so distraught that I couldn't do it. It made me reevaluate my running. I realized I was trying to constantly compare my running to the girls I follow on IG who run marathons and run 10 miles for fun. That's not me. So I got off IG and told myself to give myself some grace. So no more obsessing with running. I'm just running for fun and fitness (and maybe a little for my sanity). I'm still going to train for the half in April. Only one long run a week...I think I can handle that. 

I start training for the half today. Mondays are my rest days, and today I have 2.5 on the schedule. That sounds perfect. I think I'm more of a low-mileage hobby jogger anyway.

So here's to actually reaching running goals, and staying healthy and happy in the process.