Down the Rabbit Hole

Greetings Family & Friends! 
Welcome to my first blogging experience. This post shall serve as a small intro so you know what to expect from this blog. While running makes up the majority of marathon training, mental preparation is also equally important. Instead of boring all of you with training stats on a weekly basis, I'm hoping this blog will be a place where I can reflect on the journey, work on my mental training and find some humor in the process. Essentially, a sanity check. 

As some of you know, due to a pretty bad glut/hamstring injury, I've been on the bench for the last 6 weeks. The team training started last week which has thrown me into a debilitating downward spiral of FOMO.  Even someone lightly jogging across an intersection to beat oncoming traffic stirs up the most hideous feelings of jealousy and it takes all my will power not to clothesline them. This injury has forced me to really confront myself and the view hasn't been pretty. 

In the grand scheme of things, my injury is nothing. I recently checked out some of the posts under #firstworldproblems and I found this one:

Change that last part to "because I pulled my glut" and it basically amounts to the same thing. So, I'm trying to keep things in perspective but when you are used to being an active person, it is hard to abruptly enter such a sedentary existence. The worst part is that I technically exercise every day. My physical therapist has assigned me a routine of strength and stretching exercises that I must complete on a daily basis. However, if any of you have had to go through physical therapy, you know that these "exercises" are very similar to the ones you do in kindergarten gym class.

I know that they serve a purpose but they just make me feel silly and frustrated. Although it has been a dark and moody last few weeks, on Monday, my PT told me that he thinks we may be able to reintroduce more strenuous exercise next week! This wonderful news has ignited a flame of hope and I'm brimming with eagerness for next week's exciting new exercises (whatever they may be).  

      

I will keep you all posted but I'm finally starting to believe both my PT and my coach that I might actually be fine and fully healed with plenty of time to train. In this spirit of hopefulness, I've decided to go ahead with my original plans to start blogging the first week of June.    

With my first world problems out of the way, let's get back to the blog.  In order to have some structure, my plan is to have four different kinds of posts each month as follows:

Monthly Musings

Mostly narrative posts where I share my current head-space. 

Nerd Facts 

As a science fan, I hope to explore the science behind running and come up with some fun facts.

Inspirations

These posts will help me explore different inspirational people/characters that I can think about when the going gets tough.  

MileGrams

 

The above picture is of the Williamsburg Bridge and I took it during a 10 mile run in April. I'm forcing myself to take pictures throughout my training in order to make sure I stop and smell the roses. It is so easy to get caught up with pace and stats that you forget to look around and enjoy yourself. These posts will be monthly wrap-ups of my training pictures. 

So, that is my current plan for the blog. Although I'm going to try to stick to it, there may be some changes as the training progresses (hopefully) and my sanity regresses. Stay tuned.