I had a hard time getting excited about any of the races around this past weekend and decided to just take the week off. 

This coming weekend is a different story... one of the biggest local races of the spring -- the Charlotte RaceFest Half Marathon and 10k. I'll be running the half marathon. 

I hate to get wimpy on my time predictions but since I've been slowing down with every half marathon lately I'm just hoping to be under 1:40 for this one. If I'm over about 1:38 maybe it'll shake me up and make me get serious about losing this extra 10 pounds I've been carrying around since the holidays.

Who else is running RaceFest?

http://www.charlotteracefest.com/

I had a couple of days of good runs lately after thoughts of hanging up my shoes forever crept in. Maybe the weather is helping.

Anyway still no race plans in the near future, I might do that Cherryville race on the 27th (yes it's on Friday evening), and then maybe the Scream in July.  Actually I might do some racing in July.  Will see if I can improve some of my PR's which haven't moved in a couple of years.

Told Cliff I'd poke in here, so here I am.

Here's the 2 paragraph update on my running lately:

I came back last March with a sub 1:50 half in DC and was on top of the world with thoughts of a sub 4 marathon in the fall of 2011 and something broke.  I really have no idea what happened, but running became an incredible struggle for me, and when running isn't fun, it's downright brutal.  Anyway, I took a month off, which became 2, and then 3 and when I started running again I learned something by experience that I already knew from reading: fitness goes bye-bye very quickly.

I was shocked at how hard it was to run again, and that just messed with my head even more.  Runs were physically exhausting and mentally exhausting because I was beating myself up during every run with thoughts of "I've run 2 marathons and I can't run 5 minutes without wanting to quit??"  Just to get out the door to run was a struggle.  Only thing I can say is that I've tried to hang on to running through all of this. 2 miles here, 3 there.  2 Half Marathons that I had no business running but did.  Now, finally, I've accepted the fact that it doesn't matter where I was a year ago, only where I am now.  My runs lately are shorter (heck, I'm running in a week what I would do before in a single run), but for the first time in a long time I come back feeling happy.

Thanks, Richard.  Ministry has been crazy busy, but that was expected because we've planted a new church in Albemarle and it's grown quite a bit in a short amount of time.  That's the only thing I can think of outside of just the blah running feeling that's been a big change in my life that could have affected my running.

Funny, too, that my wife and I are now on Weight Watchers.  Never thought I'd do that - especially since I'm only about 10 pounds over my suggested healthy weight - but I figured losing any amount of extra weight would help me feel better while running, right?  Reading your blog motivated me to give it a shot, Richard, and after one week I was down 5 pounds and my wife was down 4.  Absolutely amazing, and even if we hadn't lost that much, we're eating healthier and both feel better than we have in a long, long time.

.. but for the first time in a long time I come back feeling happy.

Where's the "Like" button around here?

Coming to terms with lost fitness isn't easy for most people.  I HATED having to do 1min jog/5min walks when I first started running again last summer -- I still had memories of marathon cycle type runs, and accumulating a whopping six minutes of slow jogging wasn't quite how I saw myself.  Stay steady, keep having fun, and let it lead wherever it wants.

Today's RaceFest, right?  Run well if you're running!

For me, 22 minutes of running without stopping, and a bit of speed in there, too.  Best run in a while.