Winter blues

It's been a bit since my last post. Not because I haven't been running, just haven't had the best runs.  I finally did have a good running week however, the best since my awesome 12 mile run two weeks ago.

I have been having a very hard time with the winter blues.  Not that I am depressed, or that it's even that dreary here but the whole time change and my work schedule change.  It's dark when I get off work at 5:30 pm and I am have a difficult time getting up at 5:15 am to run in the morning.  Then I feel guilty and mad at myself if I sleep in or am too tired after work.  In last month's issue of Runner's World I found a great article addressing this, it is online too.  RW Article

So, I really looked into running groups that do week night runs.  I went on the Austin Runner's Club website and found that things are happening every night, but the problem again is the fact that I don't get off until 5:30 (which is my only complaint about the new job).  Most groups meet at 5:45 and even though they aren't far from my office, by the time I change, get in the car and deal with traffic I can't be any where until 6pm.

But there is a group that meets Monday and Weds at 6:30 only a few exits up from where we live. It's kind of a weird time to join the group since the group is gearing it's workouts for people running the Austin Marathon in February. However, since I have been training for the half I am capable of doing the weekday workouts (just not the 15+ mile runs they do on the weekend).  I emailed the group leader and met them out on Weds for a track work out at this middle school.  It was dark but there were so many people on the track, which is great.  There were only about 10 people there from their regular group that night but every one was friendly.  Since they are all running the marathon they did a different work out than I did but the point of all this is to have some people to meet with and make me accountable on week nights, hopefully keeping me motivated.

I had a great workout.  10 400 x 400's. I worked hard.  And the leader had gatorade and water for us. We stretched together and did some core. They do a 5 mile run on Mondays mixed with hills so I am going to meet them as well and see how it goes.


My race is next weekend but I want to stay motivated and really make running a part of my routine again.  Luckily my group will still meet through mid February but then I need to find a weekend run group which won't be hard.  I just don't want to get lazy again. I already signed up for another half in April...I am nuts but hey, need to force myself to keep up with this!!!  I am hoping that some of the people from my current training group will want to continue to run together after the races.

Regardless, I am excited to see how this works out.  I also run faster and feel better when with people, it's amazing the difference!