Wait…after basically abandoning my blog for the last 18 months I’m writing another post?! I know. Crazy, right? While we are still sort of at the beginning of the month, I wanted to document what I have been doing over the last month so as to have a baseline to compare to. Spoiler alert: I haven’t done much. I also want to sketch out a few general goals to guide myself moving forward.

First up, my April training log!

Tuesday, April 12th: Walk. The weather was absolutely gorgeous today and I wanted to take advantage of it. I’ve been oddly achy lately, so I wanted to get out and move. Distance: 1.75 miles; Time: 30:34; Avg pace: 17:33; Avg HR: 141

Friday, April 15th: Walk. Nothing notable. Distance: 1.5 miles; Time: 27:21; Ave pace: 18:11; Avg HR: 129

Tuesday, April 19th: No workout, unless you count runDisney registration this morning. My adrenaline was certainly going! Now that I’m signed up for the half, I guess it’s time to put “get in shape” onto the top of the “To Do” list.

Saturday, April 23rd: Walk. The weather was nice and I found myself taking the longer route around my neighborhood. Distance: 2.5 miles; Time: 44:28; Avg pace: 17:45; Avg HR: 136

Monday, April 25th: Walk. Today I was really tired in the afternoon and absolutely didn’t want to go. Made myself go anyways. I kind of wanted to keep going, I kind of really wanted to stop. I told myself I had to go for at least 20 minutes. Mission accomplished. Distance: 1.5 miles; Time: 26:55; Avg pace: 17:52; Avg HR: 122

Wednesday, April 27th: Walk. This walk was a lot windier and chillier than I thought it was going to be. Like, I’m glad my top had a hood because I pulled it up to keep the wind from hurting my ears. It only sort of worked. Still kind of tired, but I want to start getting into a habit because I want to get back to running this summer and it will go a lot smoother if I have some sort of aerobic base. Distance: 2.0 miles; Time: 35:38; Avg pace: 17:47; Avg HR: 128

April totals: 5 walks; 9.3 miles; 2 hours and 44 minutes

So all in all, not a lot. While I was starting to get into an every other day routine, sadly, the weather flipped and I had migraines for the next few days after my last walk and haven’t gotten back on track. Then we had a lot of rain the last few days and the storm off the coast has caused my TFLs (hip flexors that have been problematic for me in the past) to seize up and have been super painful. Like, had to adjust how I was sleeping for a couple of nights because the pain was keeping me awake. My TFL on the left side is the one that I injured back in 2020 that stopped my running. While it doesn’t really bother me when I’m not working out, when I am, they get really sore. Meaning it’s going to be on ongoing problem if I don’t take care of it. Looking back, it’s probably been an issue since I started running 10 years ago, in varying amounts. I might try some hip and core exercises on my own first, but I have a feeling I will be seeking out a PT before I actually get back into running.

I’m hesitant to set any real goals right now because my body seems to be extra unhappy lately, but knowing I have the half marathon in January, I want to set some general intentions for what I would like to happen. Working backwards from the race, my true race training and long runs will likely start the first week of October. That gives me just about 5 months to build some sort of base. I think so long as I start getting back to running by July 1st, I should be okay, meaning I have about 6 weeks to remind my body it likes to move and be active. While having a half 8 months from now seems like a reasonable timeframe, especially for someone with a running history, for me it will probably still be a little tough. But hey, I have to start somewhere!