Running for Geeks

I’d loved running since I started doing it in 2010, but after my December 2016 marathon, which was miserable, I was blistered, beaten down, and burned out. Now I’m in this weird running purgatory. As of this writing, I’ve run seven times in 2017 and maybe one or two times more than that since the marathon, and most of all that was walking intervals.

I knew it would take several weeks to heal from the physical pounding of such an event, but I hadn’t imagined how long it might take to heal mentally and emotionally. Knowing that it’s not uncommon for a runner to find herself in a bit of a funk and needing a short break or recovery season doesn’t make it easier to deal with.

But instead of worrying over it, I’ve spent the down time lifting weights, developing a personal yoga practice, walking more, fighting zombies, and hatching Pokémon. The Pokémon Go and Zombies, Run! apps got me through the most mind-numbing miles or marathon training, and I have faith that they will help me find the drive to run many more.

Competition is a great motivator, and sure, you can invite friends or coworkers to challenges like logging the most steps per day on FitBit, but that doesn’t interest me these days. I need more creative and interactive fitness-driven games.

So I find myself absorbed in collecting a virtual zoo. In addition to spawning wild monsters, the PoGo app spontaneously distributes eggs to hatch into Pokémon, achieved by walking or slowly running 2K, 5K, or 10K, depending on the egg, up to nine eggs at a time.

Zombies, Run! is an interactive, narrative audio game about YOU saving the world from zombies, mad scientists, lions, and rogues all while collecting supplies to expand, upgrade, and protect your virtual home base. The writing is absolutely brilliant, and the cast of characters is delightfully diverse, including many women and queers, with those identities being merely incidental not integral to the plot itself. Each time, I can barely wait for my next mission; the engaging story always has me wishing I could run more miles or minutes to find out what happens next.

Combining North Texas’ bizarrely beautiful spring weather of late, that Team Valor “gotta hatch ‘em all!” attitude, and the encroaching apocalypse, I’ll find the joy of running again soon enough.

First Quarter Goal Progress

This year's goals primarily focus on cultivating healthy habits rather than setting outcomes-based resolutions.

The first quarter of the year has been largely successful for creating and maintaining various wellness habits and has also brought to light a few areas where I would like to improve. I set up a spreadsheet to track various activities and divided it by week. January 1 to March 31 makes 13 full weeks.

My first goal was to hit 70,000 steps each week, barring injury or illness, based on the Fitbit 10k/day recommendation. I'd been wearing the Fitbit since July and hitting my goals most days, but I didn't think 10k every day was an achievable goal compared to 70k/week. I didn't hit my 70k goal as often as I wanted to these three months, but I only missed it during bad migraine weeks and a few race taper and recovery weeks when I was deliberately working to keep my mileage low. Overall, my 13-week step totals average to 72,714, so that's fine by me.

I also had a goal of logging 1,000 miles walking and running in 2016. I'm at 405 miles with 9 months to go.

I'll have to reassess and reset some goals for the following months.

I got back into the swing of regular blogging with a goal of 50 posts for the whole year and am already halfway there. I like writing but typically lost steam and stop for weeks (or months) at a time. I posted 46 times in 2015 and 48 in 2014. I usually have a half dozen posts in the works and just need to finish and schedule them for the times when I have nothing new to write about. I got a head start in 2016 with finishing up 3 drafts and scheduling 5 posts in the first week.

My goal for the year was to lift 75 percent of my body weight on the assisted pull-up machine, and I hit that just after two months, so maybe I'll go for a real pull-up this year. I want to see how I progress from here before I make that an official goal.

Daily meditation and biweekly stretching/yoga just aren't happening. The step goals were easy to continue because I'd already begun the habit and was nearly hitting my new goals to begin with. Not the case for meditation and yoga. I've been trying to start a daily practice for at least 6 months and not getting more than about 3 days in a row. I guess I'll keep trying.

On track:
I'm a little over one-quarter of the way to my goal for writing gratitude lists 200 times this year and on-track to finish my feminist and racism reading lists. I've taken 4 new fitness classes already with a goal of 10 new classes for the year. My rec center has LOTS of offerings; I just need to figure out how to get a few into my training schedule.

I'm going to add a new column to specifically track the miles per week that I log running so I can keep an eye on my volume of running, whereas running and walking are combined on my Fitbit and yearly mileage goals.