Life has been pretty busy as of late.  This past weekend was our big fall choir concert, and it was absolutely a success – even the Washington Post review was good!  But it basically meant a week of very few scheduled workouts (though don’t let anyone tell you that 4 hours of choir isn’t a workout – my whole body hurts after that).

I’m back to it now, with the Space Coast Half Marathon up next.  It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I could bust out a half marathon with no trouble since I was running so regularly.  Now it’s definitely an effort – or so I assume, since I haven’t run a half marathon in almost a year!  The 2017 Space Coast Half was my last, so this is certainly a comeback.  And it’s probably gonna hurt.  But it’s also gonna be worth it.

And now, some links I have saved to share.  In no particular order:

Working the Program from The Bloggess.  She also acknowledges that everything’s gonna be okay.  Seriously, if you’re not just reading everything she writes, why not?

EPBOT made the COOLEST Harry Potter themed cat tree.  And a super cool Harry Potter room.  And photographed some hilarious pun-themed costumes at DragonCon.

Kecia is amazing and conquered IM Louisville, which looked horrible.  Not gonna lie.

Steena did IM Wisconsin, which looked less horrible, but I still don’t want to race 140.6.  More power to you, ladies.

Did you follow Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Fattest Bear competition?  The pictures were amazing.  Those bears got BIG.  Good job, nature.

Jenn acknowledges that sometimes everything is terrible, but you can still find the good.

Chrissy went to Scotland, because sometimes she does things other than cook, and I’m still pretty jealous.

Lauren is running and blogging again and I am very excited for her.

Michaela shows just how rough it is to try to workout with cats.  Cats are jerks.  Furry, loveable jerks.  And I should try to pet mine more this weekend after barely seeing them last weekend.

jill111 / Pixabay

It has been way too long since I’ve done a link roundup and man, do I have a lot of things saved, and a lot of things I’ve missed.  I’m going to try to start getting these posts out more often, maybe every month or every other month.  It would definitely help if I kept up on my blog reading.  I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I write a blog, but tend to go for a chunk of time without reading any blogs, then read everything all at once.  Which always makes for a fun afternoon, but maybe I should try to be more up to date on things!

Racing and Fitness Things

• Liberty Triathlon “70.3” Race Report: Adversity Adventure
• Jenn Dreams of TriDisney (I am not swimming in that water.)
• Jenn recaps the Baltimore Marathon
• SBM and Team Logan Race MCM
• Headstands

Physical and Mental Health

• The Stories We Tell Ourselves
• Not All Smiles and Giggles
• Don’t Get Healthy for Instagram, Do It For You
• The Sucker Punch I Think I Needed
• The Scale Doesn’t Tell You How Much You Get to Enjoy Your Life
• Fitness Imposter Syndrome
• If Everyone is Bullied, Who are the Bullies?

Delicious Recipes

• Pistachio Cake
• Lemon Bars with Poppyseed Shortbread
• Nanaimo Bars
• Healthy Freezer Meal Plan (Yes, I realize the irony of placing this with all these dessert recipes.)
• Thai Sweet Potato Soup
• Eggplant Rollatini with Sausage

Just Cool Things

• Called: Becoming Foster Parents
• We Made a Figment Rocking Horse
• Rhino Tracking in Botswana and Zimbabwe
• A hilarious video of the Bloggess’s book being used for a speech competition
• My Big Fat Solocation in Ireland

So if you couldn’t tell, I’m not doing so great on my NaBloPoMo goals.  Whoops.  But hey, something is better than nothing, right?

I blame this stupid cold.  I’m not sick, really, but I’m not exactly well either, so I’m working to kick it. As of today, it’s mostly just a cough and a bit of congestion, plus that general feeling of malaise, but I’m definitely better.  It’s meant more missed workouts though.  Can I have a two+ week taper?  Is that an option?

I certainly didn’t go to the pool this morning.  I figured coughing and trying to swim would be problematic and lead to possible drowning.  Seemed messy either way.  But I am hoping to hit the bike trainer tonight and then go to bed early (Yeah Friday Night!) so I can have some fun this weekend.

(Including braving the grocery store and hopefully running 6 miles if my cough clears up a bit.  I don’t want to run on the treadmill if I don’t have to, but at this point, whatever it takes.)

I finally decided to check out Zwift after seeing so many of my friends raving about how fun it is, and after one ride, I think I agree.  I will be doing a more robust review of it sometime in the next few weeks, but I think it might be a way to make my indoor rides even more fun.

Myriams-Fotos / Pixabay

This weekend was definitely a productive one for me.  I took an unplanned 4 day weekend – Friday was a federal holiday (Veterans Day Observed) and because I work a flex schedule, I discovered on Wednesday that I had enough hours in for the pay period if I took sick leave for my two PT appointments.  I have sick leave coming out my ears, so I went for it and took a four day weekend.

Of course, my whole plan for Thursday was to go to the DMV to get my license renewed.  It doesn’t expire til January, but with the Real ID Act, getting a new license is a process, so I wanted to get it out of the way.  Thankfully, Maryland lets you make appointments, which actually helped a lot.  I was in and out in about 40 minutes.

Unfortunately, I seem to have left there with some cold germs that started to rear their ugly heads on Saturday.  I manage to make it through the entire season without getting sick and then I manage to get two colds in the span of a month.  This is definitely unfair.  Long weekend and I spend it sick, just in time to go back to work?

Oh well, at least maybe I’m getting this cold out of the way before the holidays.  Or something.

So after getting the Christmas tree up and getting some projects done around the house, the rest of the weekend was pretty lazy. Rather than go for my planned 12 mile run, I decided to do a 2 hour trainer ride, figuring that it would be easier on my body than running.  I think it was, but it was still freaking hard.

I think over the winter, I’m going to experiment with Zwift to see if that can make trainer rides any more entertaining.  I don’t mind long trainer rides, but I need to make sure I’m actually pushing myself throughout the workout.  I know a lot of people out there use it and love it, so it might be time to give it a try.

I had an awesome training weekend this weekend.  I didn’t set any new records, but I got in a 25 mile ride and an 8 mile run, and it felt good to get the mileage in.  It helped that the weather was pretty perfect for both.  Not too hot, not too cold, and the rain held off.  I feel like I’ve been biking in threatening rain a lot lately, which is much less fun than it sounds.  Running in the rain can be enjoyable, but biking in the rain? Thumbs down.

I’ll hit on this in my weekly recap, but after looking at my training on Strava, this was the first week in a while that I had 6 workout days on the schedule and actually hit them all.  Life has been busy and so my training has been less than it should be.  That could be exactly why things felt so good this weekend.  It could also be why it felt like it took me 6 miles to warm up on my run yesterday – my body just wasn’t used to this kind of work.  Or it could have been all the hills I rode on Saturday. Or a little bit of both.

Either way, it feels good to be back.  Now to just get my diet back into order and it should be smooth sailing.  Until something else crazy comes up.