I’ve been trying a lot of things to get me back to blogging. Part of the problem is that I like to blog over my lunch break at work, but for no apparent reason, my blog is blocked at the office. No other blogs, just mine. Quite odd. And then, when I get home from work, the last thing I want to do is sit down at the computer and type. Typically, I want to sit on the couch and veg out. Of course, what I end up doing is cleaning, working on the house, or going for a run (something I’ve not been doing enough of).

I think the heat has finally broken here, which is wonderful. It has been so hard to stick to a good running schedule lately. I don’t want to go out when it feels like it’s 100 degrees out. I think that last night’s front helped a lot. It was gorgeous this morning. I was so sad that I was driving to work instead of going for a run.

My next race is over the weekend. Just a ten miler, thankfully, but it’s something I have to be careful to be ready for. I’m not sure I am in terms of training, but really, all I want to do is finish. And after that, I’m done racing until Labor Day (unless I do a 5K for Jen’s birthday, which I think is in the plans). I need to get back to a normal workout schedule. Back to normal running, then back into a lifting plan. I think that might help kickstart my weight loss again. I’m not sure what’s going on, but my weight just seems to be steadily creeping upward. I can’t afford to buy a whole new wardrobe, so I have to do something to stop this in its tracks.

Crossing my fingers that cooler weather helps. Because I need to do something. It helps that I actually have a race goal for the fall. I want to try to PR at Rock and Roll Philadelphia. It’s two weeks after the Disneyland Half, so I have to be trained up, but I’m hoping that I can go and run Disneyland and have fun with it and still be ready to go for Philadelphia. My PR was run on a really hilly course when I was just out to run and have a good time – though I knew what I had to do to get a PR, so I was pushing for it. I don’t know if I could do that same pace now, but I can certainly try. I think one thing that really helped me on my PR race was that it was really really cold out. It was a November race in Pennsylvania. That’s a race I could do again this year if I’m feeling up to it.

I feel like I’ve really been slacking as of late, and that’s why I’m feeling so out of shape. I just hate that I have to put so much more work into it than I used to. I know I’ve gained about 15 pounds in the last year (though admittedly last spring, I was really thin because I had been sick, so I guess that doesn’t count). Still, it’s not a good thing. I’d like to lose about 20 pounds, but I’d be happy with ten. Heck, at this point, I’d be happy with five! I just can’t seem to pull it off. I do really well and then suddenly I find that I’ve gained four pounds in a matter of days. I can’t explain it. So I’m just going to keep on working at it and hope for the best.

I know that running again will really help. And actually pushing myself when I run is what I need to do. I love the feeling of a really great run, so I’m hoping that with nice weather and a goal on the horizon, I’ll want to be out there and that will help with the weight loss and the body confidence as well. I don’t want to be a skinny minnie. I just want to be back into my clothes and feel comfortable in them. If I don’t do something, I’m going to have to buy new clothes in a bigger size once fall hits. We can wear jeans to work all summer, but my dress pants were really starting to feel tight and I think they were looking tight too. Gotta fix that.