Flying south for the winter has been a constant in my training since I moved to DC. It's a nice escape from the gray skies and somewhat unpredictable winter as well as a chance to spend quality time with my family; something that I don't get much of living so far away and traveling most of the year.
2020 has been the exception to the rule. Like many people I was able to spend more time with my family than I have in years, leaving for a little over a month in July. Even so, the opportunity to escape the cold was too hard to pass up. So masked up I flew done to sunny Florida and after three-plus weeks, I'm back in the DMV looking tanner and feeling fitter than when I left.
The best part of being home is having access to the endless dirt roads surrounding my parent's house. My shins, which have still been a nagging annoyance, were definitely thankful for the softer surfaces to build mileage on. The weather wasn't too shabby either, even though per usual it felt pretty rough to adjust to the first couple of runs. Not having to layer up or worry about colder temperatures was a nice reprieve from DC, where due to covid we still haven't had access to our usual indoor practice facility to warm up in.
The worst part about being home was leaving my training partners. While my training has been on a weird track the last few months prior to leaving DC I was just beginning to sneak back into workouts with the team and overlap with my normal training partners.
Long runs and tempo runs I can handle by myself, but doing any repeat over 200 alone is never fun. Being alone makes it harder to zone out and there's no one else to share the load of repeats. It's easier for negative thoughts to creep in. If you stop a rep short and no one is around to see it, does it matter? As my workouts began to creep back up in length this past month hasn't just been a matter of gaining fitness, but practicing mental toughness. Shutting down those thoughts and getting the work done even when there is no one around to see it.
For those of you who have been following along since I started back running, you know it has been far from an upward trajectory. The biggest upside of training lately has been the small wins; making it work when it's been difficult to find a track that's open and walking away feeling good about the work I've done. I wrote down in my journal more often than I have ever "this is the best workout so far". Knock on wood it's a phrase I can keep writing down moving forward.
While things are still up in the air in terms of a race schedule I am excited to announce we'll be heading back to JDL for Camel City Elite and you'll be able to catch me in the women's 800 on February 8th.
In the meantime, I'll be doubling up on vitamin D, jumping back into workouts with the team, and keeping up building fitness for when races come.
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