I decided to take a mental health day on Friday to clear my head of all the personal matters that have been at the forefront of my mind constantly lately. Even so I found myself awake fairly early in the morning and wound up passing some time browsing the Fingerlakes Runners club website again for races. I checked the date for the Skunk Cabbage classic and plotted the course into the gmap pedometer and reassured myself that it would be an easy course and that I would be able to handle it when it came around. I realized then that with just about 2 months to go until the race I really needed to buckle down with my training and start seriously getting in my mileage every week. This line of thought then brought me to the Hal Higdon 10k training plan and as I compared it to the calendar, I realized I was perfectly aligned to start the plan and have my race fall on the day the plan lays out for a 10k race. I loaded all of the workouts into Google Calendar and set reminders for myself to keep on track. I wish I had a support group like I had when going through the C25k, as I’ve noted before being held accountable to someone else (whether there are any real repercussions or not) really helps to keep me motivated and chugging along. Unfortunately for all the entertainment that Kick provides, training group support like I found on CR just isn’t there. I might have to browse some of the other running boards that are around and see if there is a community like what I’m looking for somewhere.

Technically the 10k training plan starts on a Monday with stretching and strength training, however I decided to do a 3 mile run this weekend since that is what my first few weeks of weekend runs are during this plan. I had picked up some new warm running clothes at Target on clearance and so I headed out to the bird sanctuary Saturday afternoon, figuring that I hadn’t run there in a while. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was still a good bit of snow on the trails there and so I bundled up and started off as flurries fell from the sky along with icicle drops from the trees above me. My first few laps were uneventful if slow, I’m hoping that it was just running on the snow and ice that was slowing my pace down, I know my mileage hasn’t been where it should be, but I feel like I’m getting slower lately rather than faster. I can’t wait for spring to finally get here so that I can really get out of the house and do some serious running. On my third lap I was nearing the end of the boardwalk section that is a long wooden bridge sort of structure that runs over a swampy section when I felt my balance get thrown off, I reached out with my left arm and grabbed the railing I was running alongside and managed to slide a little bit prevent myself from actually falling. My shoulder definitely felt wrenched a little bit, but not too bad. I continued on my run and as I reached my arm up to stretch it out and make sure that my shoulder was in fact okay, I came around the last turn of the boardwalk and down again I went, this time totally busting my ass and landing hard on my right wrist. I was more annoyed with myself for getting my new running jacket dirty than I was about falling so I figured that meant that I couldn’t be too badly injured and dusted myself off and threw myself into the final lap of my run. On the last go around I was extra careful on the boardwalk and managed to avoid any further injury to my body or my dignity and finished my run without any further incidents. After that run I think I might have to swear off this particular trail until the snow melts, I haven’t broken any bones thus far in my life and I don’t really see any reason to start now.

Stretching and strength training today, getting back into the routine that I was doing during the VRAA, tomorrow calls for an easy 2 mile run but unfortunately the weathermen are calling for a winter storm warning and several inches of snows coming down all day tomorrow. I’m thinking I’ll bring my running clothes to work with me and head to the Y after work and get in those two miles. It doesn’t cost much to go there just for the day and it’ll be worth it to use a treadmill and also to check the place out and get some rates to see if it will be worth my while to join, especially since I don’t want to miss workouts as I head towards my first 10k race. On the other racing front Sara and David want to run an adventure race with me! Yay! April 20th is The Savage sprint adventure race down in Delaware and looks like it will be a lot of fun and a good learning experience for future adventure racing endeavors.