Monthly Archives: June 2012
2012 halftime report
I never imagined at the beginning of this year that my biggest highlight would be personal with my relocation to the Richmond area. While I haven’t been happy with my career in a while, moving to another part of Virginia wasn’t something I was looking to do.
Here on the last day of the first half of the year, I’m happy with how things are falling into place with the move. With that comes a return of satisfaction with my running.
This month has been weird — I feel like I’ve neglected running and haven’t been able to do many of the things Coach Caleb has lined up for me. Despite that, I closed out the month with a 10-mile run this morning and a little more than 90 miles for the month. My Relay for Life run at the beginning of the month certainly helped me hit that mark.
The gun show at Shamrock
Here are the main things that stand out for me for the first half of this year:
PRs
The Shamrock Half Marathon feels so long ago, but it still stands out as my top highlight of the year. Shattering my 10k PR in Carytown is a close second.
Humbled
The Cleveland Half Marathon experience was miserable. It was so bad that I almost signed up for next year’s race to get some redemption. I didn’t though. Instead I’ve used that race as a learning experience and feel much better prepared for changing weather conditions than I have before.
The “other” experiences
My first race of the year — a bloody Frozen Toe 10k — is probably my favorite racing experience so far. A close second is the Blue Ridge Half Marathon.
More miles
I haven’t focused on many specific numbers this year, but I’m closing off the first half of the year with more than 550 miles. I’m just 15 miles shy of 1,200 miles since July 1, 2011.
What’s ahead
I’ve been thinking a lot this month about getting beyond this month. I’m eager to get to “official” Richmond Marathon training with a coach outlining my plans. It’s a brand new experience training like this. I do need to find an in between race though, but I have to actually do some searching first.
12 things [the late edition]
With making the move back to the Richmond area, and my first day of working being on June 12, I completely forgot about my 2012 monthly “12 things” post.
I usually write these in advance and I usually have a ton of topic ideas going on … but let’s just say none of that happened this month.
I’m not going to just ignore my “12 things” post this month though. Here it is, 17 days late. I’ll keep with my moving theme I’ve been writing about lately …
1. I’m really going to miss seeing the mountains every day.
A fall view along the Parkway
2. Speaking of mountains, we did a lot of family picnics near the Peaks of Otter. Not that they’ll go away — in fact we’ll probably still go up there on many of my visits to Bedford — but I’ll miss the ease of just randomly doing that.
3. My commute to work is now half of what it was before in time, and more than half in terms of mileage.
4. I already love the new neighborhoods to run in. While I have a couple of busy streets I have to cross, I have several route options to keep things mixed up.
5. Since I’ve been back and forth to Richmond twice, people have asked me when I’ll move back to the Roanoke/Lynchburg area. I can’t do another move in another couple of years. But I’ve said that before. I’m extremely satisfied with the first few weeks of my job, and I haven’t been able to say that in more than 10 years when I first started my career.
6. I never got into details about my housing situation when I left Richmond, nor do I need to, but I’m excited about house-shopping again. I just have to be patient, though, and make sure this is the right thing.
7. While I’ll miss the mountains (see No. 2), I like the proximity to Virginia Beach. I really need to go there for a weekend soon.
8. One great thing about living in Richmond is easy access to parts of the Richmond Marathon course. When I lived here 5 years ago, that was appealing, but I never ran any of the course.
9. It’s nice to go on Twitter and see people using #rva to talk about things in Richmond. The social media scene was dead in Roanoke/Lynchburg, which never made sense to me.
10. There’s a great restaurant in Bedford called Clam Diggers. I think I ate there 3 times in the few years I was living there, which is about as many times as I ate there before I moved. Weird how things like that happen. I’m sure I’ll still eat there once a year.
11. My apartment is within walking distance to a do-it-yourself frozen yogurt place called Red Apple. That could get ugly this summer.
12. My dog Duke has really struggled with the move. Not having the family together all the time is stressing him out I think. He’s almost 7 years old and I really hate to put him through another move. Just a few more weeks Duke and everything will be like it always was.
Wordless Wednesday: Richmond scene
Boxed in
Boxes inside of boxes
One of the great things about my move to Richmond is my company provided movers. The downfall to that is I had way too much of my stuff in storage for a long time. That stuff found its way into a crap-ton of boxes. Those boxes took up half my living room in my new apartment in Midlothian.
Needless to say, it’s been a crazy few days unpacking, throwing stuff away, putting things in boxes labeled “yard sale” that I may end up just giving away, and putting things back into boxes to go to storage.
If things go well, I’ll be making another move in a year into a house. The apartment was a rushed thing so I could start my job and get my family here in a timely manner. I think it’s a good thing though. I’ve collected way too many useless things over the years — my wife too — and it’s forced us to downsize a bit. I think more downsizing is needed.
After that I’m done. I will retire and die wherever I go next.
As for running … I still got in 20 miles last week. Somehow. I’m not really sure. It’s all kind of a blur now.
I feel like I’ve gained at least 5 pounds in this move. The kitchen was a mess for a while, so there’s been a lot of eating out; there’s been quick eating out with new co-workers too. It’s not that I’m eating bad; I just feel like I’m eating a lot. We’ll see if I ever find my scale. I think it might be in my old home still.
I think after this week is over, things will feel like my new normal. It’s a fitting a time as the calendar flips to the second half of the year and I can focus on the Richmond Marathon. Time is on my side, but these next few weeks are important to not let anything slip.
Oh, and if anyone in Richmond needs some boxes, let me know. I have plenty.
New scenes
New place. New roads to run on.
I headed out this morning for a 4-mile run on streets I’ve never even seen. I must admit that it’s refreshing. I’ll miss my big hills in Bedford, but I also know that I’ll probably visit enough to run on them every 4-6 weeks.
As for things with the new job and moving, it’s hectic. It’s stressful, but exciting; it’s frustrating, but it’s also a chance to reorganize things in my life.
I think I’m another week or so away from reading all the blogs I want to and rejoining the conversations everywhere else. That new “normal” will eventually get here …
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Transitioning to a new normal
No, I didn’t fall off a cliff and fake my own death. I’m alive and mostly well.
With everything that goes on with moving, spending as much time with my family as much as I can since I won’t see them much for a couple of weeks, and being exhausted, things like blogging and chatting on Twitter or dailymile must go away.
That said, I’m still running. I have to do something to keep me from going crazy. These past couple of weeks may not be what I want, but from where I am in previous years before marathon training I certainly can’t complain.
This move back to Richmond works well with my training. While I would love to have a few more base miles, I’ll still at 510 miles for 2012 so far. That’s not too shabby. I think I’ve only hit 500 miles in the first 6 months in a calendar year once.
By the time I’m fully settled, “official” training will get under way in July for the Richmond Marathon. My new place is actually very close to my old house, so I’m familiar with the neighborhoods I’ll run in, but I’ll also have some new areas to explore.
And if I have the time, I’ll try to run parts of the course before hand, especially Lee Bridge.
For now, this may be my last post for another week. For everyone whose blogs I usually read and haven’t commented on, I apologize. I feel like I’m missing out on things a bit.
As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I want to get back to a lot of what I was doing to make things “normal.” That “normal” will have to wait a little bit longer though.
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