Operation Sparkle: Training slumps and new Challenges

Morning runners.

So I have two very important things to report: the first is good. The second not so much.

So firstly, I've signed up to run another half marathon. It's a sickness, readers. I tell you, A SICKNESS. They wave shiny objects in front of me and free t-shirts and I become:

No, really, this is basically what I say

I'm not only signed up for a half-marathon, I'm signed up for another challenge. In January of 2015. This one is a 5K Saturday and a 1/2 on Sunday. I did it for two reasons (besides the bling). 1) I wanted to use it as a sort of "dress rehearsal" for the Glass Slipper Challenge. I wanted to be able to take some time to see what recovering from one race to run another is going to look like before I get to Disney so I can do my best to enjoy my race-cation. 2) It fit PERFECTLY in with my training runs for that weekend, so I really had no excuse. I'm excited. And nervous. And excited. And nervous.

Now, for the not so good item. I think I'm entering a bit of a training slump. And I blame school. I'm heading into big conference season, and I have to get my first paper out before Christmas and most days when I get up in the morning, I think about how I have so much I could be doing if I got to school early.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to come to school, start an experiment and then go running. Thankfully, the weather has cooled off enough down here that I don't have to make it out first thing in the morning. Hopefully that will help me do my work and get my runs in.

Until then, I lace up and carry on. In the meantime, I'm also working on running in compression socks. The good news, I've found a form that doesn't cause me pain, but my quads don't have the strength built into them that my calves did to be able to go fast or sustain my run so I've made two major decisions as far as my training goes. The first is to restart my Glass Slipper Challenge training a little bit. I'm doing this so I can start building my distances in the socks with this form. The second is to start cross-training a little bit to build my leg muscles. I'm choosing squats and lunges to target my quads.

Hopefully this works. Keep racing.