There's Always Some Excuse....

As much as I like to think it will change or be different next race, there's always some excuse for why training didn't go as well as I hoped and I'm sure there always will be!  Actually, maybe that's not true - for the marathon I managed to stick pretty steadfastly to my training plan (probably out of sheer terror over what was awaiting me), but for anything shorter there seems to be a recurring theme.

This month's excuses go something like this: 

• Time consuming bed bugs scare / dealing with what turned out to be [thank goodness!] less serious bug problem 

Fending off hard shelled bugs [and vampires / evil spirits...?] with Diatomaceous Earth...one of many time consuming bug-ridding undertakings

• Painting apartment walls back to white to avoid insane charges from landlord...special shout out in praise of James, who donated his whole weekend to the cause....I guess I kind of mis-sold the project when I said it would probably only take us an afternoon...

Painting...because clearly most people prefer stark white to a calming, light tan / neutral shade??? 

• Packing entire apartment / coordinating last minute move out/in items / trips to Salvation Army, etc.

So much stuff!!! Where does all of it come from???  Where will all of it go???

• Work getting a super busy spell in the midst all of this

Each one of these items would have been time consuming on its own, but they were made even more difficult because I live out of a hotel in a different city 4 nights a week [okay, so the last one wasn't made more difficult by being in a different city...in fact it was probably made easier by it, but whatever...].  

So....excuse, excuse, excuse...no, I didn't get through my April "Hold Me To It" list.  We can go into more detail on my related failings later.  In the meantime, on the bright side I got in a nice 8 mile long run (10 this weekend, perhaps?), a few "stretch" workouts that challenged me to huff it up hills / through intervals, and a wonderful new roommate out of the deal.  All in - not a bad month.  

Move in day was Monday, after which I promptly abandoned James in Brown Box Land and headed to Philly for work and tried to get back on this "training for Brooklyn" bandwagon.  I used the need to return my keys to the old apartment as an excuse to squeeze in a workout instead of unpacking on Monday night and was pleasantly surprised that despite the lack of music and utter exhaustion from the move, my tired legs were able to transport me back home to the old apartment in about 10 minute miles.  And yes, it felt really weird to be running with an actual purpose of getting somewhere, as opposed to my usual meaningless laps around a park or out backs on a dirty highway.  Tonight I squeezed in a 5k at the hotel with a similar pace - so perhaps April's mayhem hasn't set me back too far on my goal to PR in Brooklyn's race.  Hooray!