And now for something completely different…..

Blog much? No, not really.

So what’s been going on? Something that is TOTALLY NOT RUNNING!

After I ran a 50k at a 12 hour race last year and decided I had zero interest in running the 50 mile race I had trained for, I kind of found myself floundering. I had spent so many months fighting back to running an ultra and then, viola! I ran one! And then, hmmmm…. Ok what next? In a past life, what’s next would be, what are the next 3-7 races you can train for? Please note: that is the kind of thinking that got me into the great thyroid mess of 2015, so that’s out.

I’ve been a member at an AMAZING gym for 5+years now. In that time, I have done mostly semi personal training. My coach and I would talk about my goals and then my coach would design a workout for me. It’s made me a healthier runner for sure. But even that was starmting to feel stale.

Enter Olympic lifting (not Crossfit, not that there’s anything wrong with Crossfit when done safely… end disclaimer). My gym has a pretty great Olympic lifting program and they have been offering an Olympic Lifting for Dummies class (it’s not actually called that, that’s just how I felt when I signed up for it). So, even though I’m scared to death of new things and change, I thought, what the heck, let’s tip toe out of this comfort zone just a bit and see what happens.

What’s happened is…. I LOVE IT! It’s way different from endurance running and that’s kind of a good thing right now. In fact, my sacred Saturday long runs have turned into lifting days!

I haven’t stopped running, but lifting heavy weights with big movements has certainly changed how often I run and how successfully I run. For the first month or so most of my runs made me feel like Godzilla because my legs were lead weights from lifting. But three months in, my body seems to be adapting a tad.

Most of the “lifting only” lifters can’t understand how or why I run and most of the “run only” runners can’t understand how or why I’m loving this type of lifting. And I’m just in the middle trying to figure out how I can make them work together and not destroy my thyroid again.

The cool thing is that adding Olympic lifting has made me appreciate my running more. I love being in the noisy gym with people cheering each other on and dropping loud weights everywhere, but that environment has also made me appreciate the silence and Zen of a nice run even more.

I’m still not sure what all this means as a runner, an unltrarunner, a lifter, and all the other labels I’ve given myself through the years. But I do know as a person, I’m really enjoying this new stuff.

Oh and also, who gives a sh!t about all those labels?