Sometimes I forget I’m a blogger. Or, rather, I remember I’m a blogger because I feel like I should write, but this whole “having a career” thing takes priority, followed by sleep, so blogging stalls out a bit. But now school is out, and the last day for teachers is tomorrow, so here’s hoping I’ll be able to write more.. and maybe actually put some thought into what I write. Wouldn’t that be nice? Because it sure didn’t happen here…

Warning: This is probably the worst post I’ve ever written. You can stop reading now and I won’t be mad.

The other reason I haven’t blogged since my race recap is that I’m feeling a little lost in runningland. I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m all recovered now, and I’m working on strength training and still running shorter distances, and I’m trying to lose the few pounds I put on when I was on that elimination diet (though I’m not trying that hard. I like beer and cereal. Not together). Turns out, eating pretty much nothing but white rice and Chex for a few weeks will add a few globules around the middle. And also, it didn’t help anything, so I’m back to eating normally. Go guts.

Anyway. I thought it would be nice to have this summer as an “I do what I want” summer… and maybe I’ll feel differently once it’s actually summer, but right now, I’m not loving the lack of structure. I’d love a redemption race from Lincoln, but I also know that this summer is a busy one — lots of out of town time for conferences and family stuff, our cruise in July, and trying to put in a backyard.

We’d also like to squeeze in a camping trip or two somewhere. I could train for a big race amid all that, but I’m not sure I want the commitment of a training schedule: “Oh, hey family. Nice to see you. I’m gonna go run for three hours now.”

I’m also still secretly harboring that ultra dream, but that’s also a major time commitment. And frightening. I’d need to run a lot more trails. And I’d need someone to teach me how to be good at running trails, because the concepts of hiking up hills and fueling for 8+ hours on my feet and, um, not getting lost all terrify me.

Of course, I also want to get whatever is wrong with my insides figured out before I commit to much of anything, because I’m sick of my guts dictating my life.

I do have a couple of races this summer — the Skirt Sports “13er” in June, and the Chase the Moon relay in July. I’m planning to do those just for fun. I don’t have time to get super fast in the few weeks before the 13er, and Chase the Moon’s whole purpose is to be fun. So I’d kind of like some competitive goal on the horizon. I just don’t know what.

I do know that I want to get in as much mountain time as possible this summer. I need my fix of this:

If you want to invite me on your mountain excursions, that’d be great. 🙂

So… yeah. Thanks for sticking with me through this long and rambling post. I needed to get my thoughts out.

Who wants to go adventuring this summer?! And who wants to teach me to be a trail runner?