Running on Empty

I can’t really blame the winter blues on my lack of enthusiasm for running lately; it’s been a very mild winter here in Bucks County.  I think that it got started with missing the New Year’s 5k race that I had planned to race for the first time.  Because of how well I was performing this season, I was really looking forward to seeing what I could do at that 5k and then I went and drank too much on New Year’s Eve and wasn’t able to pull it together to make it to the race.  I’ve been trying to get my head back into running and I just feel like I’m on empty.  Every run and workout is a struggle.  I think another factor is that the usual group I run with has a different schedule than me now that I’m working new hours. It’s really been a struggle to lace the running sneakers up and get out the door, and once I finally achieve that I can’t stay motivated to continue putting forth the effort.  I have said on multiple occasions to runners that have fallen into one these slumps to get out and just do a fun run.  So after five weeks of struggling to get motivated I took my own advice.  I did two things that have not done in a very long while.  I dusted off the Apple iPod and ran with music blasting in my ear drums, as I went out and got reacquainted with the trails at Tyler State Park.  I ran to the Community College, back to the boat house, than to the Gym that Jay Ricco works out at, back to the dam, and through mud, muck, stream crossings, corn fields, sticker bushes, and I even found a bridge in the woods I didn’t know was there.  I enjoyed the hour long run and was about to call it a day when coming across the dam was two running buddies about to begin a 12 mile run I joined them for 5 of their 12 to get caught up on everything.  I don’t know if this will be the turning point I need or not, but I do know that I did enjoy running again for a brief moment.  Back to the books, I have two exams and my first college speech this coming week that I need to prepare for.  The speech I’m giving is about how running changed my life for the better if you were wondering.