Never Enough.

So after this last half marathon that felt horrible, I have really contemplated what the heck I am doing with my running. I'm just an average runner who has run a couple marathons in the 3:30-3:40 range, then ran one under emotional duress at 3:12 and decided hey, I can run a marathon at six minute miles and now, a year and a half later, am solidly categorized as an elite runner.

So I looked over pictures... how are these two pictures different? What is different about my stride and what is broken down?

The left one is from Grandma's.... Haha, so after contemplating what was wrong, I finally went to see an MD; a physiatrist who specializes in sports medicine and was a competitive gymnast through college.

Turns out that my IT band is tight and my gluteus medius is weak and I gained five pounds with the stress of moving and I have dural tightness, etc, etc.

So I'll work on that and post stuff up here, but I think the biggest problem is that I was too stressed out and stopped enjoying running for a short period of time. It's hard to move to a new city where you don't know anyone and start a new job where you want to do really well and train to be an elite athlete. It was too much and I put too much stock into performance and taking it seriously. I needed to loosen up and enjoy myself while running. That's the way to fix my stride... to focus on running, not plodding.

So I made a mix music of songs that I enjoy running to and have thought about my cadence and thought about why I love to run and what I get from running.

To me, running is freedom. To run means I am alive, strong, and persevering. Below are pictures Ross peak in the Bridger mountain range in montana. A friend and I ran up there on a saturday for shits and giggles. That is what it means to be a runner. And I'm going to focus on just loving it. Then I'll see where running takes me next.