Friday, August 25, 2017

Summer Catch-up (Toddler, Running, Training)

It's been two whole months since I've written anything for the blog!

Ok, so that isn't entirely true. I've got a handful of posts in the hopper than just need to be refined. But overall I've taken the summer to enjoy running and being with family. It has been a blast and we've made some great memories along the way. I'll write a bit to catch-up from the hiatus:

The baby is a toddler now. Crazy to think that not that long ago she was just watching and absorbing everything, but now the language is coming fast, she's singing songs and wandering off to play. She's even getting early signs of dramatic play (making some toys talk to each other, etc.) It's so neat to watch these early stages of child development unfold. We've had so much fun as a family this summer.

Frequent outings to the Zoo, the museum, and beyond! We got a zoo pass and a children's museum pass early on in the summer, so we have made those weekly (at least) trips. Trips to the beach, too, have been quite abundant and we hit the local historic carousel -- a favorite of mine from when I was little -- a bunch of times. This has had the effect that summer has felt pretty busy, but also fun and productive, so I can't complain much.

We're also reading a lot together, and singing a lot together. That makes me feel so great because most of my memories as a kid were of hating academic things. I didn't like reading, and so I'm really hopeful to reverse that in this generation of my family. My wife is brilliant, and has always been a great student, so maybe that's where the kiddo gets it from.

I'm in training for the 2017 NYC Marathon. When this post goes live I'll have ten weeks of training left! I'm heavier than I've been training for a marathon before, although I'm chipping away at the weight bit by bit. Being on a new-dad sleep schedule, plus all the bad eating habits summer brings has been tough. The speedwork is also something that I have to get used to, I haven't done a training plan like this since I trained for the 2016 Big Sur Marathon back in the winter of that year. The volume is intense, but I'm keeping up.

Summer Running Streak is going well. As of this writing I've done 91 days of running at least one mile every day. I made it to 94 days last year, so we'll see how far this year goes! I'm hoping to keep it up once the work schedule starts again in September. September, December, May, and June are always the hardest months for me to keep a streak going. If I can power through September there's no reason to think the streak should end.

I'll be returning to the Boston Athletic Association Half Marathon this fall. As a tune-up for New York I figured it would be fun to go back to the BAA Half, and got through the lottery! I used BAA as a tune-up for Marine Corps Marathon some years ago, and it is where I set my current 13.1 PR of 1:40. Will I set a new PR this year? Probably not, but you never know how I'll feel come October.

Friendships have tightened, others have faded. And that's OK. Sometimes life leads people on different paths, and this summer has been a revealing one in the area of social life. I'm lucky in the sense that when our social circle has shrunk, the existing relationships have become stronger and more supportive. I've even grown closer with some very old friends where the communication had not been as strong. It's a good thing to know that these changes can be weathered without too much discomfort, because there will undoubtedly be more change on the horizon. I've got a whole post in the hopper about friendships as an adult and my thoughts on them, but it is tough to ever feel like that post is "done."

So overall it has been a really restorative summer. I'm coming out of it with a stronger sense of self, and a deep and abiding affection for my family and friends. I mean, that's really all you can ask at the end of the day, I think.