Hello, June

I can’t believe it’s already June.

Do you ever go through periods where life is so busy and you’re kind of on auto-pilot, quickly moving from one task to the next, barely having time to soak in the moment? That’s kind of how I’ve been feeling these past few weeks.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing—it makes me feel like I have a sense of purpose, and I’m accomplishing things. But I think it does take a toll on you.

I also think my new running schedule has added to the exhaustion. The humidity is back in town, and it makes running in the evenings hard. So I finally gave in and started running early in the morning before work.

The past couple of months, I’ve been waking up around 4 a.m., Monday – Thursday, and running about 4-4.5 miles before getting ready for work. It was rough at first. It left me so tired the rest of the day. My bedtime moved up from 10:30 p.m. to about 8. I think my body has adjusted to the schedule now (I’m not as sleepy during the day anymore), and I really do love getting the runs out of the way early. It frees up my evenings to get other stuff done, though most days I just go straight to bed after dinner. Ha.

Another added benefit of getting my runs in early is that it’s helped me keep my weekly mileage up and prepare for training for the Marine Corps Marathon, which I’m planning to start in a couple of weeks.

With marathon training, busy work days, and a few social events later this month, I’m pretty sure June will fly right by and take the rest of the summer with it.

I only have one race this summer: Rock n Roll Chicago Half Marathon in mid-July. I hear it’s a nice course—beginning and ending at Grant Park, winding through the city, crossing over the Chicago River a few times, and trailing through parks along Lake Michigan toward the end.

The last time I was in Chicago was 2007—we went there to celebrate a friend’s 25th birthday. It was November, and it snowed. I’m looking forward to visiting again. I hear the city is beautiful in the summer.

Because of all the busyness that’s been going on, I decided to keep this past weekend low-key. My birthday was yesterday, and instead of filling up with weekend with activities or going out of town, like I have in past years, I aimed for a more relaxing and quiet weekend—I did a couple of long runs, had some fun meals with family and friends, caught up on a few movies on Netflix, and cleaned my floors (much needed!). It was nice. I feel refreshed, kind of like I hit my restart button.