Just in time for the start of the summer Olympics, for added motivation, I've laid out my marathon training for the Savannah Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in November.  And having just come home from a few days of fun family vacation at New Smyrna Beach, during which I managed to run once, I'm feeling the need more than ever to get back into a routine. I've been working out most days, but with no real plan or goals. That's been sort of fun, I guess, but it's also left me feeling anxious — that I'll have a hard time adapting back into a routine, that I've lost the drive to train hard, or that I simply care less about training. And if that latter scenario is true, what is there instead? I'm getting ahead of myself, but those are the fears.  My training plan is adapted from  The Complete Book of Running for Women , by Claire Kowalczic, published in 1999.  This was my running bible when I first began distance running, about eight years ago now. I...

I think I know why I've struggled to fully latch on to swimming and cycling. Part of it is just starting out new. But I can't really play the newbie card anymore, particularly with swimming. What I'm missing, I think, is the thrill of competition (except for the occasional instances when, unbeknownst to the swimmer in the lane next to me, I engage in a full-out race with him or her to the wall and back). With running, the sport became more exciting to me when I started entering distance races. I began where most everyone does—with a 5k—but then decided that wasn't enough, so I trained for a 15k and soon thereafter a half marathon, etc. Those events propelled my love for running forward. I was never racing for prestige or placement but rather to challenge myself; to push myself further than I knew I ever would if I—me, myself—had been the only motivating source. I needed the accountability and structure that came with race training. And now, without the race factor, I ...

The past two weeks have been challenging for me. Two Fridays ago I had a tonsillectomy, which I did because I started developing tonsil stones over the past year or so, which coincided with this mysterious pain I'd been having. I got a couple of opinions from recommended ENTs, and they both said a tonsillectomy was the next logical step. While I wasn't eager to undergo a significant surgery--one that is particularly difficult on an adult--I needed to find the cause behind my pain so I could refocus on my life without being constantly sidetracked by the pain. The actual surgery went every well, and even my healing process was as good as it could have been. But it was a true two weeks before I felt close to normal again, and during the first week in particular, The first two days were actually easier than the rest of the first week; I had my mom with me, and other family came to visit the day after, and we even went out to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant , which serves (delicio...