To Gym or Not to Gym

My blog postings are far apart these days, but not because I don't want to post.  Just so busy with work and planning for the approaching holiday, training for my half marathon last week, and getting through a lot of appointments.  Crazy!

I feel like I am finally starting to feel better.  After 5 months, the migraines are no longer every single day and the intensity isn't as much.  Fighting those migraines for 5 months together with the medications really took a lot of my strength and it was very difficult for me to continue with the training to the marathon.  So I made the decision to switch to half-marathon and so glad that I did.  On November 16th, I ran my third half-marathon, Delaware Canal Half Marathon, which takes place on the towpath along the beautiful Delaware Canal, starting in Washington's Crossing in Pennsylvania.

I had high hopes going into this race.  My training had been great for the past few weeks.  I felt I handled the carb loading properly over the course of 10 days rather than the night before.  I tapered leading up to the race.  I had my mind set that I was going to GO OUT SLOW.  I was ready.  But things don't always go as planned, and I did go out too fast, and I did struggle at the end, but I finished.  So I'm going to take pride in that.

I want to now take the next few months to build my strength back, get stronger physically and mentally, not just in running.  So my question comes back to what do I do?  My love is running, but I know that I should not run every day.  That's all I want to do though.

I have a membership to the YMCA that honestly, I have not used in a year.  I ask myself if I'm not going to use it, why not cancel it and save myself the money.  For our joint membership, it's about $600 a year.  When you're living on a budget, that's a big dump of money that could be used somewhere else.

But am I sacrificing my own well being?  Yes, it does take a little more time out of my day to get to the gym and work out versus just throwing on the running gear and getting out for a run, but the gym is perfect for cross-training and core.  I know that, yes, and I constantly battle with it.  Once I get into the routine of going to back to the gym, it's kind of addictive.  It's just that one giant step to get me going back, and it's really bad timing with the holidays approaching and work being so busy.

What do I want?  What do I really want to achieve over the next few months to help me do better in the next half-marathon, which is in May?  Well, I think that dropping another 5-6 pounds would definitely help, as would building core and upper body strength, neither of which I have.

But is there a way for me to attain these goals in another manner and still cancel the Y membership, save the $600 bucks a year?  I guess that's the answer I'm searching for.

So it's time to make a decision.