I struggle with continuing to stay active when I’m at my parents’. I’m usually eating incredible, decadent food and needing and wanting to catch up on some rest and exercise really interferes with my plans to sit on the couch or run errands with my mom. This summer, while marathon training, I realized that it is actually possible for me to go home, indulge in the foods I love, rest AND work out, because I had to get in some runs while out here. (I even did an 18-miler out here.)

I’ve also struggled with balancing a new job with the holidays and working out, so I knew this weekend, I wanted to try to use some of this relaxation time to get some good workouts in. I had a few fails as far as apparel goes.

Fail #1: Friday, I was considering running or hot yoga. I went to get dressed for yoga, and realized I’d only brought long running tights with me and had no shorter yoga pants here. No hot yoga.

Fail #2: I thought, “okay, so I’ll just run.” I’d brought a pair of shoes home that I got being on the Dr. Oz show, figuring I’d try them out. I went to try them on, and my feet were flopping around in them. They sent a men’s 10.5. Merry Christmas, Dad.

So Friday, I ended up doing a DailyBurn workout. It was a half-hour circuit, and I mostly liked it, other than its long intro. Yesterday, I was determined to keep up my workout, and I did a DailyBurn stretching workout, since the half-hour Metabolic Maximizer was actually pretty hard and I was really sore.

Today, I had big plans of participating in the Home for the Holidays Virtual 10K that Ashley and a few other bloggers put together.

I wanted to run this virtual race so that I could try out new running gear and feel good about myself for getting the hell out the door and running 6.2 miles on Christmas. I got a trigger point foam roller that I wanted to work up some extra lactic acid to try, and I got new Sauconys that I was dying to try out. I went out with vague plans of doing my usual 5-mile route here and just running out and back an extra 0.6 miles to get to a round 6.2.

Per usual, the first mile was frustrating. My legs and lungs were tight. I wanted to feel awesome, but I didn’t. The run never really got easy, but it did get better. I was happy to be running and happy to be wearing my new sneaks (review to come once I’ve run more in them). I usually don’t push myself to run more than 3-4 alone if I’m not training for anything, so as 3 miles and then 4 miles ticked by, I contemplated ending my route there, but I’ve never quit a real race, and I was determined not to quit this virtual one either.

While running, I made one big promise to myself: to keep up running more, even between training for things. I felt so out of shape today. I’m running the DC Rock ‘N’ Roll Half in March, and I also spent a lot of time thinking today about when I’d start to train for it. I think I’m probably going to do a week or two of base-building, and then jump into a plan. I liked that approach to marathon training this last time–it’s a good way to ease into training.

Oh, you mean you want to know how the rest of the run went and how I did? Well, being sort of out of running shape right now, I never felt great, and my pace wasn’t terribly fast either. I hovered around a 9:15-9:20–definitely slower than I’d race a “real” 10K, although I do hate real 10Ks. It’s a weird distance. I ended up finishing in 57:15, not a PR, but only 25 seconds away from my current 10K PR. I’ve definitely gotten faster since that race, so I’m pretty sure I could handily beat that PR in a real race when I was in the midst of training.

But I’m plenty happy with a decent time for a virtual race and just getting out there on Christmas.

What about you? Team Couch on Christmas or Team Sweat?