Things to do while taking a break from running

Did you sign up for the Vampire 5k giveaway? It ends tomorrow!

This past weekend, I met up with the PIC and had a fabulous Saturday evening dinner date that did not involve running. It was quite lovely. We hung out, ate good pizza and shopped around one of my favorite neighborhoods. We even went into a running store (shocker, I know!).

How do you know you're totally ready for a break? You can walk into a running store without the slightest urge to buy anything or the desire to go for a run. BUT when walking into a regular shoe store, you leave with 5 pairs. Opps. Clearly the many months of weekend recovery on my couch has lead to a lot of pent up shopping. I don't know what my bank account hates more: the race registrations or the running break shopping. Yikes.

And just in case that wasn't a big enough sign: When Nike Women's emails you about registration spots for the half marathon, instead of jumping to register for that Tiffany's necklace, your legs start to hurt just at the idea of starting to train again. I'm super bummed about this, but in an effort to be a smart runner, I just couldn't justify doing it. One day I will have that necklace! :)

So, since it hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows (you know how runners can be when they're not running!), I thought it would be nice to make a list of things I'm going to do on the off season to not go crazy:

- Create training plan for the next race. Dumbo Training officially starts May 11! I've even compared my mileage weeks to the NYRR calendar, so I can get in little races during training, too! Kudos to myself for planning ahead. I'd like to have another race-cation in between, but I haven't found one that works well with my schedule. Any ideas?

- Enjoy sleeping in. That has not been a problem ;) Although, this time change business really hit me this time. I can't remember the last time I was effected this bad. Do they effect you? Hope to get back on track soon!

-Stay up late! It's a little hard for my body to get used to it, but I was definitely up until at least 1AM (wow! living on the wild side) both nights this past weekend. What?! Pre-training, I was trying to train myself to function on less sleep, but training definitely allows me to indulge. I'm still not sure it's natural to need the amount of sleep that I do.

- Wait until your body is ready to start working out again and do something different! I've been saying I want to branch out and taking different classes at my gym, so maybe this is my chance to do it? The PIC told me about an awesome dance class at her gym that got me thinking. I've wanted to try Zumba and even a spin class or two. I think it's time. My threshhold for being inactive was a little over 2 weeks. So I went to the gym last night, ran on the treadmill and took the usual Piyo class. Sadly, my legs were not ready for running, which is totally ok. My goal is to get a ton of cross training in and wait until my body wants to run.

- Make a bucket list for future races. Having all this free time, I've expanded my pintrest boards (we should follow each other!) I now have a board dedicated to my race bucket list.

- Relive your last one, by finding new blogs and run vicariously through them. Thanks to the fabulous ladies over at Twins run in this Family, there are over 100 recaps of the Princess Half that will keep me busy for awhile!

- Volunteer! The NYC Half will always hold a special place in my heart being my 1st half, but I just couldn't bring myself to enter the lottery again this year. So, instead Gabby inspired me to sign up to volunteer. I knew I wanted to go cheer, but I think this is an even better plan. I get to be excited about a race and I don't have to run it! Bonus? For volunteering, I get automatic entry to the 2014 race. If you're running, look for me: I'll be volunteering at the finish line!

What do you do while you're taking a break from running? Am I missing anything awesome I should be doing?