I’m sort of planning to run the Carmel Marathon in the spring. I’m not dead set, but it’s in my head as a goal if I’m able to safely build up my miles and I’m feeling it. I’ve actually never run the full at Carmel, just the half twice. But I’m there every year, I worked the event one year, I’ve spectated it, ran along the course with a double stroller and I volunteered at a water stop one year. I’m always there in some fashion.
When I was running the other day, I was thinking about it and really, my number one goal is to get fit and strong before setting any real marathon goals. I know that simply accomplishing a marathon this spring is a big enough goal in itself but more than finishing a marathon, I want to feel fit and be strong. So that’s the bigger goal. Not a time in a race. A feeling.
Yesterday, I did my third “workout” since Russ was born. He’s about 11 weeks old and I’ve been back to running for about 4 weeks. I didn’t plan to do a workout, I just planned on running, but as soon as I started running today, I felt good and figured today would be a great day to work a little harder. Right away I decided I’d do some mile repeats. I decided to do two mile repeats. Three would have put me over the edge even if I did them at a slower pace. I also had no clue what pace my body could handle so I just felt it out.
So I warmed up 15 minutes from 9:30 down to 8:00 min pace and then entered into my first repeat. For some reason I put the treadmill to 6:54 and just felt it out. A quarter mile in I thought, Oh don’t know about this… and then I thought, maybe I’ll just do 4 X 800 at this pace. But then I got to the half mile point and talked myself into holding on. I knew I could finish a mile that fast, but my fear was that I wouldn’t be able to hold the second mile at that pace. I gave myself a 3 minute rest, let out some real loud sighs and cranked it back up. It was hard, but I was able to keep that 6:54 pace and even speed up at the end down to 6:40 over the last quarter mile. Success. It felt so good to work hard. I was singing and grunting and huffing and puffing. It was awesome.
It’s fun to look back on that first “workout” I did just two weeks ago, I did a fartlek of 20 minutes total with one minute on, one minute off and my on for that workout was the same pace that I did my mile repeats at yesterday and there is no way just two weeks ago that I could have executed the workout I completed yesterday. In the grand scheme of things it’s not a HUGE workout, but it was a huge workout for me yesterday and it gave me confidence that in two more weeks I’ll be able to add one more repeat to that workout and then two weeks later another. And along the way, taking baby steps speeding up that pace a bit.
What was I jamming out to you ask? I put it on Ludacris Pandora and this was what played: (This ain’t no G-Rated Playlist)
– Let’s Go – Trick Daddy
– Shake That – Eminem
– Where Them Girls At – David Guetta, Nicki Minaj, Flo Rida
– The Next Episode – Dr. Dre
– Southern Hospitality – Ludacris
– P.I.M.P – 50 Cent
– What Them Girls Like – Ludacris
– The Way you Move – Outkast
– Snap yo Fingers – Lil Jon
– Stand Up – Ludacris
Today, I headed out for 5 miles easy on the monon. It was refreshing to get outside. I finished up an episode of the God Centered Mom Podcast and started a new episode of Dirt in your Skirt Podcast. Nothing like going from Ludacris to the God Centered Mom Podcast. Hey I wasn’t listening to Ludacris with my four year old. Russ doesn’t know the difference yet though, so he might get some ludacris in his life. Tupac for sure.
I also made the decision to pull Louis out of his parents day out “pre-school” he’d been going to in the fall. It was becoming more of a task to get him there and pick him up and his naps were all thrown off the two days he went. I was feeling so rushed the mornings I would take him and there’s not much I hate more than feeling rushed. One thing I’ve learned over these last 4 years of being a parent is if I rush and try to get somewhere right at a certain time it brings stress that is not needed. And when I’m rushed there’s always something that’s going to slow us down that’s for sure. Someone’s gonna blow out a diaper or fall and someone else is gonna need a second breakfast and I will for sure have to make five trips back into the house because I forgot 10 different things. So I am refusing to rush.
The rest of the week is up in the air workout wise- though I do have an idea of what I’d like to get done. Tomorrow, likely a rest day as the late morning is booked up pretty well- and if you know me, you know I don’t workout before 8am. If it doesn’t happen mid morning… the only other option is once Glenn’s home from work at 6 and that crumbles often because the hours of 5-7 at our house are really intense.
Alright. The two little ones are asleep and Marshall is at school. Gonna edit some of this weeks podcast episode.Â