And It Begins...

My "official" training for my spring marathon started this week with a 7-miler on Sunday. I made Bill and Liam stay at home so I could go at it on my own and it was kind of nice to run again without worrying about a stroller or how bundled up Liam had to be or how fast I had to run/if he was asleep or not to get him between feedings. And it was so nice out too! 40 and sunny! Needless to say, with all of this, I had a pretty good run.

Ok. Let's not be modest. I felt AWESOME. Especially when I learned that I had done the whole thing in 1:09, which means that I had a sub-ten pace (my first in a LONG time). And I ran the whole way. None of this run-walk business!

So then Tuesday I wheeled out the BOB again for a three miler with Liam. The goal was to do the whole lower loop twice without walking. And the earlier the better because the temps were supposed to go from a high of 37 degrees at 8 am to a low of 15 degrees by 3pm. Yuck. I realized why those temps were dropping so fast on the run: the wind was CRAZY. It didn't help that I underestimated the mileage and needed an extra .3 at the end of my loops...so I had to run up a crazy hill from the park at 72nd street to get to street level at Central Park West...INto the wind. Difficult normally, but worse with a stroller.

But this whole getting back into a schedule thing was making me feel like "Ok. I can do this marathon thing. It's not going to be fun, but I can totally do it."

But then it got cold. Like, too cold to run with a baby outside. So I figured, I'll just run after Liam's morning feeding, which is usually like 6:30. I'll get the mileage in sans-stroller before Bill gets to work. I should know by now, this NEVER works. I am NOT a morning person and it is even worse when I am not getting enough sleep anyways. And then it is even WORSE when I wake up with a scratchy throat and feel like all I want to do is SLEEEEEEEEEP. So guess what I did?

So I decided not to beat myself up and do some cardio weight DVDs. I was not exactly looking forward to this (getting me to exercise lately is like convincing me to get dental work done) but I sucked it up and put in the DVD when Liam was in a happy, sort of sleepy, chill mood. I put him in his crib, knowing that he usually just drifts off into a nice little nap. Hahahahaha. 20 minutes into the DVD he was screaming bloody murder. I decided to make it to the next segment, seeing if he could calm himself down...

Nope! So, I made it 25 minutes into a 45 minute workout. And honestly, I just didn't have the energy or desire to try this again yesterday or today.

So once again, I am going into my long run completely underprepared for the mileage I am going to undertake. Hmph.

On a happy note, I got into the Brooklyn Half Marathon (race two of the Grand Prix) before it sold out...which was amazingly, like, in two days. This was because of my most wonderful running friend, Gina who sent an urgent email telling us on February 7th that the registration was open but they were already saying it would sell out by the 8th (it did). I got the email, got online and signed up. WHEW! I did all this so fast that I didn't even look to see when it was! (May 21st). Luckily, I will be here. And will be running it with Gina :)