Yikes!

Ok, I am lame. The last time I posted was before my vacation. I don't even have an excuse because I have had plenty of time to blog (and run) but I just have been spending that time doing other fun things (like playing around with the floorplan of my apartment, making fun cupcakes, knitting, etc etc etc).

I guess running was just one of the main things in my life prior to now, and now, while it is still a big part of my life, I tend to have a million other things going on too.

I spent a lot of time this marathon season being frustrated...not angry...not sad, just frustrated. It seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't get my times to go back to what they were before I had Liam. I was still working really hard, but I wasn't getting the results. I wanted to basically start where I was at the beginning of 2009. I didn't actually think this was too unreasonable (I'm not even sure if it is now). But I also just kind of accepted that running was going to be harder, I was going to be slower. I didn't know if this was a copout, but I was okay with it if it was. I thought.

Then I ran with my friends Gina and Pam one Saturday and as we were chatting Pam said that her friend (who was also pregnant around the time I was) said that running is hard, things just don't work the same way they did before. This made me feel lots better. And I realized; here I was comparing myself to Kara Goucher again, who is an Olympian, has trainers and nutritionists, runs professionally, and isn't still breastfeeding.

So, a couple of weeks ago I had my 20-miler. My 20-miler always sort of psychs me out because however it goes is the same way the marathon goes for me. I printed out this marathon armband which would have me pacing my miles so that I would end up with 9:00 splits (even though I had been running with the 10:00 min/mile group all season). I had a glass of wine the night before to relax (this has been proven to work for me). I worried worried worried so much that I didn't sleep. When I got to Grand Central (we were doing this run out of the city) I got there so early that the train doors weren't even open. So I stopped at a shop and grabbed two donuts which I inhaled in about 2 seconds. I fell asleep on the train and almost missed my stop. And then, when we got there, Coach Christine informed us that the bridge was out due to Hurricane Irene and we couldn't run our normal route. We actually had to go the other way, which involved running through several house-lined streets and the downtown area of Scarsdale before we even got to the Hudson River Parkway Trail. Ugh. And I am AWFUL at directions.
We had to stick together as a group for the first 2 miles so no one would get lost.

Well, my pace was just going to go way out the window. Whatever. I didn't really feel like I could do it anyway. I was just going to run what I ran and get the mileage in. (I usually call this "Zen Running"). So I kind of stuck with a group of three people going about 10 min/miles. Unfortunately, at the turnaround (5 miles) they decided not to stop. I needed a GU so I decided to run with the group that was slightly ahead of us and still stopped for a GU break. They were obviously going faster, so I would have to see how long that would last.

Their pace actually felt pretty good. And when I looked down at my watch, I saw we did a 9:22 mile. Cool! I stuck with them until the next turnaround, but then I was on my own. They had decided to go the other way (even though the bridge was out, someone had put a plank over the stream so you could go over it if you wanted to...I was NOT in for that. I did not train all this season to fall off a plank and injure myself.)

I got a little lost, but did find my way. I felt great. At the end I felt like I could run another 10 miles!!! And I ended up with a 9:00 pace for the WHOLE RUN! AMAZING! I was so so pumped.

THEN, I ran the Staten Island Half this past weekend. Once again, I ran by feel. I was going to try and hit 8:50s, but I took the first mile out too fast (8:37). I made a concentrated effort to slow down and went 8:22 on the next mile. I really told myself to slow down for the next mile and did an 8:08. Ok. At this point I took stock of how I felt (great) and decided to just go for it. In the end, my slowest mile ended up being an 8:56 and my fastest a 7:55.

I PRed!!!!!!!!

BY FOUR MINUTES!!!! (I got a 1:50!)

Did I just underestimate myself before? Did I just kick it in for some reason? What happened? I have no idea but I am NOT going to change ANYTHING and hope for the best on NYC marathon day.