For Reals....I'm Back!!

The good news is my dry spell is up!  The bad news is you will be hearing a lot from me again :D
I have felt so lost and unmotivated.  It took doing a lot of Bikram Yoga to really get my running groove back.  How funny is that!?!?  My legs just were not recovering and the thought of running seemed as appealing as eating rotten eggs!

Then I noticed all sorts of friends and family talking about their races and their runs.  I will admit, I was getting jealous.  I knew the feelings they were feeling and darn it, I wanted to feel that good too!  And yes, I am one of those crazy runners who relishes in wobbly legs and exhaustion that can only come from hours of running.  Mostly-I miss that clarity that seems to overcome me somewhere after 5mi, closer to 10mi.  I love Long Long runs!  I think that is why for me, I am hooked on the full marathon.
A half marathon is nothing to sneeze at and I cheer for every single one of my friends who finish one!  For me though, it isn't long enough to commit to a training plan.  This is most likely due to the fact that the first time I ran one, I did it as a training run.  The distance became insignificant to ME (please do not be offended if this is your longest run to date it IS a significant distance that you should be proud of)

I think this will be a flaw that comes back to bite me in the arse.  Let's face it-who knows how long I can run such long distances.  Right now I am training conservatively, but I have big goals for myself-and NO I am not ready to put those out there just yet.  I have murmured these goals to a few people and they have all been supportive and know no better so they think I can achieve it.  I do too, but not right now.  I know my time is coming.
I digress.  My 1/2 marathon flaw.  I hope I will get excited by the distance in the future, but right now...meh!

So I bet you are guessing what is on my schedule right?  Right now I have not put the money in yet, but-I have started the training runs to do the Victoria Marathon in Victoria, B.C. on October 7, 2012.  I am really stoked about it and hesitant all at the same time.  I vacillate wildly from day to day.  One day I am 100% in and the next I feel like I will barely be able to find the time to run 3mi let alone 20mi training runs.  Mostly it is due to the fact that it is summer and there are so many fun things to do!  I hate that my family will be waiting on me to finish my long run, then they will deal with my slow as a snail walking pace later that day.  Training for a spring run had the downside of training in rain, snow, and ice.  Training for a fall run means that all those long runs will be done when all the fun stuff is going on.  Granted, I can get up at 5 to run instead of 7-that should help.

Oh the ramblings of a mom on a Friday night who has a little girl who wants her daddy to put her to sleep!

This week has been busy.  I did not blog about it, but last Saturday was my first long run (6mi) since my full.  It went great.  Michelle and I took it fairly slow.  She was just at the end of a pretty bad cold/flu and I hadn't run that far in a long time.  Plus we had A LOT of catching up to do.  So that meant lots of walk breaks and lots of chatting.

I ran on Tuesday (3-easy), Wednesday (4-negative splits) and today (3-easy).  I have a long run of 5mi scheduled for the weekend, and I am not sure when I am going to fit it in.

The Rock N Roll Seattle is going on this weekend and Alma and I will be spectating together.  I am super excited to give back as a supporter!  Every person cheering meant the world to me as I was running.  I know they weren't cheering for me, but I pretended they were.  So, hopefully, I can give someone a bit of a boost tomorrow.

I almost forgot!!  On Thursday I was privileged to Co-host a house party for Sarah and Dimity at Another Mother Runner.  It was so great to get a bunch of mother runners together and have a nice night of mingling and chatting.  They had awesome giveaways including a jogging stroller worth over $500!!!  I was so happy to help them pull things together as they were two of a few people who really made me believe I could even train for a full marathon while I had two toddlers.


Tonights post seems kind of boring.  I felt like I needed to do a little house keeping and catching up before I started really posting about the good stuff.  


I learned SO much while training for my first and i know of plenty of things I will do different/smarter this time.  I look forward to sharing them with you.  
Once again thanks so much for following along and for supporting my journey of being a Mother Runner!

Knock Knock Knock....Motivation??? Where Are You????

This sucks.  No other way to put it.  I have never been LESS motivated to run with the exception of pregnancy and post-partum.  I have no idea why!

I don't know.  Every time I do run, I feel great.  I feel like a moron for not doing it every day.  Then the next day comes and the thought of running sounds as appealing as a stick in the eye.

It's lame.  I feel good.  I don't hurt at all anywhere (which I know plenty of runners on Injured Reserve that would right now would die to be able to run 1mi)  The kids are willing to watch a movie for a half hour so I can jump on the mill-so time is no excuse.  Truly I have nothing.  The hubby even asks if I am going to run.  It's so weird.

I had my plan of action all written out through AMR and I did pretty good until this Tuesday.  Then it all fell apart.  Aside from one day of yoga, I have done nothing!!

I did buy new running shoes today which is always a treat.  I'm thinking that may help?

I also have no goals right now.  My next race isn't until November.  It is a half and honestly I just don't feel that excited about it.  I know the weather will be horrible-it always is-and frankly that is not a problem for me.  I spent all last winter during an La Nina` training for my spring half.  As much as I hate the WA weather, I have no problem getting out in the rain and cold and running.  How strange is that??

UGH!!  This is nuts!

So here are my thoughts-
I start prepping to run the Seattle Marathon like a full.  Meaning I start to ramp my miles back up and start training on July 23.
OR I start streaking and see how long I can get.  Minimum of 1mi /day every single day.  No excuses.

If you are down in a rut-how do you get back your fitness MoJo??? Anyone-Anyone??

Chirp...Chirp...Chirp....Chirp...Hear Those Crickets??

Yeah, so do I.  It has been awhile since I have been here.
I never imagined after all the time and miles I have put in since last fall, that I would say I have run exactly four days.  CRAZY talk I tell you!

I also had lofty expectations of doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred while I was recovering....yeah right!  I ended up with the worst case of flu I have had in years....starting timely on my 39th birthday.  Great.  That was followed up with my daughter finding 5:00am a great time to start the day.  That really put a kink in my "Mommy Morning Alone Time" AKA my time to run.

I also have been battling some sort of ramdom fatigue.  Of course, you would assume that with two toddlers, I would just be tired in general.  This is not the case for me most of the time.  The fatigue has been increasing since I was training.  I chalked it up to training and having toddlers.  As time has gone on though, it has become clear that something is VERY off with my body.

I have a family history of Hypothyroidism-My sister in fact had one lobe removed last week as it has become cancerous.  The second side was biopsied and the cells have gone on to Mayo for further testing. It seems they can't figure out exactly what kind of cells they are looking at.  Please say a quick prayer for her if you are so inclined.  She is getting married in July and we all want her to get some good news before her wedding.

I also have a family history of premature menopause.  Great.  In fact, I am late to the menopause game if I am on my mom's side of the family's timeline.  As far back as my mom knows (my Great Grandma) they have all been finished and period free by 38 at the latest.  Let's just say I have plenty of symptoms...bleh!

Either way I think my hormones are WAY off and I am seeing a Dr. this coming Tuesday.  I am hoping that we can figure something out sooner than later.  I am convinced I will have a BQ time once I can actually get my energy back!!

I have run though.  The first attempt was horrible!  It wasn't quite a month post race and my legs and knees felt like I had fence posts jamming up my legs with every step.  Felt great right?!?    Actually by the end of the run, my legs loosened up and it wasn't bad.

I decided that my body was not healing enough on it's own, so back to Bikram I went.  I have found either you LOVE it or you HATE it.  I have a very strong love for sweating out a weeks worth of sweat in one hour and a half session.  There is just something about walking into a room that makes you sweat that I find appealing.  Nuts-I know.  A great studio just opened up by my house. Bikram Yoga Kirkland has great instructors and a lot of class times.  The only problem is trying to find a time I can go.  During the day is hard-no childcare and night time classes start right at dinner time and bedtime for the kids.  I am committing to a twice a week practice through the month of June though.

Which brings me to my current training plan.  The Lovely Ladies at Another Mother Runner AKA the Run Like A Mother crew have put forth the June Challenge.  They challenged everyone to fill out a month of fitness and then keep track of your workouts. You need at least five training days per week and at least one rest day.  If you complete the challenge, you get a bumper sticker.  I thought this would  be a great way to just get back into the habit of making time for myself again.

I started my June 1 with a run, and it felt great!!!  It was on my trusty Mill at 7:00pm while my hubby put my beautiful baby girl to sleep.  I did some Fartleks just because I needed to run off some steam, but I knew I couldn't keep my top end pace the whole time without being frustrated.  So my warmup/cool down pace was a 6 and my top end was a 9.  My workout hovered mainly in the 7.5-8 range and I ran for a total of 3mi.  I was happy with that for sure.  I am however convinced I need new shoes and I have a sneaky suspicion that it is my shoes that have been causing my achilles tendonitis this whole time!!!  After each time I have run, it has flared up.  This shouldn't be happening after one run.  Last night was faster, but even after the easy runs it flared.  So off to shop for running shoes HOORAY!!

Well, you are all caught up.  Nothing really that exciting, but I thought if I got back to the blog I would get back to the run.  Makes sense.  Let's just hope this doesn't become a blog about menopause before 40 instead of running marathons before 40!!!

Just in case you want to see what my sched is for the month-here you go