Whether I'm ready or not, my distance racing comeback is happening. I'm officially registered for my 10th half marathon. And it is two months from now. Yeah. Those who know me or follow this blog will know exactly which race I'm registered for too. The Walt Disney World 1/2 marathon. It will be my 10th year at the race either racing or coaching. 10 years! That is mind boggling to me. It doesn't feel like I've been slowly waddling my way through races for 10 years.
When I made the decision to do the 1/2 marathon this past January, I knew there was a good chance I'd be pregnant during the race (I ended up being 9 weeks prego on race day). I even told The Pilot that if I raced in 2013 that I would HAVE to race in 2014. I couldn't end my string of Disney races after 9 years. I had to commit for an even 10 and then let go of the Disney races (that sh!$ is expensive!). Type A/OCD much??
And so here we are. I'm 3.5 months postpartum and trying to figure out how to manage training with work, maintaining a household/home life and taking care of my special little Megatron. Yeah, not as easy as I thought. When I was still pregnant, I figured once baby arrived, I'd be able to run on the treadmill after the baby was down for the night. Know what happens when the baby goes down for the night? I go down for the night. As soon as that baby's eyes are closed, I race to finish getting ready for the next morning and then I go to bed. I'm so darn tired!
While I'm still trying to figure out the weekday workouts, I am slowly getting back into a weekend routine. Two weeks ago I did a 4 mile walk with Megatron in the run stroller. I was able to get up to Disney's minimum pace despite pushing all the extra weight so that was reassuring.
This past weekend, I snuck (which isn't a word apparently. But "I sneaked" doesn't sound right.) out of the house while The Pilot and Megatron were still sleeping and met up with some friends. I was obviously out of practice though. While I did charge my Garmin the night before, I didn't check the forecast. I threw on some clothes and was out the door. Half way to the trail it started to rain. Son of a! I had no rain gear with me. Not even a hat. I did have a hooded sweatshirt that was intended to put on AFTER the run so I could run an errand before going back home. On it went! I was about to run/walk 5 miles in the rain with a cotton sweatshirt. Ick.
It happened though! I did a run/walk combination and finished 5 miles in just over an hour. Not bad considering it's been MONTHS since I've gone that far and MONTHS since I've run at all. Having friends to chat with (or listed too when I was too winded to converse) made it go by so quickly. It was also nice to not have to push the stroller and be paranoid that the beast was going to wake up screaming 2.5 miles from the house. :) And for the record, I should have skipped the sweatshirt. It stopped raining about .5 mile into the run and then I was just hot. And it was heavy from that .5 mile it did get rained on. Oh well. I was just happy to get out there and try to feel normal again!
I at least had the sense to know I would basically be starting from scratch in terms of fitness so I have developed a "beginner" training plan despite this being my 10th half marathon. That means I only have 5 miles on the schedule again this weekend. I'm not positive when/where I will make it happen yet but it will happen! I just need to figure out how to get in at least one weekday walk/run or this race is going to be a train wreck. Just don't tell my BFF who is going to do the race with me. I bet she didn't sign up to be the last one to finish! :P
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