Marathon Monday

The week past was one full of lessons in running. Though, I suppose that is why they call it a training schedule... I've been jogging regularly for about nine or ten years now, but it feels like a whole new rodeo with two children.

Monday 8/16:

Today was a stretch and strengthen day. With no current gym membership and no home equipment it was me and the Wii Fit. Yes, I fell while doing lunges. Ha!

Tuesday 8/17:

Tackled the first run. 3.5 miles and it took 44 minutes. 12.57 mile. Thighs on fire. Back hurt. Obviously, walked too much. And, decided it can only get better from here. For one, I was hungry, I started the run right at lunch time and got dizzy about 30 minutes in. I was also dehydrated, I spend my morning sipping a mug of coffee and need to get water in, instead.

Shoes felt good! Things can only look up from here. Tomorrow is only a 2 mile run, my average minutes per mile should improve significantly!

Wednesday 8/18:

"They" say that the first and last mile of a run are the hardest, thus my newfound dread for the 2 mile run! Ha, just kidding, but the first mile was tough today. My legs felt like lead, I felt that my stride was all of two inches in length and my muscles really hurt. I powered through it, kept running (sloooowly) and tried to focus on my breathing instead. I actually hit a point in my run where in a split second it just really felt GOOD (and that was about 12 minutes in, for me, right after the first mile).

I still felt quite dehydrated, but ran at a pace of 11.5 - slight improvement over Tuesday. Probably the fact that I ran outdoors instead of on a basement treadmill!

Thursday 8/19

No more waiting until the evening to run. Any other evening, with no run planned, bedtimes would have gone very smooth and I'd have been out the door with plenty of time for 3.5 miles before dark. I'm not one to run by myself in the dark, even though we live in a safe area you never know when that driver is going to come around the curve too fast and not see you, or you become some random statistic. Just not going to do it. So, I only got two miles in to the 3.5 and ended up home. Oh, and another downfall of waiting until late evening? I had come up with every excuse in the book not to go on this run. Thankfully, Jon all but tied up the Nike's for me and shoved me out the front door.

This evening I also learned that I cannot easily transition from running outdoors to hopping on the treadmill. I thought I would do my last mile and a half on the treadmill, but as soon as I got started I immediately felt dizzy and unbalanced.

Sunday 8/22

Today's long run was five miles. I willingly admit to being nervous for my first "long" run postpartum. But, I mapped it out and went for it. New lesson, do not run in 90 degree weather and high noon. The sun was so intense and running on the blacktop, I think, made it feel even hotter than 90. About four miles in, I hit a steep hill, practically dragged myself up to the top and was spent. Excuses aside, I knew that I needed to get home out of that sun and drink some ice cold water.

So, lessons from this week: Drink more water. Sunday, run before church. Weekdays, anything longer than 2.0 miles might need to be done on the treadmill during boys' nap time...

Here's to a week of gaining strength and learning new lessons!

Toddler Tuesday

I had big plans for a "Toddler Tuesday" post on the topic of healthy eating/meal ideas/getting-them-to-eat-vegetables-at-all. However, if you remember this post, well the Outlook finally sold and we have been tied up securing a new Ramseymobile. I am writing this post on Monday night, way past my bedtime, after putting the littlest guy down, finally.

I'd say Matthew is picky, but he's not, he's just a toddler. He turns his nose up at foods he's never tried. Half the time he thinks dessert is a vegetable and won't try it until we get a little taste on his lips and he realizes we aren't trying to shove broccoli into his mouth. Share your ideas for getting your toddler to try new things and eat some greens!

Marathon Monday

Tuesday 8/3:

It's official. I am registered to run a half-marathon on Sunday, October 17th. I cannot officially begin my training until the doctor clears me for exercise on August 16th. To say I'm nervous would be putting it lightly. But, it truly is a mental game. I know I have the physical ability and that our legs can carry us much farther than our mind believes we can.

I am printing the race map and it is going up on the bathroom mirror today, to keep motivated and gear up mentally.  I am also going to print my training program, that I am pulling from the book "Marathon" by Hal Higdon.

Thursday the hunt is on for affordable, yet quality, running shoes for this ultra-flat-footed girl!

Thursday 8/5:
Picked up the kicks. They are Nike's, and I got them at the outlet mall. Nervous about that. I have been wearing Aasics for years, but they just aren't in the budget at the moment.

Picked up a digital watch. Also from the outlet. Very basic, but I wanted something with a digital readout and a stop watch. For the next week I am using it to track my time goal for my walks. Then I will be using it to check my pace and mapping my runs ahead of time.

I am excited about the potential to run along the Mississippi! In the next week or so I plan to seek out some good running/marathoning blogs.

Sunday 8/8:

I am not as nervous about the half-marathon as I was last week. Now I am just genuinely excited to get out on my first postpartum run next week! I realize that 13.1 miles is not that far and that it is okay to stop and walk.

That's it for this week on the marathoning topic!