Progress!

Before I had Soren I could comfortably run in the mid 8:00's for quite a few miles, many of my long runs before Ironman Arizona were right around 8:20/8:30 pace.....it took me exactly four years to get to that point where I could run at that pace and feel comfortable. It was a lot.of.work.  It took two years of track workouts, working with my coach Amanda and trying to work on my form.  It was many many runs of running at different paces and learning what felt comfortable and what felt really, really hard.  Running has never come easy to me, I was a soccer player and tennis player, so my running was always in short spurts...

When I got pregnant and I kept up running until I was 28 weeks, I knew that I would have my work cut out for me after Soren was born.  It wasn't really a big deal, I had been slow before and I could be slow again, but I knew I could get back to where I was prior to his arrival.

It made me slightly discouraged though because many people would say "I'm SO much faster now that i've had kids, I got my speed back and then some in no time."   I waited the requisite 6 weeks post delivery to attempt running.  "Running" meant "running" a quarter of mile and walking the rest of the three miles.  I think I was running a 12 minute mile. Not.Kidding.

18 months later, i'm finally starting to run around an 8:50/8:40 pace to start and by the end I can hold an 8:20 pace for about a mile or two.   I hate blogs about "numbers"....I really do....but, you know, I think I make exceptions if people don't blog about "numbers" a lot.....then I don't mind the occasional "number dropping" :).  Here's the thing, it's really really hard for me to run comfortably, it takes me about 30 minutes to warm up, I have a touch of exercised induced asthma, so no matter when I run, it's difficult for me to get air the first 30 minutes, then I settle in and I can go harder. It's been an adventure. One that I enjoy and one that I hate.....but I love triathlon because it's given me a challenge as an adult, and that I love. I love having something that is just "mine."  Especially being a stay-at-home mom right now, it gives me something fun to look forward to (Racing, Trakkers team mates!!) and it's something that's my own!

My first race is March 20th, a half marathon.....my goal, is this weekend I want to run 9 at some point and then i'll run 10 the following weekend....right now i'm: spinning twice a week, i've swum once :) (Thank God something in this sport comes easy to me!!) and i'm running about 4 days a week, six miles at a time.....so a half marathon should be doable, I just need to get in a bit more mileage.  I'm super curious to see how the race goes.

I'm going to start doing two workouts a day very soon, my cute husband bought me a special wheel just for my trainer, so I don't have to use my good Kestrel wheels on it anymore :)..I know, all those trainer rides for Ironman, yup, on regular wheels....no longer!!  He even bought an extra cassette so I don't have to switch out the cassette every time (not that I know how :).....so, I figure I can run in the morning at the gym, come home, put Soren down and ride the trainer for a while.....

I'm learning to be patient with myself, last year I packed in quite a bit of racing, in terms of what I could juggle, a few half marathons a half Ironman and a full marathon. I learned a lot.  Too much for me at the time and still is.......that being said, I threw my hat in for this year's Marine Corps Marathon.  Bring it :)