Days 4, 5 & 6

Each run had its own set of challenges this week! Where to start...

Run #4: Respect the short distances

I remember the first time I ran 2 miles without walking. It was Week 5, Day 3 of the "Couch to 5K" training program & the first workout in the program that did not include any walking. I was so proud to tell my friends & family about it! I felt like a real runner.

Flash forward 4 or 5 months: My long runs are up to 6 or 7 miles, and my weekly short & easy run is 2 or sometimes 3 miles. I started looking at those 2 mile runs as child's play, preludes to my much more rewarding long runs. I stopped taking the short runs seriously & stopped preparing myself properly.

Case in point: On Tuesday I was scheduled to run 2 miles. On Monday night, I went out to dinner with friends and had a couple of Adult Beverages. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning (yes, 4:30), WENT TO MY OFFICE to make a project to send to my daughter's first day of Pre-K, and intended to go running before taking my daughter to school at 7:30 a.m. "It's just a 2-mile run, no big deal". But as I sat in my office, I wasn't sure if I felt up to running, not even 2 miles. Wine will do that.

I didn't make it out on the road until around 8:30, much later than I ever want to go running in this heat. But hey, "it was ONLY 2 miles". I can honestly say that was one of the most challenging runs I have had in a long time. I desperately wanted to stop and walk before I even got to the halfway point. Sweat pouring out of me, my body complaining from Monday night's festivities, the sun pounding down relentlessly.

Later I looked at my training schedule. For a 13.1 mile goal, there are a surprising number of 2-milers in my program. Next time, I will prepare for the two-mile run just as seriously as I would for a long run. And I will try to remember the pride I had the first time I tackled that distance. Two miles is still farther than I could run six months ago.

Run #5: Time Crunch

Thursday's run was 5 miles. I woke up at 4:45, leisurely had a bagel & coffee, and drove off to one of my favorite routes -- Grayton Beach to Seaside and back. This was a speed training run. I ran "fartleks" (what a funny word) which are little bursts of fast running with slower running in between. To keep it fun, I don't plan on a certain number of speed intervals, a certain pace or a certain distance. I'll just pick out landmarks as I go -- run hard to the next stop sign or intersection, then run slowly until I feel like running fast again. This really was a fun run. It was like being a kid and just going for broke.

This time my challenge was time. I knew that 5 miles would take me a little over 45 minutes. But I did not plan for the time it would take me to warm up before I ran or cool down afterward. I also didn't account for the driving time. So I got home at 6:50, a sweaty stinky mess. My daughter was still asleep and she had to be at pre-K at 7:30. Thankfully, she was a good sport when I woke her and hurried her through her morning routine while I took a world-record speed shower. We arrived at school at 7:29. She had eaten her breakfast in the car. My hair was soaking wet. Lesson learned: I need to get up & at 'em EVEN EARLIER on school days. This is going to be more challenging than I thought.

Run #6: Restoring Sanity

My daughter's old preschool has a monthly "Kids Night Out". Friday night I dropped both kids off for 3 whole hours of Me Time, which I chose to spend painting my new home office while blaring the Sirius Radio's Jam Band station. The effect on my pysche was actually pretty similar to running: the mindless repetition of painting while occasionally checking in to make sure I was staying "in the lines" gave my brain a nice break.

My sense of calm started to erode shortly after I arrived at the church to pick up the kids. Apparently, my 13-month-old son did not have much fun at Kids Night Out. He had screamed himself to sleep about a half hour before I got there. So, as a mother, I felt guilty that I was home mindlessly enjoying my painting while my son was having a screaming fit just 5 minutes away. Guilt magnified later in the evening when my daughter couldn't find me at an outdoor movie, and she enlisted an elderly lady and a security guard to help her find her lost mommy. I had been walking around the perimeter of the lawn, trying to keep an eye on where she was playing with an army of other children, find a sandwich, and quiet my crying baby. By the time they found me, they had bought her a glow-ring necklace and a snow-cone. Sigh. I guess I am out of the running for Mom of the Year.

I think the temporary reprieve of Kids Night Out made the evening's stress (and humiliation if we want to be quite honest) even more pronounced. I texted my husband at work: "I need a nice long run in the morning". Six miles never felt so good. Coming home to the usual morning chaos, I kind of wish I was still out there right now.