The Honest Mother Runner: BMB: Week 1 and RR

Building My Base and Ruthie Randoms

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Crazy hair, don't care!

I have 6 weeks left until marathon training officially starts. Since I'm just 6 weeks postpartum, these weeks will be all about building up my base mileage. Since my body has been through the wringer the past 6 months, I'm being cautious and forgiving in my return to running. I know this may be shocking to some, but I have no training program that I am currently following. I'm just doing what the hell I feel like doing...AND IT'S AWESOME!

My current long run is 7 miles (which is what I've done the past two weeks) with my goal being 10 miles by the end of October. I'm also becoming more brave about committing to runs with my faster friends. I just have to make sure I plan to rest the next day!

Here's how I fared this week:

9/19: REST. After accomplishing my longest run the day before and committing to run with Marion on Tuesday, I knew I would need to rest today!
9/20: 6 miles, 8:55/mile. My first run with one of my besties since before my accident. Marion needed an easy run and provided that! LOL. Those first few miles were so hard (cardiovascularly). It's crazy how much fitness I lost those three months I wasn't allowed to run even though I worked my butt off at the gym. I was excited to see my average pace when we finished. I know my body can't tolerate running at that pace for every run right now, but I'll call it my speed workout for the week!

It's about damn time! A run with Marion!!
9/21: REST. Needed to rest my body after yesterday.

A return to work meant extra cuddles with my girl.
9/22: 4.01 miles, 9:17/mile. Big Brother is to blame for me not getting to meet some friends for an early run. I opted to sleep in a bit and run later in the morning. I almost made this run even shorter because the first half mile was challenging, but I eventually warmed up. Never judge a run by the first mile!
9/23: 7 miles, 8:58/mile. I was going to meet a group for 5@5, but Ruthie had me up at 2:45 and I knew a couple of the group members were starting at 4:30. I opted to meet them for their start. We had to run 3 miles from the starting point to pick up the next group of girls. Since I knew I'd be getting at least 6 miles, I thought I might as well get my long run out of the way and do seven. I didn't pay attention to the pace because these girls would normally be my training partners (when I'm in shape) which means they are way too fast for me right now! I just pretended we were running mid 9s. To my surprise, our average was just under 9 minutes! I was excited but I totally wanted to quit after 6 miles. It's the cardio...so hard to get it back after a forced vaca from running.

Love my new mug from Second Sole!
9/24: REST. I wanted to run 3-4 miles in the late afternoon, but I had a horrible day. I was super depressed and just didn't have the heart for a fun run.

Impatiently waiting for the Hogs to play...just to see them lose.
9/25: 6.1 miles, 9:16/mile. My friend, Megan, posted something about running at Highbanks, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It is one of the few places in Columbus with decent hills AND it trails through the beautiful woods. One of our crew has a marathon in a couple of weeks and wanted to avoid tripping, so we opted for paved options. It was nice running with some of my favorites again. I'm SLOWLY getting back to normal and can tolerate some runs with my old training partners. I think appropriate rest is the key for me right now.

Hills? What Hills?! [Megan, Dani, ME, Brooke]

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Finally, I have to say that I'm SUPER EXCITED about the Little Rock Marathon in March. An old cross country friend and I thought it would be fun to reunite our high school cross country team for the race. We started our little Facebook page to try to get the others interested in the idea! I REALLY hope we can make this happen. Crossing my fingers that people commit!!

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Ruthie Randoms:

-She finally pooped after 7 days...at least it wasn't at church this time.