THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

5 am.  7:43 average pace.  Started slow at a 9 minute mile and felt terrible and tired, and my calves were really tight, but after 3 miles suddenly snapped out of it and ran the rest of the way in the low 7's.  Now I feel pretty good.  This week is going to be a nightmare with my last week at my old job, more orientation at my new job, and all the shuttling with the kids plus my husband is working mandatory overtime.  It will be hard to get much running in.

7:40 AP.  Ugly, ugly attempt at speedwork today.  I want to become friends with 6:00 pace and perhaps build a relationship, and I want to try out these racing flats more, and the kids didn't have school today so despite a little wind we all headed to the track.  I strapped on the go-fasters and warmed up a mile, then started.  I was going for a dirty dozen--12x400 in 90 seconds with 200 meter recovery.  First one was slow because my hair fell out and I had to put it back in a ponytail while I was running.

91, 90, 90, 91(calves are already burning), 91, 92(oh my calves, 200 meters is not enough to recover anymore), 93(walked part of the 200 recovery after this to shake my calves out), 89.  Vanessa needed a pody break, bless her heart.  It helped to take a break! 88, 89, 90, had to stop and yell at a kid so extra break here, 86.  Then I jogged about 2.5 to cool down with some veering to chase kids.  The wind on the back stretch made this harder then it had to be I think, and I definitely need to strengthen my calves to adjust to running in these kinds of shoes.   Next the high school football coach and a player showed up and he asked me to video tape the kid doing some sprints while he drilled him on his technique.  That was pretty fun.  The coach was wearing 5 fingers shoes and the kid was wearing  Nike frees.  Interesting.  After watching that the kids wanted me to time them doing sprints so we did that for a while.  Nick ran 100 meters in 17 seconds in socks--wow that is 4:32 pace for a 10-year-old! 

I may do some treadmill miles after work just to enjoy running some uninterrupted miles.

update: did 4 on the treadmilll after work at 8:34 pace

8:52 AP.  Vanessa-stroller-lots of wind-park-strength drills-stroller-sonic-tater tots-home-shower-work

Today my baby turns 3(but no party 'til Saturday).  Today is also my last day as a Lieutenant paramedic for Sedgwick County EMS.  Beginnings and endings. It is a bittersweet kind of day.  I may try to run after work. 

Update: towards the end of my shift, with all the paperwork caught up and the west side quiet, my partner drove me 1/4 mile to a middle school track.  I got my jumpsuit ready, changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and knocked out 20 laps in the dark while my partner listened to the radio with the promise to light it up if we got a call.  We didn't get get a call while I was running.  Then we drove to post and time was up and we logged off.  So that was it.  I got to my car and surprised myself by bursting into tears.  Now I am emotional and up late blogging and drinking chamomile tea.  It's cool that I got to run myself into the next chapter of life.  SCEMS is family to me.  I first stepped onto one of their ambulances 9 years ago as a student.  Wow.  Since then I've been married, birthed a child, adopted children, and done a lot of growing up(well not too much).  Time goes so, so fast.  Okay enough of being dramatic on my blog, I'm just going to sit here and think about the thousands upon thousands of memories I have and be thankful that I had the experiences I had.  I've seen a lot, all over the spectrum from horror to miraculous.  Alright I'm done for real now.  good night!

8:00 AP.  Yesterday was ridiculous and I didn't have time to run.  I was up all night with Vanessa--she has a croupy cough thing going on and she got to where she couldn't stop coughing and then freaked out about it and started  screaming and thrashing and crying and had a huge meltdown.  I tried breathing treatments and everything but finally when I opened the fridge and had her breathe the cold humid air it helped and I was finally able to talk her down. my poor baby.  Today's run started nice and slow but I felt more and more smooth and strong and finally edged up on the 8:00 girl.  Splits 8:42, 8:38, 8:31, 8:02, 8:02, 7:37, 7:43, 7:52, 7:41, 7:46, last .63 at 6:54 pace.