I'm not crazy...I'm just bored!!

So life has been CRAZY these past few days. Friday was my son's 6th birthday, my oldest boy, and we simply had a wonderful day! Saturday was honestly the LAZIEST day I've had, but Friday night was a really, really, rough night with the baby - so hubby and I pretty much took turns sleeping all day :)

I was going to run Monday, baby woke up at the perfect time and I had him fed and back to sleep by 5:45 - let's get out and run! Well....then I took one look at my comfy bed and decided to go back to bed :) I really need to start getting up and running in the morning...

Today I hiked Timpanogus with my sister and all of our brood. It was a good time, and just enough cardio to get me moving for the day; however, I think that I'll be sore from the downhill tomorrow. It was a total of 3.5 miles round trip (we only did the cave obviously) and 1065 ft of elevation gain. I was honestly surprised at how good I felt going up. I never once felt tired like I needed to stop, but that could've been because I was stopping all the time for the kids :)

Afterward we had a picnic lunch and played in the river, I honestly am simply exhausted from carrying a baby, being on my feet and worrying about kids falling off a cliff or being swept away in a river all day! It really is hard to wrangle 4 kids by yourself, I'm SO glad my sister and her older kids were around to help me out - I wouldn't have undertaken such a thing by myself!!

I WILL get out and run tomorrow, I will, I will, I will! SGM and DN10K this Sat are looming like a big dark cloud right now....

Well, I got up and remembered what I'd written yesterday: I WILL get out...it was late and hot, maybe bag it for the evening? Later, right? Okay, fine - I'll do it. Loaded baby in the double jogger (other kids were still snoozing, we've been night owls lately!), and did a 1 mile loop down to the end of the street and back 3X to stay close to home, with a little extra at the end to finish a 5K.

9:00 is still too hot! Add the wind into the equation this morning and ugghh - The problem is pushing the jogging stroller into the wind! It makes a huge sail that I have to push along, I was dying and I looked at the watch 11 mm! YUCK! The worst part was the uphill was into the wind, so it was doubly hard, but I pushed through and managed to average a 9:56 for the run.

AP: 9:56 splits: 10:01, 9:38, 10:09, 9:46 (for the .1)

I was  around a 9:20 or less on the downhill, wind at my back sections so I guess I'm going to try to hold onto that. I can tell my legs have lost SO much in the 3-4 weeks I've been off *sigh* I'm glad I have a beautiful baby to cuddle and cry on his shoulder about it! :) Trying to remember that running will come back, but I'll never have another little baby - must keep priorities straight!

So...do we have a pair of running feet here? :)

Got up and out a bit earlier today...slowly but surely I'm getting back into early mornings. Did the same loop to the end of the street and back, a mile a loop. That way I can be home every few minutes for the older kids in case they need me and still not have to wake up before my hubby leaves for work :)

Without the wind things were much better today! I decided to try to bump up the daily miles bit by bit this week and see what I could do, so far so good. PLUS I was able to redeem myself a bit from yesterday's slow run. 

I did have a 'wonderful' runner moment this morning. There is a 4 way stop just .05 from my house that is notorious for being run (no one really stops), I had started through the intersection as a vehicle was approaching. She decided not to stop, and just barreled through the intersection. I came to a halt and she finally saw me (after I'd even pulled back a step or two) when her front tires were about three feet from the front of the stroller! Teenager on her cell phone. I got a mouthed "sorry" and she drove on by!! YIKES! Ideally, she would've come to a stop when I was about 1/2 way through the intersection, so I figured it wasn't a big deal to go on through. Good thing one of us was paying attention to what was going on. I sat and chastised her for the next mile loop (mile 3 I think).

Good run, still too hot!

AP: 9:34 splits: 9:42, 9:27, 9:31, 9:37

 Here is a picture to celebrate my sweet baby's one month birthday today!

I simply have the best running partner ever! Who else would help you wake up at 7AM to make sure you got your run in, even after getting up at 4:30? AND put an extra 20 pounds on you to make sure you had the motivation to get out and start running? Thanks Adam for all you do for me! :) 

Today was my first run in the past 10 months without him, and I felt naked when I started my run - no belly, no stroller, nothing in my arms. I wore my 'running for 2' shirt just to have a piece of him with me :) Thankfully, Cal was out this morning and I got to chat with him for a bit as I started my run and it gave me the boost needed to keep going (or at least not cry!). It did feel pretty good to be by myself again, and OH so much easier!!

I did my 6 mile loop and I didn't look at my watch, I just kept a nice easy pace that felt good. I tried to not let myself slide on the uphill, but to keep my feet moving. When I got home and looked at my splits I was pleasantly surprised!

AP: 9:05 splits: 9:21, 8:36, 8:42, 9:05, 9:38, 9:11, 8:57 (for the .2)

I could hardly believe I'd kept the pace that low, it felt more like the 9:50's or so I've been trudging along at! I can tell I've lost some cardio training, but I hope it comes back quickly. The best part is that the 9:38 was my hill of death mile! It didn't seem nearly as hard as it had pregnant and I thought I was going to hit a 10+ the way I was feeling. I was SO excited to see it was so close to 9:30 and less than what I thought my AP was going to end up at.

What a great first run sans baby! I came home and baby and dad were sleeping peacefully and no one any the wiser for me sneaking out for some mommy time. I'm glad the first one went so well - MIGHT just motivate me to get up early and run w/out the stroller next week :)

Here's a tribute to my favorite running partner! Can't wait to do DN with you tomorrow, and yes, I know, you'll beat me again :)

Well, my sweet running partner again got me up and out of bed in order to get to the race :) He actually woke up 2 minutes before the alarm would've gone off - he's simply in tune with my needs :) My sister had stayed the night so that she could run her FIRST 10K as well, so we headed on up to the start bright and early.

The bathroom lines were horrendous and getting there with only 15 minutes to spare put us in the back of the line as well. I contemplated just bagging the potty stop, but my body told me that I wouldn't be happy if I did, so I stayed.  This put us WAY behind the start, we had to practically cut off the sweeper vehicle to start. I've never started a race last before. Since it was her first I wanted to make sure she got to the start and got going, but then I took off.

I think being behind really lit a fire for me, and I sped off barely being able to steer the jogging stroller, Adam is just too light :) I finally caught up to the end pack and it honestly wasn't easy maneuvering the stroller through the crowd, but I tried to just stay on the outside where I could weave better. Around Rice Eccles stadium the traffic was backed up and there was a Cream-O-Weber semi inching along in traffic. My goal was to catch it! I kept inching up on it as I barred down the hill and then thanks to a trax train stopping traffic (but not us thankfully!) I passed him! Isn't it fun to race trucks? :)

The rest of the race was really uneventful, I felt great and just kept chugging along. only 2 people passed me, and one of them I used as my 'clearer' - She would get people to move then I'd follow right behind her. She finished maybe 10 seconds or so in front of me. It was a great time, I love the energy of this race as you run along the parade route. The last little bit 'up' to the finish was more difficult on the legs and arms, because of the stroller and that is evident in my pace!

When I looked at my watch as I finished, the race clock was still under an hour, I was a little bummed that I hadn't broken 50 minutes. However, how can I be upset about 50 minutes a month after giving birth?!?

AP: 8:10 splits: 7:37, 7:47, 8:24, 8:05, 8:05, 8:49, 8:55(for the .22 on the garmin) We'll see overall placement later...

I went back to run my sister in (finished about 1:08, a GREAT time for her!), saw Slick and Mark, chatted, fed baby, saw Smooth and Teena after their wild adventure, cheered in Allie (an AMAZING finish!!!) and other bloggers that ran the marathon, then my mom's patience was running thin (I had to take her home from finishing the 5K), chatted with and met some other bloggers (Riverton Paul, Markmc, Steve Ashbaker, Sasha), then on the shuttle bus back to the car ran into JeffL. SO many bloggers there!

I had a wonderful time jumping back into the running world and being able to chat with my friends and fellow runners. THIS is what running is all about for me...well, and being able to hopefully run off all this baby weight!