Back in the saddle?

Tonight was my first run back in Phoenix on the treadmill.  I was feeling out of sorts, as you can probably tell by my distance.  I finished in 24:50, a 9:01 pace.  I got almost no sleep Saturday night because of our traveling home from Boston, and I think my body was still a little off today.  It's probably a good thing, though, because I am going to run tomorrow morning.  I have commitments after work tomorrow and Wednesday, so I'm trying the morning thing.  As I have said before, I am NOT a morning person, so we'll see how it goes.

After the run, I did some weights: several ab exercises, seated row, pushups, etc.  I tried to do some lunges, but my legs felt like jello.  I know I need to strength train, but it's so hard to find the extra time.  Also, many times I find that I'm so sore I can hardly run the next day.  Has anyone incorporated strength training into marathon training without spending every spare moment working out?

Well, I did it...barely!  We got up at 5:30 and ran outside on the Central Ave. Bridle Path, which was packed.  We started out at our normal pace or faster (9-minute mile) and were barely slogging 10-minute miles by our turnaround point.  I ended up running for 40 minutes and walking the rest.  It was discouraging, but I think it will take time to get my body used to running in the morning.  Plus, we just ran last night.  I'm hoping to get to bed earlier tonight (I got 7 hours of sleep last night) and do better tomorrow morning.

Well, it's been a stressful week.  I have my first arbitration tomorrow and have been holed up at work.  When work gets stressful for me, everything else (including exercise) tends to go out the window.  I know things will get easier once I've been practicing law longer, but things like this tend to eat up all my time now.  I know it gets better, because I sometimes run with a whole group of attorneys who obviously have time and energy to train for marathons!

So, hopefully my preparation for tomorrow will pay off, and I expect that it will go fine.  Luckily, busyness at work comes and goes in spurts, so I won't be this busy all the time.  I'm looking forward to running after the arbitration is over!