Just Keep It Movin'

Currently: Will is out of town for work and I'm eating all manner of weirdness out of the pantry to avoid going to the commissary. I've been eating a balanced diet of pancakes, pancakes, and pancakes. Oh, and kettle corn. Like a normal person. So that's if you were wondering what my fuel/nutrition situation looks like. 

Up on the agenda, a running update. Humbling when you choose to start sharing marathon training details on a public blog 2 months after pushing a baby out.

In any case . . . .

Not only did I fall off the wagon, but I fell off it hard . . . . The wagon was traveling uphill at approximately 47 mph and I tumbled down to the bottom of that hill . . . and then rolled into a swamp . . . and got eaten by gata!

Okay, so that's a little dramatic, but a work deadline + sleep regression = no motivation. The new work project perfectly coincided with the great sleep regression. Tack on some 90 degree weather and the question, "Shall I run today?" was always, "Assuredly, I shall not." Eeeeven with the treadmill, which I declared would remove all impediments and excuses to get out of running. So lame. I am the worst.

Anyway, we are back in action, cruising these mean streets of Scott Aero Fuerco Baso. Will is out of the infant seat! Mildly exciting little milestone.

^^^Yo. This is not the same picture. I stepped back, switched to normal camera mode on my iPhone, and the kid literally just did not move at all whatsoever. At all! I mean, what in the world is he staring at? I thought that was odd enough to document. 

So here I was cruising along for a while, even thinking maybe I would PR. I had a few really great runs in Maryland. Then the wheels fell off for a couple of weeks. I decided just to try and hit the long runs and literally anything I could muster during the week would have to do. 

This past Saturday was our 12 mile long run so we went off to run a couple laps on the Scott AFB trail. Will and I alternated pushing the stroller and little Will napped the whole time like a pro. It was a pretty hot and humid day, but we were keeping fueled and hydrated and we were going to make it, albeit slowly. HOWEVER (dun dun dunnnn), by mile 10, we could hear thunder from an approaching storm. It had cooled off considerably so neither of us really wanted to stop running, even though the cooler temps were probably coming from the mother of all thunderstorms heading toward us. But we were so close to the end! And we could finish strong in the cooler weather. 

At this point, we were right by the golf clubhouse, but two miles from our car, so we had to make a decision. Could we outrun the storm? I should have known better in the face of temperamental Midwest weather, but I decided I would push the stroller and Will would run ahead to go get the car. If the storm came, he would drive back to pick us up. 

Well, the storm rolled in a little quicker than anticipated. It got really cold, really fast, and Little Will was not wearing pants (duh), so he was being pelted with the cold rain. I ran as hard as I could, mama bear style, but I was 11 miles in and I knew the faster I ran, the more rain he was hit with. I was really fatigued (hello! hadn't been running consistently for two weeks), and he started making unhappy grunting noises. I stopped and leaned over the stroller, and toweled him off with a burp cloth.

Thankfully, and I kind of knew this would happen if I stopped because Air Force peeps are the best, a car pulled over to rescue us in our distress. I got Will out of the stroller and we sat in the stranger named Ken's car until Will pulled up. Which felt like FOREVER. Forever and a day, you guys. We had to keep the doors shut AND the windows up because it was raining so hard. I was stinky and literally fogging up the windows of the vehicle faster than the A/C could beat it back. I was one hot mess (LINKING UP YO!). It was embarrassing, but it happens, I guess. We live to blog the tale. 

This week has been a lot better. I had my best ever 5 miler with the stroller yesterday, and in the face of a pancake famine, I managed a nice little run today. (Finally made it to the commissary afterwards. Yes I started this post yesterday.) 

I've come to realize this is not the season of life to be pushing myself so hard, expecting pre-baby paces, and getting discouraged after a bad run. Which---have you noticed?---is why I'm not sharing my actual run times anymore. I've resolved myself to take it easy, run for fun, and juuuust keep it movin'.