Adding miles

September is usually a busy month for us. We have back to school crazies, SkyWalker's birthday, and this year we have TWO soccer players in the house. Busy. Busy. Busy.

But I managed to run 16.9 miles in September. At one time I would not be proud of that... but I'm coming back from virtually no running during pregnancy and I have 4 children and their schedules to work around. I *could* run while Chewie is in preschool and Lightrunner sleeps, but I don't want to. I've been going to the library and reading (which is as lovely as it sounds) or to Target to get stuff without big kids around.

I'm still not where I want to be, but I ran 9 days in September (not including a failed attempt during Lightrunner's fussiest non-pooping period). For the first time ever I also did 6 days of cross training! Yoga and pilates and core work and all sorts of stuff. I took time off right after school started and then again during a week that Lightrunner was up at night A LOT and really fussy. Normally I don't give a crap about cross training, but I've got a wee bit of tightening to do and I'm determined to be a better runner now than I was before I got pregnant. I don't really *like* other exercise, but I've been doing the 10 minute workouts and I can tolerate those. I found something called Thin in 10 on the On Demand exercise channel which naturally was gone a week later. But I managed to locate a YouTube channel from the same person & I've pre-ordered the DVD with the workouts on it. Hopefully I can strengthen my core, make my pants fit better, and be ready to run a half marathon a year from now. I was toying with the spring, but I'd rather be completely done nursing. It's tough to go run for 2 hours if you're breastfeeding every 3 (not impossible, I know plenty who have done it, but I also know what works for me and my babies.)

I ran my longest post-baby distance yesterday. It was slow--as long runs should be--and rather than remember that my long run before I was pregnant was 9 miles, I just focused on the fact that I was running and not walking. I managed 3.3 miles and probably could have done more had I not known I needed to feed a baby soon (and when I walked in the house I was greeted with the sounds of baby crying). I looked at my garmin at the 5k point and it was roughly 36 minutes, which is roughly what I ran while training for my very first race. I think I'll get up to speed, pun intended, much quicker this time. When I was first starting out running I had no idea what I could do. Now I do.

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