Hitting the Starting Line Cold

I'm not sure about you, but I like to run an 8k or a 5k a few weeks out from running a Half.  It is a good way to judge where I am physically and to get out some of my pre-race jitters.  Unfortunately, do to some self-imposed travel restrictions, and some baby imposed schedule issues.  I can't find a good race to run before The Tobacco Road Half Marathon on March 17th, which means that I have not run a Race since November and have only run that one since June.

I have trained and feel ready to tackle the distance, but I'm kind of afraid that I'll either flame out in the beginning of the race or run too conservatively because in an attempt to avoid going out too fast.  Granted, these are the same anxieties that I usually carry into every race, but I often use my previous race as a point of reference to quell my paranoia.  In this case, I am just going to have to adjust on the fly because I have no other options.  One thing is for certain, the race will quickly be upon me, and I am looking forward to lacing "em up and making yet another stab at a sub 2 hour half!  Sunday, I did a very icy 10 miler in Umstead park that felt awesome.  I had not run in Umstead since the start of my wife's third trimester some time in August, and I had missed those damn hills in a way that I could have hardly imagined.

Two Weeks of Baby Balancing Workouts

For the last two weeks my wife and I have been passing our son back and forth as we work around each others schedules, and I've been trying to get in my runs and keep my workout schedule where it needs to be.  Fortunately, I think that we have done well and being alone with my son has caused me to make some positive changes as well.  For one, if the weather is nice I am much more likely to go for a walk.  Kaito loves to ride in his stroller and a 3.5 mile stroller walk is and awesome way to get him to take a nap while burning a few calories.  Also, I am so busy around the house with diaper changes, feedings, bottle washing, dishes, laundry, clean ups, and playtime that I don't have time to sit around and snack.  When I do go for a snack it is usually something easy like an apple or orange.

My workouts and runs have dropped off a little, but a lot of that is to do with getting use to our new schedules and finding out what works and what doesn't.  Also, I lost one day due to a migraine, which pre-baby wouldn't have matter all that much but was more difficult to reschedule now.  It is interesting that in the past my schedule had nothing but flexibility, which sometimes led me to put off a workout thinking that I could do it later in the day, only to to delay again and again, until I ended up skipping it.  Now, I know that if I don't get up at 4am on Saturday morning, I am not running that day.  So in some ways the nature of my schedule is adding motivation to my workouts, which is something that I would not have expected.  We'll see if this continues but as of now things are going well, and I am off now, because I have no more time in my schedule for blogging today.

New Challenges for a New Year

I would LOVE to tell you that I am setting new distance goals for 2013, or a new pace goal, maybe even a foray into the Marathon, but those goals are all secondary at this point.  My wife's maternity leave ends this week and rather that put or son in daycare (we don't have family in the area to help), we've decided to just work around our work schedules.  Luckily, I can work from home a little and my wife schedule is flexible enough to mostly work around mine.  However, workouts and runs will all be subject to very narrow windows that will be inflexible.

My son is still too small to go in the running stroller yet, but we will be incorporating lots of long walks in to out exercise regime.  Over the Christmas holiday I made a concerted effort to begin working out at home rather the relying on the gym, so that I can get in my workout on days when a trip to the gym becomes an impossibility.  Kaito is pretty good about sleeping after walks and after he eats, so I should be able to get my exercises in during those times on most days.  In addition, I've taught myself to incorporate household chores into my workouts.  My main concern is finding time for long runs.  Any run under 6 miles can be sandwiched into a lunch hour or done early before work hours, but those runs over six are going to mean no sleeping in on weekends and I will have many a sleepy day ahead of me.  So really for this year, my goal is just to stay fit, keep running, and do more than my fair share of taking care of my son, the house, and our cat.

I see keeping it all together as my big challenge for this year, and frankly, I am looking forward to it because . . . well I am awesome at wasting time.  Since I've become a dad there are many other things that I would like to be awesome at rather than wasting time, for an example see the video above.