it's race week!

Only five days to go until I run my first post baby half.  Do I feel ready?  Uh, not so much.  Will I finish?  More than likely.

Elsie sleeping habits have been absolutely CRAP lately.  Like two hour parties at 1am and that isn't her only wake up of the night.  I keep hoping it will get better, but it just keeps getting worse.  Not cool, not cool at all.  Especially on long run days.  Our weekends have been relatively packed lately, or I just plain want to get the run done, but getting out the door at 5:45am when I've barely slept just isn't happening.

Yesterday was no different.  Saturday Elsie woke up at 9:30pm.  Less than three hours after she went to bed.  And we didn't convince her to go back to sleep until around 11:30pm.  So much for going to bed early to get some rest.  She woke up again at 4:30am.  So I managed to get five consecutive hours, but it just wasn't enough.  I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, there was no way I could go run ten miles.  I only went back to sleep for maybe another 45 minutes, but it made a world of difference in how I felt.  I didn't want to wait until after E's next feeding to get started, so I decided to head out around 6:15am, and told Chris to just text me when she was up and I'd head back to feed her.  Sure enough, by 6:40am she was already awake.  I had made it just over 2.5 miles, so by the time I made it home I had 5.2 miles done.

Stopping for a long period of time during a long run definitely isn't ideal in my book.  Thankfully I was feeling slow and not really in a good groove, so I didn't care, but it still kind of sucks to come home, sit down, and know I you still have to go back out.  I fed Elsie, changed my shirt (it was too sweaty, I would have been cold!), ate a granola bar and used the bathroom and then started off again just before 8am.  It is amazing what being out in the daylight did for my mood!  I was surprised at how great I felt physically and mentally, and I thought the next five wouldn't be a problem.  Until I truly tried to run.  My knee said a big f-you and was incredibly tight and painful.  I felt like I had the joints of a 90 year old woman.  Part of me wanted to turn back and throw in the towel, and the other part knew it would more than likely loosen up.  Which it did.

The first five miles I averaged right around a 9:30 pace.  The first mile of the second five I spent a good deal of time stopping to respond to different text messages, and clocked in at just over 11 minutes.  The next three miles I still felt slow, but was pleasantly surprised when they were all right at about 9 minutes.  Score.  The last mile was slow again at a 9:30, but I'm hoping that I can hold a 9 minute pace for at least some of the race on Saturday.  It was crazy how breaking the run up in to two parts made it seem like I hadn't run ten miles.  My body was definitely feeling it last night though.  My back was achy and my joints in my right leg just aren't thrilled.  But it's worth it, right?  Right...

I'm incredibly anxious for Saturday to get here.  I'm excited to do a race again, and I'm kind of excited for it to just be over already.  I've got another half on my calendar on November 24th, but I have yet to sign-up.  I need to decide if it's worth it to give up sleep for another five weeks to make sure I get my training in.  Right now I say no, I'd like to get some sleep.  But the other part of me knows I'll be sad and maybe regret it if I don't.  After that any distance race that I'd probably do isn't until April, so I'd get to take a little bit of a break.  Decisions decisions.

Who else is racing this weekend?

 

Link up your health and fitness related posts below!