Painful and Laborious...

Woah. Running has gotten incredibly HARD over the past week. Incredibly hard!

Josh ran on the treadmill this morning and came upstairs completely chipper from his three mile run. He announced that running on the treadmill is so much easier than running outside. "The air conditioning helps tremendously", he said.

So I figured, why not give running inside a shot? After we got Michael down for his nap, I headed downstairs for a three mile run. And...OH. MY. GOSH. My body just doesn't want to run anymore, or to walk fast. I had a side stitch, again on my right side. I slowed my run down, to a fast walk. The change in speed did not help until I reduced the speed even further to a slow-ER walk. Eventually I got to the three mile mark, but good grief! Was it ever a painful and laborious process. Forty-one minutes of MISERY, to be exact.

I refuse to throw in the towel because even though the three miles were a heck of a lot of work; I felt great the rest of the day knowing that I exercised.

What is most frustrating is the fact that overall I feel like I could run a marathon! It's probably in my head, but I don't feel tired enough after each workout. Today I was barely sweating, but my body (namely, my belly) just couldn't keep up.

This whole running while pregnant thing is very interesting, and very frustrating, at times. I'm hoping that one of these guys will help, note the support belt picture. Maybe the belly just needs a little support? To help with the side stitches??? (Doubt it.) It's worth a shot, though.

A Cross Post.

This is a cross post.... It doesn't have much to do with the little guy, but it does mention a k-h and her marathon training. Read on, if you'd like...

I've been deviating from "the sacred plan" lately, which, always irritates me. I'm a stick to the plan!, follow the rules!!, kinda person.

Last week's running did not go as smoothly as I had hoped. I managed to get in the two 5 milers and the 13 mile long run, but I ended up missing the 8miler. My plan was to run the eight miles on Sunday, even though we were at a football game about three hours from home the night before. Naturally, I just couldn't drag myself out of bed on Sunday morning. So, I skipped the 8 miles.

This week, I thought about trying to squeeze eight in on Monday and then do three 5 milers during the week. Didn't stick to that plan either... So far, I've done two 5 milers this week, however the plan calls for three 5 milers and then a 20 mile long run on the weekend. The long run won't be a problem, and they usually aren't because of my running group. Tomorrow I can get in the five with a running friend. So, this week I'm on target...I just can't let go of the missed eight miles from last week.

Because I just can't let it go, I'm contemplating running just a little bit on Saturday to get in 40 miles for the week. Who am I kidding? I'd like to run 5 on Saturday, and that' s not "just a little bit". As long as I run slowly on Saturday, it shouldn't ruin the long run for Sunday....Except, well, Sunday is actually a 20 mile race. I know, how do you "race" for 20 miles? If I figure it out, I'll blog about it.

This is just a glimmer of what goes on in my head during marathon training. It's so annoying. Things used to be easier pre-Michael B; I had a shower in my office, and we lived about ten minutes from the running group. I wouldn't change a thing about my life right now, though. I am so, SO, SO, grateful for our baby, for my new teaching gig, and for our running-friendless home/neighborhood.

The two morning runs this week have been wonderful, however. The full moon is beautiful right now. It's so bright, I feel like it lights my little path in the mornings.

There are only thirty days until marathon day!! How did that happen??? And, after the twenty miles this weekend, it's all down hill. (Aside from the marathon, of course...)

Check out the RunHappy link to the right for more of this nonsense....