Logging the Miles

I've run a half-marathon this week! Spread out over 3 days. On a treadmill. Just over 13 miles, averaging 4.5 miles a day. I'm hoping to run 6 miles straight on Sunday, outdoors.

I've come to find that I enjoy running. :) Actually, correction. I enjoy sweating. I feel a sense of disapointment when I end a workout and have barely a drop of sweat anywhere on me. I love finishing a workout looking like somebody dumped the Gatorade cooler over my head. I love the sore muscles, the shakey legs, the deep breathing. Maybe that makes me crazy, but that's okay. I like crazy. :op I've also started doing Jillian Michael's 6-week 6-pack DVD, and THAT is HARD! Harder even than her 30 Day Shred DVD (which I also love).

Sweating, panting, pushing through pain has become an invigorating habit for me in the past year. It's the closest I've been able to come to replicating the amazingly empowering experience of natural childbirth (I enjoyed THAT even! Now you KNOW I'm crazy! :op ) I love discovering what my body is capable of. I love feeling like "Holy cr@p, there's no way I'm going to be able to finish this!" And then lo and behold - I'm finished! It's awesome!

I'm looking for some races to sign up for, to help me prepare for running a half-marathon sometime in the Fall, but I'm having a hard time finding any that aren't on Sundays. There have to be SOME out there though.  I did find *one* half-marathon set for June that's called "Beach to Chowder" - you run along the boardwalk and over sandhills, then are handed a complimentary bowl of clam chowder at the finish. What could be more awesome than that?? But George is on-call that weekend, so it's a no go. [sad tear]

I've started working out in the evenings after the kids are in bed a few nights a week (typically 2). Sometimes I do a 30 minute intense workout, sometimes a longer, less-intense workout (like Yoga or Pilates). I love ending the day like that, especially with Yoga. A funny thing happened though when I started doing this: I confused the heck out of my kids! I'm the first one up in this house on week days, typically rolling out of bed between 4:45 and 5am, and I immediately put on my workout clothes and either head to the gym for a run, or put on the workout DVD that I set up the night before and do a workout. The first time I worked out at night the kids had only been in bed for about half an hour, and Raia came stumbling out of her room, bleery-eyed, and crying "Is it morning alreeeeeeadyyyyyyy??? I'm stiiiiiiill tiiiiiiiiired!" I assured her that it wasn't morning yet, tucked her back into bed, then had a good laugh.

Raia has actually started working out most mornings as well, typically doing a Zumba dance routine on the Wii, or playing with her Nickelodean FIT game that she got for Christmas. No promptings from me at all, just wanting to do what mommy does: change out of PJ's into exercise clothes and get a workout in before officially starting the day. I'm so glad that the good example I'd hoped to set for my kids (of fitness being a part of life, rather than something you do "to be skinny" or to meet other people's expectations) is actually rubbing off. :) Even Patrick likes to "play" with my free weights (the 2lb. ones) lifting them up and down the way he sees me sometimes doing. It's too cute. :)