Often when I share that I am training for a half marathon, friends state that they could never. To which I reply, yes you absolutely can. If I can, and I have twice in my life already, they can. If I can post-childbirth, they can. And I absolutely believe that they can. As I was on a twelve miler at the beginning of the week, I had a revelation. Training to run a long distance is doable, given no health conditions barring from doing so and a schedule permitting time to devote to the goal. Running, and building strength and distance is just the fun part.
I fiercely protect my long run day. It is my goal to knock it out while the Pamper Pirate is at daycare at the beginning of the week, but it sometimes gets pushed to Friday, Saturday, or the following Sunday. Even if it gets postponed, I never miss a long run unless I am sick, which plagued me at the beginning of February. Luckily at that point, the long runs had not made it to the double digit mark, allowing for a manageable catch up.
As far as my short runs go, I allow myself to substitute those with the combination of a Barry’s class (always the first one of the day prior to the rest of my family waking up) and an hour on the elliptical or stationary bike (always at the end of the day). I am less likely to flake out of the workout if it is a combination and I need to finish both in order to give myself training credit.
All this is to say that as working mom, the most challenging part about training for a race is scheduling the runs and and sticking to the schedule. I look forward to building mileage but inevitably something comes up: Pamper Pirate getting sick, a rogue deadline, or needing to see a house that we might want to buy. Managing my schedule and shifting the run is the hard part. But finishing each weekly long run and the consequent euphoric runner’s high makes it so worth it.
