6 Days Away

The half is on Sunday, so I'm using this week as a taper week.  Funny, right?  I know, I can't really taper from nothing, but I am not going to try and run 6 or more at all.  I'll keep them short.  I can take X on a couple of 5Ks and that should be sufficient for now.  For Sunday I have GUs and Tailwind, so I should be all set to run, it's just a matter of how long it will take me to actually finish.  I'm hoping for a 2:15/2:30. 
Really what I need to be doing is going to the gym or outside just a bit more often.  Last week was a good week since it was nice out and we were able to take lots of walks.  But with the pattern of rain every other day or so it seems, it makes it hard to get out during the day and then by this time at night I have no interest in changing, going to the gym, coming home, and showering.  That just seems like so much.  I'd rather get the gym out of the way really early, or during the day.  And so here we are.  If someone would nap, I would work out in the living room, but we're still working on napping for more than 20 minutes at a time at this point.  I suppose it is only Monday, so as long as I get outside or to the gym for the rest of the week, I should be ok. 
Last week I ended up with over 600 workout minutes for the week, which hasn't happened in a very long time.  We're talking years.  The walk through Concord on Friday really pushed me over the top.  I took X to the Old North Bridge and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.  I was hoping for more foliage, but the walk was nice either way.  We might go to Salem sometime during the week and walk around there, but it's probably unlikely.  Salem is nice and all, but I don't know that I want to pay for parking and deal with crazy people just to stroll around the streets for a little bit.  There are closer places.  We'll see where the week takes us for that.  It is supposed to be rather cold by the middle of the week.  40s or so.  Which makes sense, since last week it was in the 80s.  Cold weather won't keep us inside though as long as it's not raining.  But I might need to find other races to run just to make sure I at least keep running a little bit!
And here are our photos from our Concord walk.

Fall is (not) in the air

Today it was a lovely 79 degrees.  Yup. October 9 and it's 79.  It's fine though, yesterday it was 52.  Consistency is what's important here, of course.  (Hard eye roll.)  Listen, I love summer as much as the next person, but is it too much to ask the weather to cooperate and just stick to fall?  Or at least maintain a steady average instead of jumping from sweater weather to shorts and a tank top again.  Apparently, it is, and here we are. 
Alright though, I know you're all here for the running updates, not my thoughts on the weather.  So the other day I asked the pediatrician when I could start running with X in the stroller, and he said there was no reason I couldn't start now.  Just stay off rocky trails, bundle him up in the cold, you know, common sense. So today we took the BOB out to the Minuteman Bike Path.  On Saturday, I had gone for a 6 mile run, just to make sure the trail was as flat as I thought.  This bike path goes all the way from Bedford to Alewife Station out in Boston, so it's really an ideal route if you need a flat path.  There are so many plus sides to this path that it mostly makes up for the fact that I get bored running in straight lines. 
One plus is that you can run basically any distance, as I think the trail is about 10 miles long.  Now, I am clearly on my computer and could easily Google the actual distance, but I'm not going too.  And that's probably the laziest I've ever been.  So, anyway, it's somewhere between 10 - 13 miles long in one direction.  That means you could basically use it for full marathon training if you felt the need.  It's also incredibly flat, though it does incline up slightly through to Lexington, at least from the Bedford side.  It's not noticeable until you turn around and realize you're kind of running downhill.  They've also added free bike shares to the Bedford end, so, in theory, if you got tired of running, you could hop on a bike and make your way back to the other end.  Finally, it passes through a few different towns, so there are a few different bathroom options should you find yourself in need. 
Like I said, a nice path, even if I'm not a fan of running straight.  So, on Saturday I started in Bedford, but today we went to Lexington center to run.  I wanted to see a different part of the path, so it made sense.  It was nice to be able to run again during the day and bring my little man with me.  I originally planned on going 3, but at 1.5 I decided to just keep going the extra .5 and make it 2 out and 2 back.  It was a good plan and a good run.  X slept for most of the first 3 miles.  Then we stopped for a bottle and diaper break before finishing the last mile.  Next time maybe we'll go to a different spot and run some more.  Hopefully, the leaves will start changing on the path too, making it even nicer.  Right now most of them are still green. 
Ok so the half is coming up and I haven't made it up past 6, but I did make it to 6, which was my goal anyway.  I'm sure I can run and finish the half, even if there's a lot of walking involved.  Maybe I'll find it easier after pushing a stroller for the next few runs, to run without it again.  We'll see with that. So, that's it for now.  Since it is October, no matter what the weather wants to pretend, X is dressed for Halloween, if you're wondering about that. Oh, and wearing shorts now leads to chaffing, a problem I didn't have before, so I had to come up with a quick solution after mile 2 when it started to get bad.  Luckily I had his diaper bag with us so I threw some diaper cream on the thighs and carried on.  It seemed to work a bit, and mostly it just taught me to not wear shorts anymore.  Or at least not for a while.  Hopefully I can remember that!

2 weeks out

Baystate is on the 21, so that's just about 2 weeks from now.  So far, I've gotten 5 miles on the treadmill, so that's almost good enough for me.  I want to be able to do at least 6 running, which I don't think should be a problem at this point.  Mostly I figured if I can run 6, I can walk the other six, if necessary.  Of course, I don't plan on running the first six and then walking the whole second half.  No, I'll probably end up doing a combination run/walk every 5K or so.  Obviously, it will all depend on how I feel that morning, if I got any sleep the night before, etc. 
Now I don't want to ruin a good thing, but we have been lucky enough that Mr. X seems to know daytime from nighttime. He's not a great daytime napper, maybe sleeps in half-hour chunks, but does well throughout the night.  Generally, he's pretty good about sleeping for a six-hour stretch, waking up to eat, and then sleeping for another 3.  That works out fine for me right now because I don't have to go to work in the morning.  I don't know what I'll do when I actually have to get up after his second wake up instead of taking a nap with him. 
He does sleep well if we're out for a walk, so I suppose if I really wanted him too, I could strap him in the stroller and put him to sleep that way.  His dr. said it was perfectly ok to take him running in the BOB, so we're going to try that out today.  I'm not sure why BOB says to wait until 8 months, actually. I asked his Dr about it the other day and he seemed to think that was an absurd recommendation.  I mean, I'm not going to take him off-roading, but for paved surfaces, apparently, there's no reason NOT to take him.  I'm very curious to see if he will sleep through a run, so I'm going to, possibly, take him with me to do my 6 today.  Hard call, I might want to just go alone and have some me time and take him during the week.  But either way, he's coming running with me now, which opens up a whole new world of fun for us!
Since it is October, he's been dressing up in different Halloween outfits, basically every day.  It's not as crazy as it sounds.  Mostly they're just onesies with ghosts or pumpkins on them. But he has a few different costumes he's going to wear throughout the month.  After all, there are only a few times I can get away with this before he voices his opinion on what he wants to wear/be for Halloween.  So I'm taking this opportunity to dress him in costumes that I think are cute.  For instance, we may go running Salem on Monday afternoon.  He can't go to Salem in October without a costume, he'd be a weirdo! 
Plus, none of the Thanksgiving outfits for boys are cute.  That is quickly becoming an annoyance for me.  There are thousands of girls clothes and for boys, you either get bowties and collared or plaid shirts.  Carter's had a super cute Thanksgiving outfit, a turkey onesie with a cover-all blue skirt with white polka-dots.  This outfit could easily be made for a boy too, just take the tiny bow off the onesie and make the skirt into overalls.  But no, instead, the boys get football shirts and onesies that say, I came, I ate, I napped.  I haven't started looking at Christmas clothes yet, but I imagine it's going to be more of the same.  So disappointing.  Which is why we're making the most of all our cute Halloween outfits instead!  Maybe I'll even wear my Disney running costume for Baystate.  Hmmm....

4 Under 40

Ok so I still haven't done much running, but I did get 4 miles on the elliptical the other day, in just over 33 minutes!  I know that road running is going to be much harder than elliptical moving, but if I can hang for at least 5 - 6 on the elliptical, I'll be fairly confident in my ability to be able to run/walk and complete the half next month.  Plus I have my 6-week check-up next Monday, so hopefully, after that, I can go back to full time running without worrying.  I'd love to be able to go out on the rail trail, especially now that it's almost fall, which is generally perfect running weather.  The Bob website says that babies can ride in the seat starting at 8 weeks, so even if I can't run a ton, we can go for long walks on the rail trail.
Besides my elliptical success, I've been using resistance bands to work on my leg and back strength.  I noticed that even though I can *sort of* fit into my regular clothes, for the most part, my back and legs seem to have changed the most.  (Well, outside of the obvious places, of course.) So I'm trying to get some tone back into those places.  Like I said, I really need Title again.  I know they would be able to whip me back into shape in no time.  Unfortunately, without daycare, there are not too many gym options for us at the moment.  Eventually, I would like to leave P.F. and join a place that does baby swim lessons, like the Y.  What I would really like is to join Lifetime, but they're crazy expensive and probably not worth it right now.  Maybe in the future. 
Back to the elliptical for a minute though.  Am I the only one whose feet start feeling like they're falling asleep after a mile or two on it?  I get pins and needles going and I'm not entirely sure why.  Once I was told that going backward will alleviate that problem, but I'm not there to go backward at the moment.  My other thought was that my shoes are too small, but even when I wore my regular old running shoes, it still happened.  It's not really a problem so much as an annoyance, but I am curious if it happens to anyone else.