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| (If you are going to race you need to make sure your muscles are loose) |
My racing has been going o.k. Nothing spectacular but I keep plugging
away, knowing one day things will click. I have a feeling that will happen when
I am able to devote a little more time to my training. Two weeks ago I raced a
1500m at UW. I signed up on the last day to register because why not jump into
a 1500 and race?
Levi, Lilyana and
I drove up the morning of the race and upon arriving I realized I forgot my
breast pump. I figured this wouldn’t be a problem because Lilyana could just
nurse. I thought I timed it perfectly. She ate before we left and it was about
3 hours after that when we arrived. Well I was wrong. She decided everything in
the car, on my shirt, and out the window was way more exciting than milk. Oh
look keys! Hide keys. Look a loose string on Mom’s shirt! Tear off string. Look
it’s Dad! Tell Levi to try sitting in the back. You get the gist. We battled
for quite some time and frustrated and exhausted I gave up.
I know it sounds
silly but I was almost in tears. This was probably due to a late night with
little sleep and our running late in the morning. The night before the race I
didn’t even want to do it. I was seriously thinking about scratching and in the
morning with Lilyana giving me trouble I really having to go so long without
eating if I raced. I also didn’t want to race full of milk. Levi later reassured
me that I need to not worry so much about making everything perfect for Lilyana
and put myself first sometimes. I have a tendency to neglect myself and make
sure everyone else is taken care of before taking care of myself. But I am
working on this. Today I took a nap, took the time to prepare a good breakfast
and lunch for myself, which results in my consuming more calories, and tonight
I had a very good workout, go figure.
I never thought I
would be “one of those Moms” who at 4 o’clock realizes she hasn’t had lunch
yet. That may or may not have happened to me one or 10 times. Now that Lilyana
is on a regular eating pattern with solids this is getting much easier for me
as we sit down and eat our meals together. I also try to make larger dinners so
I can have leftovers for lunch. But I’m getting off topic.
So after battling
with a baby who wanted nothing to do with nursing I decided I needed to get
some running in before racing a 1500m. I had enough time to use the restroom 15
times (seriously felt like that many times) and get a 30 minute warm up in.
Lately on my workout days I am strapped for time as Levi gets home late from
long hard days training in the fire academy so I usually do a really quick warm
up of running 15 minutes and some leg swings then starting the workout.
Sometimes I don’t even do the leg swings. Sometimes I don’t even stop before
starting the workout like tonight. I know it’s not ideal but it’s trained me to
be able to do the same on race day when I am running late. I used to be the
type who had to get to a race at least 2 hours before my race so I could relax
and focus. Oh how the times have changed. Levi was also competing so thankfully
my brother and sister-in-law were willing to watch Lilyana while we competed.
I laced up my spikes
for the first time in almost 2 years and did a few strides and headed to the
line. I chatted with old friends and
started to feel relaxed. The stress was slowly leaving me. For the next 5
minutes the last thing on my mind would be the baby. Well I did look over at
her during the race as John was holding her up saying, “Go Mom!” But I couldn’t
resist and that little face just makes me feel so happy.
When the gun went
off I went out hard. I didn’t mean to but I got sucked in. My first 300 was a
52-53. Oops. I think the rest of my laps were 74’s. After the first 300m I got
stuck in no man’s land which seems to happen in every race I do lately. There
were girls ahead of me and girls behind me but no one to help break the wind.
With one lap to go, I suddenly felt amazing. I sped around a girl on the curve
then with 250m to go did not feel so amazing. I had a very strong urge to pee
and I did not want to pee my pants for a sub 5 minute 1500m at UW. Maybe if it
was for some big qualifier or a PR I would have. Girls came up beside me and I
resisted the urge to push and try to go with them though I’m not sure if I
could have. I think I may have been able to go a second or two faster in the
last lap if I didn’t have to pee but that’s it. I crossed the line in 4:44.44.
I put in my seed time of 4:45 figuring that’s the kind of shape I was in and I
was right!
After the race
Lilyana was fine. She didn’t starve to death. So since she was still content
with her Aunt and Uncle I went out to finish my workout. I did a 3 mile
LT/progression run on the Burke starting at 6:30 pace and finishing in a 6:00
mile. It felt surprisingly easy. When I was done Lilyana did not give me any
trouble eating. My stress was gone and I felt very happy and ready to sign up
for another track meet. I was happy I sucked it up before hand and didn’t
scratch. Amazing what endorphins can do.
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| (Helping me pick out my running shoes) |
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