The Connection Runners

MCM Monday #2: Square Peg in a Round Hole

If Week 2 of MCM training were a test, I probably would've earned a C+. It's like, I know I could've done better, but in the end, C's get degrees, right? Right.

Week 2 Recap:
Sunday: Off
Monday: Off
Tuesday: 3 mi @ 9:31 (treadmill)
Wednesday: 4 mi @ 9:38
Thursday: Off
Friday: 3 mi @ 9:25
Saturday: 9 mi @ 9:52

Week 2 Notes
The runs that I did do felt pretty good - decent, even pacing, didn't feel like completely dying. However, I had to deviate from the schedule a bit due to time and weather constraints. The weather last week was all Total Recall; if you went outside for more than five minutes, I swear your head would explode from the heat and humidity.

Week 2 Marathon Musing: Square Peg in a Round Hole
No, not this Square Peg:

Who doesn't love a little old-school SJP on a Monday?

But I digress.

Marathon training is often an exercise in fitting a square peg in to a round hole. For me, at least, it's all about trying to jam in what I can, when I can, where I can. Usually, it doesn't quite fit with the rest of my life, but I put on my finest 3-piece suit and try to go all Tim Gunn on that bitch to "make it work."

Sometimes, this involves being very uncomfortable on runs (i.e., I just downed a hefty breakfast but then realized my LSD-run window was closing soon). Other times, it's pushing the pace a bit so I can get back to my family faster (i.e., sing "Let's Eat Cereal" to the tune of "Let's Get Physical" to Charlotte while she hammers down oatmeal).

Back in the months of delirious maternity leave, I wrote about having flexibility with my fitness regimen, I think with hopes that by this time, Charlotte's six-month birthday, we'd have more of a schedule. Dreams of sunrise runs and post-mileage smoothies consumed while watching Sesame Street with Charlotte clearly clouded my judgement, because our days look nothing like that.

As I try to jam as many square pegs into fewer round holes, here's what runs look like these days:

  • Early evening jaunts around my neighborhood after Kevin gets home from work. These runs are reserved for short, easy days.
  • Treadmill runs at the gym while Charlotte toughs it out with fellow gym daycare orphans. Despite my constant over-the-shoulder-while-on-the-treadmill checks for angry gym employees coming to find me, Charlotte has survived our visits with minimal catastrophe.
  • Six-thirty a.m. wakeup runs before Kevin goes to work, except there's usually no sunrise, and lukewarm Early Grey tea stands in for fruity smoothies that I have no time to make.
  • Saturday long runs done as soon as Charlotte wakes up for the day and eats. She and Kevin write To-Do Lists and clean up the house while I'm gone, and for two hours in the week, I'm just running free of charge.
It's scattered, it's inconsistent, it's Sarah Jessica Parker before she discovered Manolos and Big, but it works, and in the business of training for a marathon while still training as a Mom, it's what will get me to the start line on October 28.

How do you make it work? Anyone know Tim Gunn for real? That eyebrow would surely get me out the door much quicker.