Just go with the flow...

I get busy and then I feel like I fall off track.  It's a vicious cycle.  These past few weeks have been great and busy.  I tackled the transition back to work from maternity leave- go me!  I felt like I had a few hiccups but overall it all went well.  The wee one tackled the transition out of her co-sleeper and into her own room- go baby! And then my mileage tanked with all of that commotion. There was not a whole lot to "tank" from, but it had taken a decent amount of work to get up to my 12 miles per week after not running at all through the second half of my pregnancy. It took pretty much all of my 12 weeks of maternity leave to be able to tackle some of the hills on even the short 2-3 mile runs, but I was making progress and happy about it.

I have been back to work for 3 weeks now and the running has dropped to 2-3 runs per week of 2-2.5 miles each with a circuit or two in between running days.  My head was spinning as to when else I can squeeze more mileage in and I was obsessing over my pace when running to the point of frustration.  My better half and I have different days off from work so we can't trade off the kiddos on the weekend days and night feedings are still in effect- our oldest bundle was sleeping through the night by now but #2 has her own plan and she is sticking to it!  I started feeling stressed about it and decided to stop my insanity.  I remembered this awesome quote from a fantastic book, Born to Run:

“Ask nothing from your running, and you'll get more than you ever imagined!”

~Christopher MacDougall

Source

 

Those words are exactly what I need to remember right now.  I too often take my hobby, outlet & "me-time" activity and turn it into stress when I fall short of my expectations.  I love structured training plans and working towards a goal like a particular race or finishing time, but it's just not that time for me right now and that's ok.  I'm going to enjoy running! I am going to get as many running endorphins as I can, let the rest go, soak in the fall air and see where it takes me.  I just got back this morning from an early and quiet 3 miles.  I was able to arrange the feeding and work departure schedules to squeeze something in at 6.  I love early morning runs.  Hooray!

Oh- My boss likes my new philosophy...

 

 She's the cutest, right?

Do you ever feel like you need to throw in "the plan" & just run for fun or go with the flow of your fitness endeavors?

Have a great week!