My husband’s American Airlines flight was canceled due to some IT difficulties and he was unable to book another because everyone was trying to do the same, which limited the number of available flights.  While still on edge from the Boston marathon bombing, I was so relieved to have him home.

Between FCAT, my youngest daughter behaving poorly at school and my husband’s traveling, the past few weeks have been so stressful and I so glad to have it all behind us now.  Throw the Boston bombings on top and I felt so riddled with anxiety, which only a good night sleep or a good run could fix.

Since I knew I would be running with my kids’ running club and also participating in a trial Stroller Strides class with my moms group, I decided to sleep in on Wednesday morning.  It seemed that the stress was draining me and I needed the rest.

The Stroller Strides class led by Regina, a sweet little pregnant instructor, was fun.  Even Liam enjoyed it!  I wasn’t sure how he would do sitting in a stroller watching Mommy work-out, but he seemed to like it or perhaps he liked making faces at me.  I enjoyed soaking in the sun while exercising.

We met at the trail and after an introductions and a warm-up, we did a short jog.  We stopped between runs for intervals, like lunges and squats singing toddler songs like “The Ants Go Marching” or bandwork singing ABC’s  or “Hurry, Hurry! Drive the Fire Truck!” (Liam’s favorite)   I appreciated all the strengthening exercises, but I thought they were a bit easy.  Or at least I thought they were a bit easy until the next day.  Man, my legs were sore for two days. I guess I could use a bit more toddler song lunges.  Expect a vlog post about that soon!

Later that afternoon, I ran a couple miles with my girls at running club.  It was crazy hot, but I encouraged the kids to keep running Boston Strong.

Thursday, I ran 6 miles. I tried to do a tempo run but my PF heels couldn’t handle it or maybe my heart wasn’t it to it, because I still had Boston on the brain.  Whatever was going on in my brain (Boston bombings and bad behavior) had me deep in thought, however, that concentration quickly broke when a poodle came charging at me. I jumped back into a body combat stance and nearly kicked the mutt in the head. The flat of my foot was inches away from that poor pooch’s snout before he whimpered off back to his house and all I could think was “Chamber your knee!”  But it’s like I always say, all dogs look like Cujo when they come charging at you and a kickboxing Kung Fu kick is literally my knee-jerk reaction.

6 miles
Time 1:02:19
Ave Pace 10:03
Max Pace 7:52

Saturday and Sunday, I slept in. Again, I just wasn’t on my game.  But Monday, I needed to shake off whatever funk I was feeling and get my head back into running along with the rest of the country.  All across the nation, runners met to run #BostonStrong and Fitniche Running Stores hosted our local #BostonStrongTampa.  Proudly wearing blue and yellow (Boston colors), my girls and I joined the run at the Shops of Wiregrass location along with over 400 other runners.  It was truly a tear-jerking sight.

*Photo credit to Fitniche*

We ran along the main boulevard of the mall and exited out onto a road for the long mile stretch. I let my girls set the pace along the 3.1 mile course but encouraged them to stay with it.

My girls wanted to walk more than I would have liked to, but I was just so proud of them for even wanting to be part of this moment.  It was so wonderful to see runners of all abilities out there showing love for Boston.

I even saw a few Striders (Kim, Rachel and Christina) out there.  I loved bumping into them during the run.  Of course, they passed me and my junior running group.

At the mile and a half point, we stopped for water provided by Fitniche and the girls ran the second half even stronger.  Once we reached the entrance to the mall, I told them they had to run back to the running store without stopping, which they did.

Surprisingly, Emmalynn snuck a sprint in the last tenth of mile (just like her mama).  When we reached the finish line she said, “I finished STRONG, mama!”

“You mean you finished BOSTON STRONG!”  It was a true proud mama moment.

3.2 miles
Time 47:56
Ave Pace 15:05
Max Pace 7:17 (Emmalynn’s sprint)

This morning, I ran sprints.  Funny thing with my speedwork, I’m not showing any progress.  I think it may be time to bump it up to 6 x 400 sprints and to push myself a bit more.

1 mile warm up
Time 9:57

Lap 1 – 0.25 mile
Time 1:55
Ave Pace 7:44

Lap 2 – 0.25 mile
Time 1:55
Ave Pace 7:44

Lap 3 – 0.25 mile
Time 1:54
Ave Pace 7:34

Lap 4 – 0.25 mile
Time 1:52
Ave Pace 7:34

1.1 mile cool down
Time 10:36
Ave Pace 9:41

Total Time 28:13
Total Distance 3.1
Ave Pace 9:07

Is Boston on your brain these days or are you staying Boston Strong?

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