Finally Five

Miles, that is.  I finally got up to five miles this week, and they were good, strong miles!  With a little consistency and cool weather I can feel my running coming back to me, and what a wonderful feeling! It is getting a little easier and starting to feel like it used to feel when I could run and push and enjoy the experience without feeling like every step was such an effort.

I ran 4.3 in the pouring rain on Monday.  I took Eloise to my sister's house and she held her while I ran up and down her street.  I took my iphone so Julie could call me should Eloise begin to fuss, but she never called.  I got soaked, but it felt great and my run was the strongest it has been since pregnancy with an average pace of 9:44 per mile.

On Tuesday Mom came and kept Eloise while I attempted my first 5 miler since having a baby.  SUCCESS! It was nice and cool and absolutely perfect.  I walked for 2 minutes to warm up, but still felt tired for the first 2 miles. I told myself to hang in there because I really wanted to make that 5 mile goal, and eventually it began to feel good.  Really good. 

Here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 10:43
Mile 2 - 10:12
Mile 3 - 9:51
Mile 4 - 9:41
Mile 5 - 9:19

That is exactly what I like to see and that is how most of my runs used to look, except with slightly faster times.  My plan is to not only push those splits back down to where they were before I got pregnant, but to surpass them.  I have some lofty goals, and I really look forward to pursuing them now that Little E is here.  I look forward to the hard work, to the improvement, and to the new adventures in running with my new little family by my side.

The splits above are not as fast as they were before pregnancy and they are even slower than where I hope to end up, but for now they are just perfect and they fill me with hope and excitement for the miles to come.