Working Out With Kids - The Dream

To keep you all updated, I have run four times and each time my body has felt incrementally more comfortable back on the road.  This morning I ran a mile and a quarter and hope to find time to do a mile and a half on Friday.  I am still working towards a 5k in the next couple of weeks.  And living vicariously through my friends and former teammates as they finish up their summer race seasons.  Last year at this time... (no, we don't need to go there today).

So far the biggest challenge with running is just getting dressed and out the door.  Mara is very fussy in the evenings so for my last two runs my husband helped me get the run done in the mid-morning between his conference calls and his departure for work downtown.  This helped enormously since I wasn't nearly as beat down before starting the run.  By evenings I'm ready to call it a night but still have hours of rocking and bouncing ahead of me so running wasn't nearly as attractive.  Getting a shower earlier in the day has been a nice side bonus to running early.  I've only attempted this on days when Oren is away at school, my so called "easy" days.  I'm not sure I'll be so lucky this weekend.

Even more challenging, my husband will be out of the country for work next week.  Everything will feel a lot more difficult but getting out for a run will be nearly impossible... if not for the fabulous Farmington Hills YMCA.  I love our YMCA and one of the bonuses we discovered post-Oren is that they have free child care for up to two hours (FREE!  Who does child care for FREE?!).  Children have to be over six weeks old.  I haven't taken Oren much because he doesn't really like to be left there.  I'm going to start taking him anyway though and hopefully he'll warm up to it.  Before attempting to re-introduce Oren though, I will take Mara for the first time next week.  I can do my run and (bonus!) get a shower!  Looking forward to those short little "survival" breaks.  I hope Mara treats the Y staff well.

I attempted Baby Om yoga this week but we only got through the first one and a half poses before Mara was wailing.  She is just NOT a fan of being put down- any time, any where.  I'm working with her on this.  Hopefully we can get further the next time we try.  I think I need to run through the sequence of poses a few times on my own though.  When we tried it the first time I had to spend a lot of time going back and forth between her position, my position and the book's guidelines.  It was tricky and not very practical, much less relaxing.  Still, a worthwhile goal for quality time with her awake.

I still need to work my strength & stretching exercises in to rebuild my hips and knees.  This morning I decided I should find time to do them with Oren.  I'm sure he'd have a very fun reaction and take on working out with me.  I might try to see what kind of fun strengthening activities I can find on the dusty Wii Fit too.  He loves that balance board and we have barely used it.  I will have to find a time when Mara is either sleeping soundly or hanging out calmly but Oren is still awake and happy.  This will be a challenge!

Finally, in my grand scheme of athlete mommy ideas- I would really like to run the Detroit Turkey Trot this year with all four of us.  My husband and I ran it and had a blast but have never run it with the kiddos.  We have a single BOB jogging stroller and Tom would go and run with Oren this year if he can.  I think it would be a lot more fun to borrow a double or another single jogging stroller and run with all four of us. We'll see if we can make it work.  We're not currently planning to buy a double as it is enough work just running with Oren.  But for races, it would be great to have the option for both of us to get to run together as it is really something we both enjoy (and hope our kids will in the future)!

All these plans, now it is a matter of finding the determination and creativity to fit them in!