Schizophrenic Romp

Don't ask me what my goal was for this run.  Or in general anymore.  I'm getting a little worried that I won't be ready to run 15-20 miles March 4-6 at the Texas Independence Relay, and I'm feeling on my recent fast intervals like my leg muscles are just SO weak right now.  And I miss my ab muscles. :-( (note that I lost my pregnancy weight extremely fast, but the shape of any mom postpartum is NOT the same; with stretched out ab muscles, it's like the original Libby repackaged in a sack, instead of a box.)  Double :-(

So maybe I do need to sprinkle in some slower miles just to get back some strength and some stamina at the same time.  I just can't get comfortable at that slower pace.  I'm determined to come back faster postpartum.

So today was a schizophrenic romp of 4.5 miles.  A combo of the following:

• 0.05 mile walking warmup
• 1 mile run continuously! Yea, that's my first continuously run mile postpartum! Pace was 11:21
• 0.25 mi walk break - my upper back was so tight! I am not used to swinging my arms back and forth for any length of time at all.  Stretched and it got a little better.
• 4 intervals totalling 0.53 miles at ~9 min pace with walk breaks between. 0.16 @ 8:49 pace, 0.14 @ 8:45 pace, 0.11 @ 9:10 pace, 0.12 @ 8:54 pace.
• Combo of little bit of running and a lot of walking the rest of the way as I wanted to not just do a couple miles total and had done 2.25 miles out so that I HAD to do 2.25 miles back.  Try to get in a decent total mileage to work some endurance on the legs.  Glutes, inner thighs, calves, and balls of feet were hurting so didn't want to do more than the 4.5 miles. These muscles have not been used in months.

So part of me thinks total mileage is important, part thinks continuous running regardless of pace is important, and part of me thinks fast pace intervals are important. Sigh. I'll keep exploring and will figure out what I need.  I'm impatient, have deadlines, and just want to get back to it quickly but with improvement of a faster pace too! Grr.