How can it be that I'm only on my first week and I'm already making excuses for why I just can't go run. Yesterday was no exception. When the alarm went off at 5.15 am, I was barely able to get out of bed. I went to the bathroom and spent eternity just staring into the distance as there was no brain activity going on whatsoever. I felt beyond exhausted and I knew that there was just no way I would manage to put my running gear on and go for a run. I was trying to figure out whether to take the morning off completely when my 5-year-old came to the bathroom announcing that he'd peed in his bed. That finally fired up some electrons in my brain and I went into the mommy mode. My first thought went to the hot chocolate he'd drunk right before bed time and already in my head I swore that I'd never let him drink it again that late at night.

I told my son to get into the shower and then get back to bed. He insted that he wanted to take a bath. Seriously, who wants to take a bath at 5.25 in the morning?! While the bath water was running I went to check the damage in Mr. A's bed. The bed was completely dry and so was his underwear that he had conveniently just dropped on the floor. I went back to the bathroom and asked him where he thought he had peed. He just looked back at me like I was growing two heads. After a quick bath I told Mr. A to get back to bed but that he could go sleep next to his dad. I even went and tucked him in but after a few minutes I found him glue to my hip because he "was scared". Seriously?!! By that time I'd decided that rather than taking the day off, I'd do IT Band exercises so off to the basement I went with my son still glued to my hip. I was unlucky enough to injure my IT band the last time I was training for a marathon and while I finished the race I could barely walk for over a week and it took me months to get back to running. I went for a couple of PT sessions and got some exercise tips. I lost them at some point but when I was browsing the internet recently I came accross this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ydcy3dPf__M), which reminded me of the exercises that my PT suggested. So I've tried to do these 2-3 times a week. I also got a foam roller. I'm hoping the foam roller, strenght training and IT Band exercises will save me from any injuries this time around.

I debated all day at work whether I would actually go for a run after I got home. On the way home I almost fell asleep on the train and I basically made up my mind that I wouldn't go. I got home and while I was cutting up and putting in containers the endless amount of chicken that I had cooked the previous night I made up my mind that I just can't not go. This is my first week, for Pete's sake!

The agenda for the day was a 5-mile pace run. Basically it means running that distance at a pace you expect to run your race. My goal is to run the marathon in under 4 hours (3:59:59 to be exact) so that puts me at about 9:07 min/mile. Now, while I've been training in the past, I've never managed to push myself to actually run any of my runs at a race pace but I decided to give it a try. I started fast and by about a mile my pace tapered off to about 8 min/mile and then it was hill after hill and I knew I couldn't keep up the pace but at the same time I was nice to know that I could slow down considerably and still make my time. My average pace ended up being about 8.48 min/mile, which made me happy. I finished the run in 43:31.