Two-a-Days = One Tired Mama

The good news first: I had an awesome 7 mile run today. And I mean awesome! I haven't felt that strong in a long time. It was like "old times" - when I used to run 5-7 mile runs on weekdays and feel really good.  I did that for years and years, back in my marathon days. Seems so long ago now!

And that's not all: I also did Master's swim this morning. I only swam about 1500 yards but it felt great. As usual, I had to leave by 7:00 to get the kids to school but I did the main set and I was very happy about that.  We did two 250's, two 200's, two 150's, two 100's, two 50's, all at race pace with about 30 seconds in between (after a 500 yard warmup).

The not-so-good news (or should I say the reality check) is that I can hardly move now. This is the difference between training when you are almost 49 and training when you are 29 or 39. I can still do it, but it takes longer to recover.

My younger training partners don't seem to get this. They seem to think I can run what they do and feel fine. Not!  There is a definite difference in recovery time (and energy level, sleep, mood, and sex drive, but that's another story) when you approach 50. Like I said earlier, you can still do the training but you get sore-er, faster. As my kids would say, it's more better to be younger.

Then again, all of my running and endurance training has paid off in other ways. I'm fairly smart about what I need to do to accomplish my goals and I know darn well how one day can feel significantly different from the next. Every runner will tell you that you can run like the wind one day and feel like a turtle the next. Its the nature of the beast.

So, its rest, ice, and Celebrex for me today (icing my hip). And since this blog is about training and parenting at the same time, I'm off to the school to pick up my two punks plus 3 others. All five kids will terrorize hang out at my house for a few hours and then I take 3 of them to church and the other 2 to soccer practice.

Such is the life of an Iron Quest Mama. Ha!