Run, run, WORKING Mum! (Last two run recap)

Well, as I said on Facebook the other day, this mum is heading back to work on February 27th! I'm taking over a maternity leave position in a 4th grade dual language classroom in the area, until the end of the school year. It'll be a great experience, as two classes will come to me throughout the day, and I'll give instruction in English, and my partner teacher (across the hall) in Spanish. At least a quarter of the kids are ESL, and they're all super sweet. Oliver will be at day care with a friend of his from Stroller Strides, and I'm really happy with the center (as opposed to the first place I visited - YIKES!)

Last Sunday, I was supposed to do 5 miles. After I put O down for a nap, I headed out from the house (it was freeeeezing) and it unfortunately took 3.9 miles for my GPS watch to find a signal. Note to self: turn it on before I go feed him so it has time to locate the satellites.  I did a loop that's pretty familiar, and has sidewalks for 90% of the way. I estimated it would be about 5 miles, seeing as my Garmin wasn't functioning, and when I put it into Mapmyrun it came up as 4.8. It took me 41:12 (my watch still kept track of time while it was looking for the signal...), so that boils down to 8:35/mile. Not bad for about 20 degrees and 20 mph winds! (I did wear the rob-a-bank head/face thingy, people were definitely looking at me strangely...)

This morning, Oliver and I set off to SUNY Purchase to do the 3.1 mile loop up there (plus a little extra) to make it an even 7 miles. If anyone is familiar with the campus, and the loop around, you know that there is a difficult hill (it is 0.21 miles long, eeks!) that I hit between 2-3 and 5-6. Plus, on one half of the loop there I had some major headwinds (miles 2 and 5).  As you can see by the breakdown, my times were all over the place!

Mile 1 - 8:02

Mile 2 - 9:10

Mile 3 -9:19

Mile 4 - 8:29

Mile 5 - 8:44

Mile 6 - 9:07

Mile 7 -9:11

TOTAL:  1:02:02

Average: 8:51/mile

Although the last time I ran 7 miles I did it in just over two minutes faster, half of those miles were without the stroller, and it was a LOT flatter of a course. Just like I almost always say, "I'll take it!"

Next Sunday, I'm supposed to do 9 miles.... which will be interesting.... not only because I haven't run that far in a LOOOOONG time, but because it's going to be the day after Oliver's birthday party, and we will have my in-laws and my dad/step-mom in town. At least that probably means I can run sans stroller? We'll see!