When will running be fun again?

Here I am....at the end of week 3. I finally got in all my miles this week, just not on the days that they were scheduled but I wasn't able to make it to the gym. Ahhhh. If it's not one thing, it's another. Someday I'll figure out how to balance my running and my family. Luckily right now I am not running long distances so I'm not away from the house for too long. I follow a lot of running moms/dads on Twitter....how do you do it!!?!?!?

So my runs this week haven't felt great. My legs feel heavy and dead. At times I feel like I am steps away from walking. However, my splits have gotten better each week. Why do I feel like crap when I'm running, but each run I'm making progress??

On my 4 mile run today I started thinking "When is running going to be fun again?". I had this thought when I was training for my half marathon last fall. I remember on a 5 mile run I started to wonder when all my training was going to start paying off and my runs weren't going to feel like hard work. I don't have to run. It's something I do because I want to. I know that every run won't always be easy, but I feel like some of them should be. I just need to stick with it and things will get better.

A co worker of mine is trying to lose the last 10lbs from having her baby and asked me how I get motivated to run. I told her, I just do it. I have a difficult race in 5 weeks and I know that if I don't go out and run I am going to die in the race and let my teammates down. Even though I am pumped to get back to running again, there are days I would rather sit home with my family instead of rush out the door as soon as my husband gets home from work so that I'm not out running in the dark or forced to run at the gym.

I have a 5 mile run scheduled for next weekend but I am debating running a local 10K with beer and pizza at the end:-) I figure I'll run my 5, try and run 6 but if I have to walk part of it I will. The course is pretty flat and I don't think it should be too bad. I have several friends that are running it so I think it would be fun. It's also the last day of my 8 week maternity leave, the next day I have to go back to work. Blah. Not happy about that. I've had some serious thoughts about being a drug dealing porn star and working from home:-)

Week 3 Recap:

Monday- 2 mile run 10:29 pace

Wednesday- 3 mile run 10:54 pace

Thursday- Abs and lunges

Saturday- 3.5 hour hike

Sunday- 4 mile run 10:20 pace

On a side note, Saturday I went on a hike around Hermit Island with my neighbors. We hiked for 3.5 hours and had soooo much fun! It was such a beautiful Maine day. My husband is renovating our kitchen so he stayed home and worked on the kitchen while Ty and I went out and played:-) We really missed him though.