Baby Cakes

A few weeks ago I called Eli "Baby Cakes" and due to Darius' keen observation skills, the name has stuck. Poor Baby Cakes has woken up feeling under the weather, and not afraid to complain about it! He wants cuddles, "milkies" (yes, we have a nickname for nursing in our house, again due to Darius), and attention. None of these are bad things - I love to shower my kids with attention, sometimes too much! - but they do make sticking to my training schedule tricky. Saturday's are my LSD days (see my training schedule here) and today's Long Slow Distance was 6.0 miles. At 9:45am I hopped on the treadmill after soothing Eli to sleep, got just over half way through, then hopped off the treadmill to continue the soothing. I didn't get back to running until 12:45pm, having to wait for his sweet eyes to finally close, and finished the run. It is NOT easy to complete long runs with small children, (and the break in the middle makes getting back on the treadmill more of a mental work out) but worth it in the end.

Here's today's breakdown:


First Set                             Second Set
Treadmill                             Treadmill

Incline:2%                            Incline: 2%

Warm Up: 5 minutes                    Warm Up: 5 minutes
Cool Down: none                       Cool Down: 5 minutes
Total Distance: 3.30 miles            Total Distance: 3.03 miles

Total Time: 34:54                     Total Time: 33:06

Total Time and Distance:  1:08:00  6.33 miles       

During the first set I tried Jeff Galloway's suggestion of 4 minutes running 30 seconds walking to go faster, further, and for longer. I tend to push myself too hard with this method currently, so I need to refine it to make it work for me. Using my long runs to tweak my pacing, and nutrition for race day makes my races go smoother, so if there is anything I want to try out, I always save it for Saturday. I highly recommend trying out anything you are planning on doing on race day BEFORE race day (including when/what to eat. I DO NOT recommend granola before running...just trust me.)

Baby Cakes is still sleeping, hopefully kicking his congestion in the butt! Do you face any challenges with getting your runs in? Is Saturday your LSD day? or Do you save these mileage builders for another day?