At 3:50 am on December 16, Viviana Rose Stewart joined our family. Our little princess has been absolutely wonderful; but with every new addition there has to be some subtraction. While Kristen was in the hospital after giving birth, and the 5 or so days after we brought Vivi home I couldn’t find the time to sneak in a run – of any length. 11 days in total without hitting the road at all left me feeling very antsy to get in a run, and with the PF Chang’s Rock ‘N Roll Marathon in a few weeks I was really worried about getting some miles in.
As I was having Christmas dinner with friends & family, Roger (a multiple marathoner) wondered if I’d lost it and would be starting over after almost 2 weeks of relative inactivity. I took that question as a bit of a challenge, and made sure to hit the road today. With my parents and son in town, I took the kid and my dad out for a bike ride while I ran along. I put in a solid 8 miles and felt awesome. A little past a mile in, it felt like I was visiting an old friend — or putting on an old comfy sweatshirt. The rest of the run was pure bliss. Tomorrow I’m planing to climb Camelback Mountain with Ian and my dad tomorrow, then 13-16 miles on Sunday. I know my schedule is way off; but I feel “back on track” for now.