Where's my mojo?

If you have seen my motivation, can you please return it to me?

This summer I am again volunteering as a half marathon pace group leader. It's my fourth year of this gig. It's typically been a lot of fun. What that means is that every Saturday morning I meet up with my co-group leader and we lead the week's "long" run with a bunch of runners who show up. The "long" run is just one of a few runs that are done each week over a period of a couple of months to get ready for a half marathon, which is 13.1 miles. We have a few people who have done halfs previously, though others who have not, so it's a pretty laid back group. So this week we will jump to 9 miles on Saturday, gulp. The training schedule coincides with my efforts to get back into running after having a baby in March, as it did two years ago after having my now-toddler in April of that year.

But unlike my last post-partum comeback, during which I ran a half four months after giving birth, I'm all over the place this time around. I'm still wrestling with sciatica from my recent pregnancy, though it's getting better, which has made me cautious about doing speedwork or upping mileage too much. My weekday runs are kind of all over the place -- when I had a job, it forced me to get up pre-dawn and cram in my runs. Now, I find myself procrastinating, thinking Oh I can just run later... and sometimes I actually do it. And sometimes I don't.  I ran the last three days in a row after a week in Florida (where I ran exactly once for three miles, pathetic). And I was dying on all three runs.

I know what I have to do. I have to get back to a consistent run schedule. And hopefully I will land a job soon and be able to afford to register for some races. I've run eight half marathons since I began running them in 2007. I gotta get out of this slump and run at least eight more, right? I would just feel like a better group leader if I had my own running act together.