Links Of The Week

I meant to publish this post earlier in the week, but time slipped away and I was off to celebrate Thanksgiving! 

Here are some good links of the week to give you food for thought, 

Jen and Liz have a new podcast up.... topic:  running!

Another fabulous Rich Roll podcast on the Champions Blueprint by Jeff Spencer.  I have listened to it twice and plan to sit down and take notes on it!

A good interview with Wattie and HJ for age groupers and pros on sponsorship

Follow an amazing journey this weekend as Hillary Biscay goes back to Ultraman (6.2 mile S/ 264.1 mile B/ 52.4 miles R)!  You can follow some live updates here.   Right now she is in the lead!!!

Some great posts lately by Sonja Wieck- check out her blog!

Check In

The holiday season is here- busy, busy, busy!!  Time is moving so quickly I can hardly keep up!  I have a to-do list a mile long, and when I knock one thing off, three more take its place.   I keep meaning to blog, I swear!  I am still doing the normal- mommy, wife, work, and training. 

It is getting cold here.  20s and 30s coming up...which to us Southerners is cold.  Looks like most of my training will be moving indoors.  And guess who ran 90 minutes on the treadmill today?  That was not a typo.  90.  The longest run I have ever done on a treadmill. 

Speaking of cold, it sure is fun to snuggle with my little sweetheart when I go to the grocery store.  We have been having so much fun lately just getting in the sling and going out. 

Dave and I changed up our nighttime routine a smidge (as evidenced by my sweet, but tired child above) so we could go on a family date tonight.  Family life is rocking on.    :)

xo

Motivation Returning

I am getting the itch to train and race again.  This is great news!  I have tried to be patient in letting it come back to me, and I am now welcoming it with open arms.  I am looking forward to my workouts and plotting how to do more.  After all of this time off, it feels wonderful to have some true motivation return.

Isla is still nursing every two hours....and yup, that includes the nighttime too.  I give myself a gold star for holding up with the lack of sleep.  Dave has a long work day, and this will never change.  I am tired, and it is tough, but I am figuring it out and having fun.  I find that I am getting a little more creative with fitting in training and it doesn't seem as stressful as it did a month ago.  Every month I am doing a little bit better.  I still have such a long way to go fitness-wise to even get to the starting line of a race, but I am grateful for every little training session I complete.  Just doing the work every day will get me there.

Hmmmm...so what next?  I have started to make my "wish list" for racing, and we will see what happens!  

On the home front:
Isla still only naps about 25 minutes.  If I hold her, I can eek out an hour, but then I can't do anything during that time.  We are starting to take some naps in the crib just to get her use to it as a sleeping space.  (She normally sleeps in the co-sleeper, in my arms, or tucked in bed with me).  Today she took a small nap in the crib, and then I heard her playing.  I walked in to see her eating her pictures.  I guess those black and white brain stimulation patterns I have in her crib work after all, although someone needs to tell her we don't eat animal meat around here. 

She is now loving to blow raspberries and taste her feet.  She has also found fascination in the dogs and is constantly laughing at them or trying to grab their fur.  We are starting to have lots of fun over here.  :)

xo

"Stuff" For the Week

Some good stuff to occupy your week:

• Another great podcast by Jen and Liz.  Check it out!

• There is nothing for me to say but simply....WOW!  2:52 marathon by our friend and running stud Angela Kidd on a hilly course.  

• Smashfest Queen is going to make some team look really sharp next year.  If you want it to be your team, enter here.

• Another good interview with Dirk Bockel.  He discussion on really enjoying and sampling all of the races out there in the world resonates with me.  Challenge Roth is absolutely on my to-do list.  

• Non-triathlon related, but Dogs 2nd Chance could really use some donations to keep their rescue alive.  This is the organization that helped me to rescue Alton.  I can't thank them enough.  If you are in the charitable mood, send a few dollars their way in thanks from Damie and Alton.   

We are surviving and sometimes thriving over here.  I have finally found the carriers that work for Isla and me:  the pouch sling, the ring sling, and the ergo side carrying position.  What didn't work (As of today- it is ever changing) was the Moby, the Sleepy Wrap, and the Baby Bjorn.  So, if you are getting a carrier for your baby, make sure to try a few out before you commit.

My big parenting goal this week is to get all of the cloth diapers in rotation so we are really only using disposables at daycare but cloth the rest of the time.  Right now we are at about 50%, and I know we can do better.  Exciting stuff, I know, but I am on a mission to make our lifestyle more consistent with what I feel in my heart for protecting the earth. 

My training goal?  To just get the workouts in.  :)

Post Partum Running Mission Complete

Sunday I completed the Road Race Series as well as my new mom journey to return to running by finishing a half marathon.  I can now officially say I am back to running after finishing 13.1 (or 13.29 in my case because no matter how hard I try I can't seem to run the tangents correctly). 

I started off nice and easy and found a pace I could hold the whole way. 

And hold it I did, with basically even splits for a 1:54.  And I must say that I am glad the Road Race Series is over for me.  A half marathon was pushing it a bit for my body.  By the last 3 miles or so, I was very aware at how my body was not quite ready to handle the pounding just yet.  My bones hurt.  My c-sect area hurt.  Part of running is the adaptation to the pounding that simply comes from miles, especially road miles.  I don't have that yet, but I'll get there.

So, here is the chart of the Road Race Series progress with pace and distance for me.  (the 10 miler is a bit of an outlier as it is not only a huge jump from a 10k, but it is also a on a very hilly course).   It was great to quadruple my distance as well as knock my pace down by 2 minutes per mile.

Below is a chart with my run miles post pregnancy.  These miles are very low for me, and very low for racing, half marathons, and such.  I could handle more miles physically, but training is still taking a huge backseat to family right now.  So, a new goal for me will simply be to add some miles over the upcoming months.

Whew! So that is over.  It was hard.  It was hard to make myself run when I was am? so out of shape.  But, it was fun to see my running get easier and faster every time as well.

So now I am looking forward to doing more of this kind of running:

 This is me 2 weeks ago at Wade's Big Adventure.  Trail running=happy!

It is time to just get some miles on these legs!!!