Week 2 of ultra training is officially in the books! It doesn’t really feel that much like ultra training yet since my miles are still so low, I am hoping to ramp up to 50+ miles per week as we get closer to race day. For now I will take the progress as it comes. My long runs are getting progressively longer and my short runs are getting faster so I can’t complain. I just need to remind myself to keep showing up and eventually we will get there.

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Monday: Quick strength training session.

Tuesday: Took myself out in the dark for 5 miles with hill repeats. Lucky for me I live at the top of a hill so it’s not hard to find a good hill to run up and down. I am feeling stronger and stronger on hills and that makes me happy.

Wednesday: Rest Day, not really intended but couldn’t pry myself away from a warm bed and a snuggly baby. Emmy did enjoy getting out for our first snow of the season.

Thursday: Easy 3.5 miles with 5 x 20 sec strides. Although I would always rather be outside I jumped on the treadmill for this one. As the light goes away and the temps drop I will have to make better friends with the treadmill.

Friday: Quick strength training and hike with Cannon and Emerald. It’s so nice to get out on these sunny fall days, Cannon is getting better and better at hiking.

Saturday: We were forecasted to have our first snowstorm roll in early Sunday morning so I moved my long run up so I could enjoy snow free trails. 10 miles on my local route felt good, so much better (and over a minute per mile faster) than last time I ran that same workout!

Sunday: I was scheduled to run 5 easy with strides in the last mile so I bundled up and headed out into the snow.

I was so cold and a little worried about slipping in the ice and snow so I called it at 4.5 miles with no strides. I guess I wasn’t completely ready for winter running yet.

Do you love running in the snow?

Happy Running Everyone!

Here we go…….I finally set my sights on my first race after having Emerald. The Arches Ultra 50k has been on my radar for a while and it seemed like a good race to jump into post baby.

I haven’t completely set my 2019 race calendar but Arches feels like a good first step. I will likely be running lower milage than some would training for a 50k as I am easing in post baby. I am pretty excited to have something on the calendar.

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Monday: Easy 3 miles in the afternoon with Cory and the babies. I am so excited that Cory’s Achilles has healed enough for us to start running together. I am happy for him as he loves running and for our family that we all get to go together. As usual there is park stop so Cannon can play.

Tuesday: Up early to run on the treadmill, 6 x 800 repeats to keep things interesting. Who doesn’t love to Netflix and treadmill?

Wednesday: Rest Day, soaking in all the extra baby snuggles.

Thursday: Spin class and a quick strength training session.

Friday: Cory had the day off and the weather was about to turn so we headed to the foothills in Boulder for a hike. Cannon did a great job, he hiked/ran over half of our hike. He is growing up so fast it makes me weepy.

After naps, we took the kids out for an afternoon run, Cory is still limiting his distance so he took the kids home after 3 miles, I added an extra 1.3 miles with strides.

Saturday: Five solo miles in the morning, ended the last mile with 5 x 20 seconds strides.

Sunday: Again out early for an easy 8 miles. Things are still slow and building up conservatively but I ran this same route a month ago about a minute per mile slower so I am happy to see progress.

My plan is to not worry too much about paces or comparisons to where I used to be, I just want to keep showing up, giving what I have and seeing where I end up.

Happy Running Everyone!

Since we are now in the 5th week of the semester (WHAT?!?) I would have hoped that I would be in a better groove by now but I am still searching for the perfect routine where I feel like I am getting in all of my training and not dropping other important parts of my life. Right now it feels like I am dropping balls all the time, so it might be time to evaluate priorities and decide what can stay on my plate and what can go, but for now I will just keep trying to show up when I can. The cracks in my day where I used to train or work feel so much smaller now.

This was a cutback week before real training begins next week for my first big race back (YAY!)

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Monday: Spin class! I could go spin on my bike in the basement but it’s so much nicer to go to a class with other people and have an instructor tell me what to do. I have been focusing on lower resistance and higher cadence to give my legs some recovery from running.

Tuesday: 30 minute strength training. This could also be called dinking around picking things up and putting them down. I haven’t really committed to a strength program and I really need to make it a priority. Anyone have and programs that the love?

Wednesday: Up early for an easy 3.2 mile run with 4 x 30 second strides in the last mile.

Thursday: FAIL…missed my easy run.

Friday: Up early to head to spin class before we took the kids to Vail for Oktoberfest. We all had a great time but Cannon seemed to be having the most fun running and climbing all over the fountains in Vail Village. 

Emmy was a champ hanging out with us and sleeping in her carrier, she is just the best baby!

Saturday: Saturday I took the full rest day in favor of getting some chores done, even though I didn’t need it and missed my run on Thursday. This was my last prep week before real training starts so I let it slide.

Sunday: I have been waiting for this for over a year!

As soon as I found out I was pregnant last August I started daydreaming about running with both kiddos. We purchased a double Thule Cougar and got an infant sling for Emmy so she could ride along. We only take her on easy runs and are sure to be careful. But just a month after Emmy was born Cory ruptured his Achilles and was sidelined from all activities. Once I was cleared to run I took both kids out myself but we haven’t been out as a family of four until just recently. Cory was cleared by his doctor to slowly start running again. He is taking it easy with very slow, short runs to start. I am so excited to have my running buddy back and I am looking forward to many runs as a family.

Happy Running Everyone!

After two weeks out of town it’s been a bit of a shock to come back home and jump back into working and a new semester. I will admit that I was a bit overwhelmed adjusting to working and getting two kids ready for the day but hopefully we will find a good rhythm soon. It feels good to start to get into a schedule and start thinking about what races I want to train for!

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Monday: I had planned to go to spin class in the morning but my gym was closed for the week so I took a rest day instead.

Tuesday: First day back to work, I left my run to the evening after the kids went to bed (thanks summer for still being light out). 3 easy miles with some strides thrown in during the last mile.

Wednesday: Early morning strength training and easy spin on the trainer. It felt so weird to be back on my TT bike.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: 4 miles with 10 by 30 second intervals. I didn’t feel great on this run but having intervals kept things interesting.

Saturday: 3 easy miles pushing the babe

Sunday: Long run Sunday only clocks in at 6 miles these days but you have to start somewhere and this is just the begining.

Happy Running Everyone!

I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked if I am breastfeeding my baby, here in Boulder there is a lot of mom-shaming if you aren’t. I actually got the feeling they might not let me leave the hospital with my baby if I wasn’t planning to breastfeed her (not REALLY but there was a lot of pressure).

When I respond that, yes, I am breastfeeding my baby often times the response is oh great, the weight will just FALL off. When this is said I can’t help but feel my eye twitch and blood pressure rise a little. This is decidedly not the case for me and many other women I know. Serena Williams has talked openly with her struggles with weight loss and breastfeeding. Here is another article explaining some of the reasons.

It was harder the first time when breastfeeding wasn’t helping me lose weight and in fact seemed to impede my weight loss attempts. I had heard for so long how it helps so much and how the baby weight would just melt off. I did struggle with my supply with Cannon I worked hard to get my supply up enough to feed Cannon and have a freezer supply for him for when I went back to work. But no matter how I ate or exercised the weight barley budged. By the time Cannon was 10 months old my supply was drying up and Cannon didn’t care too much about nursing, he was happy to take a bottle. I was emotional about stopping, there was guilt about not making it to the one year mark but I had a freezer stash and it just wasn’t working for us anymore.

The one lucky thing was that I didn’t have any trouble weaning, we just stopped and my supply dried up, no need to slowly taper our feedings. That’s when things shifted, my hormones changed, I had much more energy and the weight literally did fall off. I was able to run further and I felt better than I had in months.

This time around is a little easier, I have tempered my expectations. Again the weight is not falling off but I don’t expect it to until we stop breastfeeding.

I did some research and found that the most important macros for creating breastmilk are protein and fat. After my research and talking to my Midwife I decided to try cutting out all processed carbs and raising my fat and protein percentage.

It’s not my easy but it does seem to be working, even if I have to fight for every pound. After eating this way for a month I have lost about ten pounds and my milk supply has stayed the same. I also have been increasing my exercise volume so I try to focus on lots of healthy fats and staying hydrated.

My point in writing this is not to complain, I know how lucky I am to have had two healthy babies and to be able to nurse them at all. My reason for writing this is to hopefully shed some light on women’s’ different experiences so maybe one new mama won’t be so caught off guard like I was. Everyone has a different experience, for some women the weight does fall off and I have even heard stories from women where they put weight back on when they stop nursing, Serena explains that she couldn’t lose weight at all, for me it just makes it that much harder. And for now, that’s okay.

 

Emerald’s second month was pretty difficult times for our family and string of bad luck that we couldn’t believe as we were walking through it including our pug getting very sick and Cory rupturing his Achilles.  While these things were difficult on us little Emmy sailed through them like a champ.

At two months Emerald is 23.25 inches long (83%) and 11lbs 13oz (63%)

EAT

We are still trying for exclusively breast feeding but some days we need to supplement with some formula. Our pediatrician encouraged me not to stress about giving her formula like I did with Cannon, waking up multiple times at night to pump, and I am trying to be a peace with that.

SLEEP

Sleep seems to be progressing and we have moved up to only waking once or twice a night often giving us 5-6 hour stretches of sleep. I looks like she might be a good night sleeper just like Cannon.

During the day we don’t really have a set nap schedule as much as I would love one. Being kid number two she has had to learn to sleep on the go, but also similar to Cannon she will often “cat nap” 10-20 minutes at a time.

Unfortunately for me this means that Emerald is usually asleep while we are out in the morning and then awake for all of Cannon’s nap.

GROW

Emerald is making great making great strides with head control and working on her tummy time as much as possible.

Her head full of dark hair just continues to grow and grow, it’s not falling out the way Cannon’s did. She is also growing like a weed and not fitting into her newborn clothes anymore and wearing her 0-3 months clothes. I loved dressing Cannon but little girl clothes are just so much fun!

PLAY

 

We are trying to give Emerald as much tummy time as we can and showing her toys to reach for but mostly she likes to lay on her back and kick.

 

 

I was really worried when Cory had surgery to repair his Achilles that things would be unmanageable trying to keep up with everything. But I have to say it was much easier than I thought it would be. Cory was on bed rest for a week, having to keep his leg elevated as much as possible so he couldn’t run after Cannon but he did a great job helping with Emerald. They got a lot of time snuggling and he even changed her diaper multiple times from his perch on the couch.   The time home from work was actually really good bonding time for them.

Past Monthly Updates

1 Month

Cannon at 2 Months

Baby is now the size of:

Baby is giant….well she is probably normal baby sized but I feel giant. I am very interested to see how big she is when she is born. Cannon was 7 lbs 13oz at birth, much smaller than the 9lbs + I was fearing.

Sleep: Sleep is very limited and uncomfortable. Maybe I will have good sleep again in 2 or 3 years…..mamas out there, when did you sleep well again?

Maternity clothes / preferred attire: Pajamas. But since I am still working I have to get dressed most days. The biggest thing is that my feet are getting SO HOT so I have been wearing sandals even when the weather isn’t very warm. I find that if my feet get too hot I start to feel ill.

Symptoms: General discomfort, exhaustion and short temper. I think having high blood pressure really makes me feel on edge.

Cravings, aversions and favorite foods: Craving easy comfort food. It’s going to be a shock to the system when this baby is out and I have to start watching what I eat again.

Exercise: I have been advised against exercise (even walking too much) as it can increase blood pressure. I am so looking forward to family walks!

Mood: Excited, nervous, impatient. Stressing about getting everything ready/done before baby comes.

Missing: wine, breathing, sleeping, playing actively with Cannon.

Best moments: Fun moments were:

Worst moments: Having to wake up Cannon late on Saturday night, drop him off at his grandparents so we could go to the hospital.

Buying: This week we are focused on getting the house ready and getting easy to make food in the house.

Dreaming About:  Getting to meet my little girl.