Chasing My Joy

My journey to becoming an Ultra Runner and Ironman

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Archives for September 2016

September 30, 2016

Friday Favorites #1

I always find a bunch of stuff throughout the week that I would love to share so I thought I would start up a Friday Favorites post.

Hoka Cliffton 3 – I LOVE these shoes!!! The upper is comfortable and they are super light and bouncy. I have struggled with plantar fasciitis since I was 20 weeks pregnant. Wearing Hokas has made it so I can still run and my foot seems to be healing. Hoka, hoka one one, run, running shoe, trail run

Pumpkin Coffee – I know it’s so cliche to love PSL but I rarely order them at Starbucks since they have so much sugar. I am loving this blend from Caribou Coffee, I can enjoy my pumpkin flavored coffee and keep working towards my race weight.

'tis the season ☕️❤️ #pumpkin #coffee

’tis the season ☕️❤️ #pumpkin #coffee

Thorsten’s Kona Rating Report – This thing is seriously awesome, I will definitely have it open while stalking watching Kona next weekend. From the website:

For the 2016 Ironman World Championships in Kona I’ll be releasing a 100+-page Rating Report. It contains tons of information, including detailed results from last year, the Kona 2016 start list and my predictions for the Pro athletes, a detailed discussion of the Pros including their input and a lot of photos they have supplied.

The Kona Rating Report is the ideal information to have when following the Ironman Kona coverage!

Shakeology – This stuff is great, I have been trying to have one a day. I have tried the greenberry and the chocolate so far. They are great just mixed with water but I like to add greens, peanut butter, or some fruit.

shakeology, smoothie, 21 day fix

Pathetic Triathlete – As triathletes we often take ourselves too seriously. Pathetic Triathlete is a fun new website with shirts, hats, stickers, etc that helps us poke a little fun at ourselves. Their facebook page is pretty funny too.

mockup-3a9c940b_grande

 

Anything making your week better?

Posted by bethcurtis Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Favorites Tagged: Favorites, Friday Favorites

September 29, 2016

36.

My birthday was this week and I turned 36. 36 seems like a nice round strong number, and I feel like it’s going to be a good year for me. I feel more like myself, braver, happier and more content. This is likely more to do with becoming a mother, than 36 being some kind of magical number but that’s where I am regardless. The world feels fresh, full of possibilities and magic thanks to my son, he really has brought so much light into my life.

Matchy matchy ---- #yesiamthatmom #fall #cmcn #momlife #matchy #pumpkinpatchtime

Matchy matchy 

35 was a drastic shift from previous years. I raced once, ONCE while I was 35 and that was just a couple weeks ago. My priorities shifted from triathlon to keeping my baby and myself healthy. The year was filled with excitement and a little worry (being pregnant can be scary, when you can’t see your little one to confirm that they are health and safe). 36 also feels great because I am just starting to feel like myself again. After close to 10 months of pregnancy then recovering from childbirth my body felt foreign and strange to me. Just in the last couple weeks I have started to feel stronger and more at home in my skin again.

running, sunrise, colorado

Now I am only interested in pursuing things that bring me joy. I don’t have time for activities or objects that aren’t bringing me closer to my dreams. I want to be a good role model to my son that you should follow your heart, chase your dreams and that it is never too late.

Ironman, quote

Quote by @imbethgerdes on returning to racing ironman triathlons after having a baby. Always inspirational and a reminder to chase the light. 

Posted by bethcurtis 3 Comments
Filed Under: Update Tagged: Update

September 26, 2016

Weekly Rundown – Trying Something New

This week I am linking up with Jessie at The Right Fits and Jess Runs ATL to recap last weeks training.

———–

I am still considering Ironman vs. Ultra (can’t I have both?!?) but for now I am dedicated to focusing strength training and building back my base fitness.

I am trying something new this time to help me keep on track with strength training. Strength training often takes a backseat to swim-bike-running but this time I am committed to building strength before jumping into a full on training plan. To help keep me on track I singed up to do a 21 Day Fix with Nicole as the Coach . So far it has really helped me prioritize strength training and I have really enjoyed being part of a group.

Last week was not a perfect example of what a week should look like but with just returning to work and baby’s first cold =( other things had to be prioritized.

Monday: Unintended rest day, spent the day cuddling with Cannon and visiting the Pediatrician. He is doing so much better now but seeing him not feel well breaks a new mom’s heart.

Tuesday: Quick run on the treadmill and Upper Fix (upper body strength training)

strength training, 21 day fix

Wednesday: Lower Body Fix

Thursday: 3.5 mile run in the morning and Pilates Fix in the evening

Friday: 25 minute spin on the trainer (oof, it’s going to take sometime to get used to the bike again)

Saturday: Pumpkin Patchin with the family =)

pp

Sunday: 6 mile run

running, stroller run, colorado

Total: 6 hours training (not worth breaking down, and sadly NO swimming….sigh)

Overall I think the week went fine but there is lot’s of room for improvement, already looking forward to doing better this week!

Posted by bethcurtis 3 Comments
Filed Under: training, training plan Tagged: training, Weekly Recap, Weekly Rundown

September 24, 2016

Cannon // 3 Month Check In

Cannon is now 3 months old!

Baby Boy, 3 Months

He is 13lbs 13 oz and 24.5 inches long.

It’s been a big month for us. Cannon has been smiling all the time and becoming more and more interactive all the time.

img_4827

Cannon cheered on racers at the Leadville 100 Trail run.

ultramarathon, Leadville, trail running

And ventured back to the mountains to cheer me on at my first race back after having him. He did great hanging out with his dad in Breckenridge while I finished the Breck Crest Trail 10k

Breckenridge, Colorado, Trail Race, Trail Run

We then packed the car and drove west to Oregon. Cannon had a great time meeting his extended family while visiting Oregon. We even took him on a running (rainy) tour of the waterfront in Portland.

Portland, Run, Travel

We then took Cannon to his namesake, Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach is one of my favorite places in the world. It was so fun to show him the ocean and introduce him to the place that is one of the reasons he is named Cannon.

img_4984

After returning from Oregon it was time for me to return to work full time and Cannon to start school. This has been a hard transition for me. While the school we send Cannon to is amazing and he seems to be doing fine, it breaks my heart to leave him there and only have a couple hours with him in the morning and evening. Even though leaving him most days is hard I am loving every minute I do have with him even more. I am so grateful that I get to be his mom and watch him grow and learn.

Past Monthly Updates:

1 Month

2 Months

Posted by bethcurtis 1 Comment
Filed Under: Baby Tagged: Baby, Baby Update

September 21, 2016

Ironman or Ultra?

I am trying to be patient, I really am, but it’s not something I am good at. This trait has gotten me in trouble in the past. I want to do all the race and I want to do them RIGHT NOW. The trouble is when I try to do too many things too quickly I tend to do everything not that well or worse not at all.

So I am trying to be patient with planning races, on getting back into shape and with my body. It is very tempting to try to race long this year, but I know that would do me no good. If I try to race too soon it would e nothing but sad and slow and I would likely get injured.

That being said I have always been one to do better when I have a goals race to train for. So I have started to plot what races I would like to do in 2017 and the big question is Ironman or Ultra. I really want to do both but I know I need to choose. There are good reasons to choose either one:

Ironman

  • A length that I know I can do and love!
  • Doing all three sports will help me get in shape quicker without getting injured
  • I enjoy training with local triathlon clubs
  • Swim bike run is so much fun and I always miss it when I take a break
  • There is an awesome race in my backyard that I have never done

imgres

Ultra

  • I have done Ironmans but I have never done a 50 or 100 mile trail race
  • I LOVE trail running
  • It seems so much less overwhelming to focus on one sport
  • I have wanted to race in the Leadville series for years now
  • Leadville isn’t exactly in my backyard but it’s close enough to get out on the course to train on weekends

img_3857

 

I will keep soul searching until one becomes the clear winner (I am slightly leaning one way already) but either way my focus for now is strength training and building back base fitness.

What would you do, Ironman or Ultra?

Posted by bethcurtis 2 Comments
Filed Under: Races, Uncategorized Tagged: Ironman, Race Planning, Ultramarathon

September 16, 2016

My Breastfeeding Journey // How I Increased My Milk Supply

I went back and forth A LOT about publishing this post. I assume that 99.9% of people that might stumble across this blog are likely not interested in breastfeeding. But breastfeeding is hard especially, in the early days. I found a lot of peace in reading other mom’s stories and struggles knowing I was not alone. I also learned a lot by reading what other mom’s did to increase their supply. I finally decided I should publish this in case my story could help another new mom.

 #momlife #cmcn

I assumed that I would start breastfeeding in the beginning and all would be fine. I even told myself that if I HAD to use formula that would be okay (and it is fine) but as they say everything changes when you have a baby and those hormones are no joke!

I had some issues with hemorrhaging after giving birth to Cannon, I found this resource very helpful in explaining what happens in a Postpartum Hemorrhage (PPH) and how it can impact recovery and breastfeeding. If you had a PPH I highly recommend reading it. Long story short my milk took a long time to come in and was not enough to feed Cannon and help him grow.

When Cannon was born he was in the 65th percentile for weight and 88th percentile for height. This put him at a healthy 39th percentile for BMI. When we took him to the pediatrician at 4 days old he had lost over a pound and was in the 3rd percentile for BMI. This was way more than the recommended weight loss that most babies have after birth. We saw two different lactation specialists and it was determined that his latch was good and I likely just didn’t have enough milk for him and he was becoming dehydrated. My heart was breaking that my baby wasn’t getting enough milk and I felt like a failure. immediately the Pediatrician gave us some supplemental formula to give Cannon right there in the office and some to take with us as well. She also reassured me that Cannon was fine and if we kept working on breastfeeding him my milk would come in. In the meantime we should supplement to be sure he was getting what he needed. You can supplement with breast milk banks but given that Cannon needed to have something immediately we went with our pediatricians recommendation and used supplemental formula.

After a few days my milk did come in and Cannon started to put weight back on so I was less panicked. I was still irritated after a couple of weeks that I still wasn’t making quite enough and was having to give Cannon at least one bottle of formula a day. I made it my mission to increase my supply. I spoke to my midwife, Cannon’s pediatrician, a lactation specialists and did a lot of research. After a couple weeks of hard work I was able to increase my supply and even start a freezer stash for when I went back to work or emergencies.

increase milk supply, freezer stash

I found that reading what other new moms had done so helpful when I was struggling so I thought I would share what worked for me.

**I am not a doctor or lactation specialist, although all of these strategies were cleared by my professionals. Everyone is different so you should discuss with your doctor before trying anything!

 

Things I know worked for me:

  • supplements! I take two different supplements that are meant to increase milk supply:
    • Honest Lactation Plus – These have lots of herbs that are shown to increase milk supply. I take one tablet twice a day.
    • Fenugreek is shown to help increase milk supply, and I definitely noticed an increase after I started taking it. You should take between 1200-2400 mg a day. The Lactation plus pills have Fenugreek in them as well so I take 2 Fenugreek in the AM and PM each and 3 capsules with lunch. These will make you smell like a maple bar which is annoying but there are worse things to smell like.

 

supplements for increasing milk supply

  • Add pumping into your day even if you are exclusively breastfeeding. In the beginning I would nurse Cannon then hook myself up to the pump. I would barely get any milk, it was frustrating and defeating. But the extra pumping signals to your body that it needs to make more milk and slowly I started to produce more. Eventually I figured out the right times to pump. Most women, including me, produce more milk in the morning than the evening. I gave up pumping past 3pm but I added pumping sessions over night. We are very lucky that Cannon sleeps most of the night but I still set my alarm for midnight and two am to wake up and pump.
  • Upgrade your pump and parts. I thought about upgrading from my Medela In Style pump to a hospital grade pump. I have friends who have said they are great. In the end I decided that since I was making more milk than he needed in a day and had been adding to my freezer stash that we didn’t need to make the investment. I did upgrade the flanges from the ones that came with my pump to Pumpin’ Pals Super Shields these are more comfortable and do allow me to get more milk from the In Style pump.

Breastfeeding

I also tried a couple other tricks like eating lactation cookies with Brewers Yeast and eating more oatmeal but gave up on those after not seeing much difference.

And of course you should get as much sleep as possible (HA!), drink lots of water, exercise, eat well and be kind to yourself! Good luck to all the new mamas out there!!!

For more information:

Increasing Your Milk Supply, Without Losing Your Mind (From MomLovesBest.com)

Posted by bethcurtis 1 Comment
Filed Under: Baby, Uncategorized Tagged: Baby

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We are having so much fun learning to ski as a fam We are having so much fun learning to ski as a family! Ski traffic I could do without 🫠
✨2022✨ I can honestly say this was the best ✨2022✨ 

I can honestly say this was the best year of my life. So many adventures. I am loving the ages of these kiddos and cherish our time together. 

Very unsure if we can top this in 2023 but we are sure going to try!
We hope you had a merry little Christmas 🎄 We hope you had a merry little Christmas 🎄
Winter hiking is just so magical. Definitely not h Winter hiking is just so magical. Definitely not hating winter this year! ❄️
We kicked off the holiday season by visiting the N We kicked off the holiday season by visiting the North Pole and seeing Santa! 

The kids had so much fun and it was way cuter than I was expecting. They said it was better than Disneyland 😂 @northpolecolorado
Happy Halloween!!! Cannon really wanted to be To Happy Halloween!!! 

Cannon really wanted to be Toad from Super Mario this year so we tagged along. 

Scroll to see 2021-> 2020 -> 2019 -> 2018 -> 2017 -> 2016 🎃
We finished up our tour of France with a couple da We finished up our tour of France with a couple days in Disneyland Paris. I love Disney Parks and visiting Disneyland Paris was a dream come true. We had such an amazing time on our entire trip. 

We are trying to plan our next trip. Where is the best place you have ever been? Do you have a favorite trip? I would love to hear about it. My parents say that Ireland was their favorite so UK tops the list currently but Italy or Costa Rica are on the list too.
In our last couple of days in Paris we took a bus In our last couple of days in Paris we took a bus tour to see the major sights. Our favorites included walking the entire Champs-Élysées and climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. We missed out on seeing the Catacombs because we didn’t get tickets early enough. c’est la vie, I guess we will have to go back 😉
A cousin reminded me that I never finished sharing A cousin reminded me that I never finished sharing our trip to France 🫠 better late than never! 

We spent our first day back in Paris with a trip to Versailles. We loved the gardens so much and particularly enjoyed Marie Antoinette’s little farm. The history here is incredible and the opulence overwhelming. We walked over 10 miles on our visit!
Before our long drive back to Paris we did the thr Before our long drive back to Paris we did the three castle hike in Ribeauvillé, France. We climbed up the side of a hill to three castle ruins from the 14th century. It was really fun to explore and a great way to burn some energy before a long drive.
While we were in the Alsace region of France we vi While we were in the Alsace region of France we visited the sweet little village of Riquewihr. Rumor says this was the inspiration for Belle’s village in Disney’s Beaty and the Beast. Can you see it? We could and kept singing Bonjour while walking through town.
After leaving Switzerland we made our way to Colma After leaving Switzerland we made our way to Colmar. This sweet little town in the Alsace region of France near the German border. We loved all the half timber buildings and winding streets. We had some great local food and wine. Colmar was a lovely place to get lost for an afternoon.
It was so exciting to see the Matterhorn in person It was so exciting to see the Matterhorn in person. The peak was never fully clear of clouds while we were there which was a little disappointing but it was still majestic . We took a cog train and gondola up then hiked about five miles down on the five lakes trail. It was a beautiful day and we got to enjoy lunch mid hike. We loved the little (car free) town of Zermatt. We enjoyed some fun Swiss playgrounds in town before dinner. I love Switzerland and it’s mountains!
With the last of our time in Chamonix we took a go With the last of our time in Chamonix we took a gondola and cable car up Le Brévent. We enjoyed hot chocolates and crepes at the top with views of Mont Blanc. 

Next it was time to drive on to Switzerland 🇨🇭
We took a cute cogwheel train up the valley in Cha We took a cute cogwheel train up the valley in Chamonix to Montenvers to visit the Mer de Glace  glacier. At the top you can take a gondola a little way down then MANY stairs to the glacier. It was sad to see the markers of where the glacier was in years past and how much it has shrunk. We did love exploring an ice cave that they dig out each year. We had to try twice to get into the ice caves as the first time it closed right as we arrived due to a storm. It was worth taking the train twice.
After riding to the top of Aiguille du Midi we sto After riding to the top of Aiguille du Midi we stopped half way down for a couple mile hike and a stop at a mountain hut for lunch. This might have been my favorite lunch ever. The views were amazing and the weather was nice. The mountains here are STUNNING!!! #aiguilledumidi #chamonix
We decided to spend a few day in Chamonix to explo We decided to spend a few day in Chamonix to explore the French Alps. The experience we were most excited about was taking the gondola up the 
Aiguille du Midi (highest cable car in France). You switch cable cars half way up so you can enjoy the views. The top outpost is incredible perching on top of the mountain. I’ve never seen anything like it! 

The day wasn’t completely clear but the views were still incredible. #aiguilledumidi #chamonix
After a long drive across the French countryside w After a long drive across the French countryside we landed in Annecy at the foot of the Alps. 

Annecy was such a pretty little town on the bank of a gorgeous turquoise lake.  We got to enjoy lunch at a canal side cafe, wander the streets, enjoy ice cream and playground hop our way through town. 

Very excited about our next few days in mountains of France + Switzerland.
We drove into the heart of France to visit the Go We drove into the heart of France to visit the  Gouffre de Padirac. A large cave system including an underground river. I don’t have many good pictures given the lighting and lack of patience. We loved climbing down into the cave and riding a boat along the river. Probably my favorite cave that I have visited. Kids loved all of it too and are so good about us dragging them along with us across France.
After leaving Mont Saint-Michele we drove to Loire After leaving Mont Saint-Michele we drove to Loire to visit Château de Chenonceau. It was stunning and the gardens were fun to explore. The history here is so rich!
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