Scott Gorham 5k

If you haven't figured it out yet, commitment is not our strongest skill set. Today had been penciled in as the Newport 10 Miler, in fact I believe we were responsible for at least 2 other registrations. The race never happened. I'll give it to Joe, he made a good faith effort in the training dept. Lets be real, an.8am.start.an.hour.away.with.2.kids.in.40.degree.weather.same.day.as.nieces.birthday.party is a terrible awful idea. So we settled on a local 5k instead. We settled on this Saturday night, again we are commitment-phobes lately. This was the first race post baby and I was feeling pretty bad ass about it. There was some debate about which parent was going to get stuck behind the beast. Joe was adamant that he would fall on the sword so I could run hard, I think he just didn't want to deal with my ego when I beat him with the beast. I haven't been training and runs have all been pretty slow up to this point so I had no idea what to expect. Oh, forgot to mention, this was a TINY race. Itty bitty, meaning there was a real chance we could claim last place. Gun goes off and away we go. Rumor was it was a flat course and thankfully this was true. I started to run and decided to just go hard and ignore the heart rate. Kept glimpsing at my garmin and noticed pace was in the 8:30's. Too fast but went with it. First mile was 8:51. As you can guess I slowed down and paid dearly for going out too hard. Two reasons I didn't slow to a walk: 1. Husband is behind me with both kids and the beast. If he passes me I cannot go home. 2. I'm running with a dad and what looks to be his 9 year old son. If the kid can do it so can I. Miles 2 and 3 were in the 9:20's. And I likely could have pushed a bit harder on mile 3 but at that point wasn't really thinking about much. Unofficial finish time was 28:53 a 9:11 pace. I'll take it with little complaints. If I can stay injury free this summer I think I can make a run at my 5k PR this fall. And as for this race, I'd totally run it again. Very cute community based race. Family and stroller friendly and pleasant enough course through quiet neighborhoods. Ran 5k today.

breaking up with my scale

Warning, this post is likely to read as very shallow and self absorbed. Just move on if you want, I won't be offended. As most new Mom's I hit the sweet spot where life is moving along, I'm preparing to my return to work and even though we are all sleeping, I still have a problem. My clothes don't fit. I'm a good 17lbs away from pre-baby weight and starting to get cranky about it. My wardrobe consists of leggings, sweat pants, 1 pair of jeans with a button and a pair of maternity jeans. My boobs are too big for most of my shirts and my hips are very wide. Nothing fits. All of that bitching aside, I'm working out as hard as can be tolerated. My diet is rich with real whole foods and is primarily based in grains, veggies, and beans. We are only 10 weeks out so there is plenty of time, but I'm sick and tired reading about these Mom's who loose the weight in 6 weeks or less. Cheers to you, I'm jealous. It's not going to happen over here, so I need to stop reading about your successes. It's not you, it's me. With my son at the same spot I had 35+lbs to loose so I'm ahead of the game. Getting on the scale daily or even weekly is not helping my cause. Because of breastfeeding the weight is coming off slowly. Nothing defeats me more than a week filled with strong workouts and good meals and then I step on the scale to see that nothing has changed or even worse I'm up a half lb from last week. And yes, I checked and my giant rack accounts for 6lbs of the additional weight and that was after a nursing session. Don't ask, it was a moment of desperation. Why do I let it get to me so much? So I'm taking a month off. No more weigh in's. I have enough to stress about like pooping on the potty, nap training, mastering the logistics of getting the double jogger in and out of my trunk with smashing my shin every.god.damned.time. I'm also becoming curious about heart rate training....more on that later. So goodbye old friend, I'll see you in a few weeks and here's hoping that you get on board and can be more supportive with your electronic feedback. Ran 5.3 miles today.

Green light!

Saw the Chiropractor today and got the "all clear" on the running front! Totally psyched at this news and even more so that these visits have made a noticeable improvement in my level of discomfort. He wasn't stupid when he cleared me and included the lecture about not doing to much too soon. The goal is to strain the joint a bit and see how it holds up. Fine by me, any running is more than I had been doing. That and spring finally arrived in little Rhody so to be out in the fresh air is so nice after the never ending winter. In celebration I hit the Blvd with a friend and the babe's and we just ran. After comparing who got the most sleep the night before and whose husband is more annoying with not getting up at night we started to discuss real business. See, she's moving. Really moving, not like our false alarm last summer. I don't want to talk about it. Good running partners are hard to come by and good friends are even harder to find. So what do you do when your running partner is moving to the deep south? You find a marathon near her new house and plan a trip! Details are yet to be worked out, but we have the spring/summer to return to a respectable fitness base and fall will be the start of training. Now we've already established that I have the shit end of this stick as I'll be running solo in the nastiness that is winter in New England as she braves temps that likely won't go below 50. But that's ok, remotely we'll keep each other accountable and we'll both keep running and be forced to stay in touch! A win all around. Now I need to find a new partner. They need to be kid friendly as I often run with the beast, or bail at the last minute b/c someone (could be either of them) has been up all night. Ask her why she swam solo this morning. We have to match on pace both with the stroller and without. It helps that we are both finding our feet after having babies. Sarcasm is a must. She's nicer than me, as most of my friends are, so my new partner just has to be able to put up with me. Flexibility for timing of runs is required. Last minute flexibility is preferable, like can you run right now between dirty diapers, tantrums and feeding schedules?? If you know of anyone fitting this posting I'll be interviewing in June. Ran 3.2 miles today

34/22/29

Those are my new numbers, the number of pounds I run behind with the double jogger. 85lbs of baby, toddler, stroller and car seat. This thing is a beast, barely fits in the back of my SUV and a bit like pushing a micro loft on wheels. Roomy and spacious for both kids, enough for each to sit without touching each other and yet the toddler was on his knees poking the baby in the face for most of the ride. "I don't want her to miss seeing the squirrels" was the excuse when I asked him to back away. Clearly allowing a baby to sleep is a foreign concept to an almost 3 year old, but we were running so almost anything was going to be allowed if it meant the run could continue. It's been just shy of a month since my last run so today was needed. (Don't ask, I haven't been cleared to return to running, this was a non-sanctioned event.) Life with 2 has been a challenge and not much of my life today looks or feels like my life with even just 1 kid never mind no kids. I'm at the point where I'm striving for normalcy, a routine, something to feel familiar. With all the miles the kid and I logged with our single jogger I could close my eyes for a moment and find a bit of that familiar feeling. Yes, I had to open goldfish, stop and pick up a train that went overboard and sing ABC's at the top of my lungs but we were out there. Before starting I had some apprehension, driving to the Blvd I started to talk myself out of it. Lets be honest, is anyone jazzed about pushing 85lbs on a run 8 weeks post partum? It was one of those things that I knew needed to get done. Check it off, first run with the beast complete. Move on. Next time it'll be easier, well not likely but you know we'll be out there over and over again. Won't be long til we find some speed and begin to pick of other runner's and mess with their self esteem. I can speak from experience, a little part of you wants to die when you are passed by a jogging stroller. It's time to re-establish a running base so I can move into training again. Training will give me something other than sleep schedules to obsess over. Ran 3 miles today.