workout, parent, repeat

Alarm goes off at 5am, I jump from bed and settle in for an early morning pumping session. Manage to make it to the pool for a 5:30 start time. Half of my swimming crew is faster than me so when we circle swim it means that I basically swim continuously until it's time to end it. I'd complain, but we have less than 2 months before I'm to swim across the friggin bay so this was needed so I don't die during that event. Out of pool at 6:30 and home by 6:45. Chaos begins. Day includes building enormous train set, laundry, meals for both kids throughout the day, managing naps, trip to swimming lessons, laundry, play date with friend, picking up trains, realizing I forgot a meeting, managing tantrums from both children. Needless to say 5pm rolled around and I really considered not going to track. It's cold and windy and my people weren't going. Cue 3 year old tantrum...not first of the day either...I very quickly find my running stuff and load us into the car. Husband meets us at track, we do the social thing for a bit, he leaves with both kids (I silently cheer as they drive away) and workout begins. Wait. Another workout? Damn it. 3x1 mile with 4 minutes in between. Ready set go. 8:20, good but too fast considering the last one should be my fastest. 8:19 good but I'm really doubting that I can go faster. 8:10 total score and big props to Michelle who ran along side and pushed the pace with me for all 3 miles. No time to waste, husband has a board meeting at 7:30. Leave track at 6:30 arrive home 6:45 to baby screaming. Nurse baby and put baby to bed while husband argues with 3 year old about turning on his "poop machine". I can't make this stuff up folks. Kiss husband good bye and shove dinner down throat while kid finishes Thomas movie. Don't judge until you have multiple children. Brush teeth, change into PJ's, commence never ending bedtime saga. 8:11 all in bed and lets breath. House is a mess, lesson planning for tomorrow needs to happen, but here I sit blogging instead. And tomorrow it starts all over again. Swam 2000 yards Ran 4 miles Changed 37 diapers...not really but felt like it.

1 step forward 2 back

In many ways I feel like we are finding our way with this whole 2 kid thing. Everyone is sleeping, we are all still breathing and laughing most of the time. I feel physically like my body has recovered. Strength is returning and workouts are enjoyable. I'm almost ready to set some definitive distance goals for the fall and next spring. Feeling fairly confident that I won't drown in July going across the bay. Life is almost good. But then in other areas I feel like I'm barely treading water. After my son I felt like too much changed too quickly, I thought this time around I did things right to avoid that feeling. Wrong. Here I sit suddenly (at least for right now) a full time stay at home Mom. I'm not going to get into which role is harder, for me I'm best out of the house at least some of the time. I love what I do for work and and happy when at work part time. It'll get there, patience is the key and things are moving and shaking so I need to just hold tight for the time being. But that said being at home full time is hard. Very hard. I'm not great at it. Joe is traveling more and that sucks for all of us. People keep saying to us that we are in the thick of it. They are right. Life with a 3 month old and 3 year old is no joke. It will get easier, maybe not easier but more balanced. Maybe. In the meantime we are hanging in. It feels a lot like stumbling in a dark cave, I'm not quite sure what we are doing or if we are in the right direction. But I felt this way about my fitness and my body a month ago and am now feeling strong and back in control, so here's hoping the rest of life falls in line with the same ease. Swam 2000 yards Ran 5 mile track workout

Once upon a time

Once upon a time I would run track on Wednesday nights and then NEVER think about running the following Thursday. And then I had kids and realized that the jogger brought peace and quiet. An outdoor activity that doesn't involve me pushing a swing or pretending to be a train. So it really doesn't matter how tired the legs might be, a run gets everyone out the door and into fresh air. The break is provides is only 2nd to a nap, which sadly by the way is moving toward the extinct list in my house. Once upon a time I would insist that I could only run first thing in the morning and NEVER after eating. And then I made Mom friends and found that you get more company at 10:30am rather than 5:30am. Oh by the way, if running is your break in parenting then you are going to go when you are sick of parenting. My favorite times are now mid-morning and late afternoon. I don't care if I've consumed a foot long sub, everyone starts whining and we are hitting the pavement til it's quiet. Once upon a time I swore that the single jogger would be the end of me. Then I had 2 kids and realized that pushing 1 is nothing compared to 2. Today was lucky enough to only have 1 with me and it was heavenly. Ran 4 miles today

Back on the track

It's been 11 months since my last track workout, and I haven't missed it. There comes a point though, where you run out of excuses and have to return. Just as a surefire way to get me out the door in the morning is to pump, I'm a sure bet at track when both kids are melting down. You want me to run 1200, 2x800 and 3x600 fast enough where I consider puking and it means I don't have to deal with dinner or bed? Sure, need me to run it twice?! Joking aside it wasn't as terrible as I anticipated. Ran within myself, not having any real clue where I would be coming off 11 months of no speed work. In the end I'm happy I went, saw many old familiar faces and got in some laughs. If my legs didn't hurt I'd walk across the room and download the Garmin data and break it down. But the legs are sore and I've already poured my wine. Laps were consistently between 2:05 and 2:10 and I was fairly right on throughout the whole workout. I'll take it. Tomorrow will be an easy 3-4 miles with the kiddo's making this the highest mileage week to date! I don't do a lot of quoting of the kid on the blog but have to share that he honestly thought that Meb would be at the track and is demanding a Meb shirt. Adorable, I know. It's what keeps him alive at this point. Ran 4.5 miles today.

Here I come, ready or not

I have found a sure fire way to ensure that morning workouts happen, I just have to make it to the pump. As long as I pump I'm going to workout regardless of who is there. I don't care about the weather, how terrible I might feel, how tired I am, how comfy by bed is or any other excuse that typically keeps me in bed. In the past I have been known to get completely ready for a workout, get in my car and change my mind and go back to bed. Totally unreliable, but thankfully there are few people who will agree to 5:30am workouts so the workout invites keep on coming. Once I pump I am completely useless to my household. Breastfeeding mothers are the original food truck. Once the food is gone, no one cares where the truck goes to restock. Today for instance, I had just finished pumping and both workout buddies cancelled, no problem. I was still in the pool by 5:34am (a new record by the way). A half hour in I got a little lazy and thought about skipping the last few sets, then I saw the time. Only slightly past 6, the baby would be looking for a meal and I have nothing to offer. All the motivation I needed to just keep on swimming. Swam 2500y Ran 3.2 miles

A day for the record books

It didn't start out bad, and I'm not sure I can pinpoint where I lost control. Lets just say the day ended with a lot of poop, an exploding toilet and the husband leaving work early after a very pathetic phone call from home. All I wanted was to melt under the bed and forget today ever happened. Too bad it was only 4pm and both kids were wide awake. So what do we do? Hit the pavement. We loaded up and started to run. My son spent some time trying to negotiate ending the run almost as soon as we started, "you look tired Momma, lets go back to the car". Once that approach didn't work, he sprinkled the road with goldfish. And I wonder why we have to buy the extra large $8.99 container every week. At least we'd easily be able to retrace our steps. Just as I hoped, with every step I could feel my body relaxing. I was able to laugh at my son and forget about the power struggles that almost did us in earlier in the day. I was serenaded by the ABC's sung at the top of his lungs and received some interesting looks from other's on the Blvd. Little do they know it's all about preventing the meltdown and if screaming the ABC's at the top of his lungs while turned around facing me in the jogger means we get to go a little further...by all means sing away my friend. 4 miles passed relatively quickly and I had one more hill between us and the car. A perfect time to let him loose and avoid the hill. We spent the next quarter of a mile running side by side. He was Speedy Spencer and the babe and I played the role of Thomas and we chuffed right along pretending to be on the island of Sodor where toilets don't explode and Mom's don't seriously consider running away. Ran 4 miles today.