Marathon Mom

2010 was definitely the year of change and new beginnings. The biggest being the birth of Ophelia and becoming a mother, I also made some big decisions about school and dealt with months of illness without answers. Looking back my 2010 goals: How did I do? Yearly Miles: 1330 -Pain free running after baby and a strong comeback: Yes, no injuries and plenty of PRs -Continue with my new found attitude for running/racing: Kind of, as I started seeing my potential and setting PRs late Summer I started pushing harder, but I am still enjoying running more then ever. -Start racing again and BQ: Yes, 3:31:44 at TCM -PRs at all distances, actually run some 5Ks/10Ks: Kind of, Marathon PR (above), Half PR (1:39:56) and 10 Mile PR (1:10:36 ). I didn't run a 10K and only ran 1 5K and this was the day after a 17 mile long run. -Continue with weights 2-3x week and XT 2x week as I get back to running: Another kind of here, I've been very good about strength training and even started ...

What a great toy!  11 months already, guess it's time to start planning the 1st birthday party. A lot has changed over the past month. A few weeks ago Ophelia started walking and is now more mobile then ever! She also has 4 more teeth, that was not a fun teething experience for any of us. We've been signing since very early and she has recognized some signs, but really only used "milk". Now she signs "eat", "more", "dog", "cat", "change", "sleep", "all done" and "bath". I am a huge fan of baby signing it is making communicating so much easier instead of trying to figure out what she is trying to say. I am really starting to love this age, just watching her play and discover new things is so great. Over the past few weeks she has been a great sleeper and even manages to get herself to sleep. The naps have even improved, I even managed 10 miles on the treadmill this morning during her na...

The hat I took from my cousin Not that I had any doubts but my child is spoiled! Our house is full of toys and her wardrobe keeps growing. I wasn't sure how Ophelia would feel about opening presents but the empty boxes/bags and ripping the paper and handing little pieces to mom and dad was much more exciting then finding out what was inside. We continued my family's tradition of non-traditional holidays with a great menu lacking all the typical foods (all gluten free with minimal changes): Lentil tacos Spanish rice Pumpkin cheesecake  (with a few adjustments) and all the cookies I baked last week And of course wine The food/cooking theme continued in gifts: we received a crockpot, espresso maker, beer and wine and gave my parents an ice cream maker. In all the excitement of the day Ophelia skipped her nap and still managed to stay happy. She had a blast playing with her older cousin and showing off her new found skill of walking and asking everyone for food. 4 Ge...

With all the baking (and eating) I've done over the past week I need a way to burn all the calories. Since starting on a gluten free diet the beginning of the month I've gone a little crazy searching for recipes and have tried many of them. Some successful and others not so much. I had to add the pictures since I often choose recipes based on look, sorry mine aren't so pretty. My favorite: Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies Ingredients: 1 large egg 3/4 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup peanut butter (I used half creamy and half crunchy) 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla extract 1/2 cup peanuts Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat together egg, sugar, baking soda and vanilla in a standing mixer with the paddle attachment or with a hand-held mixer. Beat in the peanut butter. Stir in peanuts. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet, pressing lightly with the back of a fork. Bake for 10 minutes, unti...

We were a little behind and finally got holiday photos taken on Sunday and sent Christmas cards today, better then the ones I never sent last year! Finally a family photo She sat still long enough just to get this pose Merry Christmas

Last year's trip to RnR Vegas resulted in an overnight delay in LA and cold, rainy weather, so I was hoping for a smooth trip this year. That wasn't the case! Starting Friday afternoon we got hit by a big snowstorm resulting in about 8" and leaving nasty roads. By the time we de-iced twice and finally took off we were over 3 hours behind schedule meaning that once we got to the hotel in Vegas we'd been awake for 24 hours, not fun! The rest of the trip ended up smooth and with wonderful running weather. Saturday we took full advantage of the great Indian buffet that we'd found last year and then met some friends for drinks. That evening was the group pasta party with wonderful gluten free food, they even had angel food cake. Luckily for me I wasn't running for time since I started Sunday morning with a soy latte, banana, yogurt and GF granola, very different from my typical pre-race food. Race day was perfect, started in the 40s with highs of the low 60s and su...

Trying to decide if I can classify myself as the noncompliant patient or if I am just failing at my diet. I'm not one to complain, but I've had enough so here goes... As I have mentioned over the past few months, I've been having a lot of GI issues that continue to get worse and no one knows why. These have actually been going on for years but to a much lesser extent and have gotten worse especially over the past couple months. A few years ago I had the first doctor suggest I had celiac, instead my blood work showed hypothyroid, then again last year my endocrinologist thought I had both celiac and hypothyroid so I attempted a gluten free diet for a few months, but the pregnancy cravings got the best of me I gave in to "real" food again. Fast forward to this Spring when the abdominal pain, cramping, nausea, bloating, etc returned. Over the Summer and into the Fall it has gotten worse and now add to that extreme physical fatigue and weakness combined with contin...

 My little climber Wow, 10 months already and quite the big personality. Ophelia is such a happy baby, most of the time, and loves people. You can just tell she is thinking about everything around her and just taking it all in. Over the past month we’ve gotten more adventurous with her food and what a difference that has made. It seems she likes “real” food much better than the boring flavorless baby food. Some of her favorites are lentil taco filling, curry vegetables, vegetable chili, fish, and corn bread. She is standing on her own and has attempted a few steps, but tends to just throw herself forward whenever close to someone forgetting to move her feet. She loves to climb anything she can, I'm just waiting for that first ER trip and hoping it isn't in the near future! It is so interesting to see the difference between her and other babies close in age. We were at the in-laws on Thanksgiving and her cousin who is 1 week younger is not even crawling yet, but he is an exc...

For the first time ever I was one of those crazy black Friday shoppers. Every year I look through the ads and then decide sleep sounds better then crowds and cold, but not this year my mom and I were at Target at 6am getting toys, movies, and clothes for Ophelia and most importantly a new coffee maker for Matt and I. Then it was off to Kohl's for more toys for Ophelia and finally to Borders for the free coffee for me and books for Ophelia. I hate to admit it but I kind of wish I was out there earlier since I missed a couple of the deals I was hoping for. I think this might become a new tradition. I guess I need some sort of Thanksgiving tradition since the only part of the meal I like is the pumpkin pie.

A short report of my final race of the season. The day was perfect for November weather, sunny and upper 50s. I think this race was a good preparation for the later start of Boston, since it not only started at noon, but on the day we changed the clocks back so thanks to Ophelia I had been awake since 5am. It was a small race and the thanks to the laid back race director I was able to get through the bathroom line before the start. The race was chipped timed, but all based on a clock start so I wanted to be near the front. I headed out with a couple other women, but quickly realized I wasn't going to be keeping up with them. I ran a quick but comfortable pace and then the hills came, one after another and I was passed by another woman around mile 4 pushing me back to 4th. I tried to catch her and kept her in sight but never quite got there. I knew this was a hilly course, but wow it was much tougher racing on it then running a 20 mile training run. I started with high hopes of a...

Is it wrong to use an infant to trick or treat so mommy and daddy can have some candy? I hope not, yesterday we took Ophelia to the community trick or treat and she had a blast watching all the peopls and digging through her bucket of treats. Next year getting this candy from her might be a little more work!

Somehow this feels like a huge milestone for age, maybe it's because Ophelia has now been alive in the outside world as long as she was growing inside. She continues to develop her own inquisitive, adventurous, sassy, personality. Her favorite activities are climbing stairs, emptying out the cupboards, and throwing the dog bowls. Yep, none of these are activities aimed at 9 month olds, but she has much less interest in her toys then these activities. The last few weeks she has been eating better, much of this is us being more adventurous with foods, she loves pasta in any form. I think the thing is she just wants food with flavor, none of this boring baby food stuff. I don't blame her! She now waves good bye and has been working so hard on standing alone, soon she'll have it. And she's talking a lot more, repeating what we say and saying "dada", "bye", "pupu" (puppy). She is still taking after me and remains tall and thin 16lb 4oz (5-10%) a...

I thought sleep got better as babies got older, not with mine! After the difficulties we had the first 6 weeks she started sleeping great, up maybe once a night and then slept through the night at about 3 months. Then it was only naps that were an issue, but within another month or so those worked out too. AT least in the first few months everything is a haze and your body has adjusted to the wake ups, but now my body has adjusted back to sleeping. Not sure what the deal is now, for the past 3 weeks Sleep has not been good in our house and my coffee habit that I had gotten down to 2 cups a day during pregnancy has doubled. Ophelia has had cycles of nighttime wake ups that are easily remedied by a nighttime feeding and she’s quickly back to sleep. These usually last for a couple days and could be explained by a growth spurt, developmental milestone, teething, or illness, but this bad sleep cycle is going on 3 weeks. At first I thought growth spurt or she wasn’t eating enough before b...

Baby food that is. I thought we had been pretty open and adventurous in feeding Ophelia, but lately I am starting to wonder if we have progressed enough. Last weekend we were together for a family event and my cousin's 11 month daughter was eating potato chips, probably not the best example but we are no where near the potato chip phase. Then I was talking to someone at work yesterday who's daughter is 2 weeks older and learned she has been eating pancakes and sausage the previous night at dinner. I have been making most of my own baby food and Ophelia's diet is mainly fruits, veggies, yogurt, and cereals. Although we have done bites crackers. She gets to taste anything that seems appropriate and has had Indian food, ice cream, beans and fish. I know there are no hard rules to feeding a baby, but I am just wondering what other moms are/were feeding their 9 month olds. The pediatrician did say that by 9 months she should be eating 3 meals and pretty much what we're hav...

The past couple months I have had a few great races and have realized that my body might actually prefer the lower mileage I am sitting at. These races increased my confidence in running TCM, but I was still unsure of what was going to happen since training hadn't been the greatest and I'd been having tight hamstrings all week. I have run two previous TCMs, both with bad endings and was out for revenge or I decided I was done with the course. Saturday, Ophelia did her first race, she participated in the diaper dash with TCM. Her version of the race consisted of picking and eating grass and playing with the little boy next to her, no "dashing" was involved. She got a cute little onsie and medal for the race and we got some cute pictures, well worth it for the cost of $7. Sunday morning Ophelia once again cooperated with my plans and woke up right before my alarm and I was able to feed her with being rushed and needing to wake up a sleeping baby, I think she is figuri...

At the last minute I decided to register for a women’s only 10 mile race last weekend since it fit into my training schedule and I haven’t raced a 10 mile in a few years. I went to packet pick after an easy run with my team on Saturday morning to find out that once again women’s shirts means v-necks. Seriously, am I the only woman who hates these?! Race morning to avoid the parking crowds we took the train to the race, this worked great, no hassle with parking and with the stroller I was able to bundle up before hand and leave Matt with my extra clothes. I wasn’t sure how this day would go since I was fighting a cold that was making it hard to breath. In all the race information it said they would have pacers, so I headed to the start and pushed my way up towards the front to find the 1:15 pacer, but no such luck the fastest pacer I saw was 1:25 so I was on my own. The race started and I had the lead runner in my sight, probably meaning I was going a little too fast. This was co...

  I cannot believe my baby is 8 months old already. This past month she went on her second trip, spending a week in Alabama, started talking much more and waving good bye. She is turning into quite the climber and is always looking for new things/places/people to explore. She also discover peek-a-boo and will play and giggle for the longest time. After this last trip she got her first real illness, just a cold, but still along with teething was tough on her, Matt and I. This cold was then passed on to me and I am just hoping it is gone before TCM. At the age of 8 months, she is now the owner of her own US passport, wow I didn’t get my fist one until I was 25. After an entire Winter in the cold weather I will be back to my routine of leaving the country for a warm weather break. Her measurements (inaccurate) 16 lbs and 28”. It seems odd to not be going back to the pediatrician this month, no more every two month appointments.

I can now officially say I am a trail runner, I completed my first trail race on Thursday and had a blast. The race was held in the evening and it had been raining since the previous night, but had decreased to only a mist by afternoon. This race was 5.75 miles, mostly on trails with a short portion on paved paths. I went into the race with three goal 1) Don’t get injured 2) Don’t get lost 3) Finish under 50 minutes. The race started at 6:30 and the rain promptly returned making the grass extra slick especially the steep hills. I stayed with the group and spent a lot of time looking down to avoid injury. At about the halfway point I started running and chatting with a guy who had done all the previous races of this series. The conversation started as we navigated our way around and through a series of mud puddles. I’m not typically one to talk during a race, but since I was just doing this for fun and taking it easy, why not. Soon we caught up to his running buddy and the three of u...

A week in 90+ weather and sitting through disorganization all day, I survived without too much complaining and only a few glassess of wine. Too much of my time was spend sitting and consuming coffee to stay awake, but I have to say I did benefit from at least one of the days. Suturing of pigs feet, I&D of chicken thighs, and gross anatomy lab. It's been years since spending any time in an anatomy lab and the smell brought me right back to my undergrad days almost 15 years ago. On the positive side, you actually get spice to your food when you order it that way, none of this midwestern idea of spice. Ophelia on the other hand had a blast, playing in the pool, at the park, and at story time. Everyone at the hotel had to go out of their way to say hi to my little girl, she loved all the attention. And she chose this week to start really talking, I heard my first "mama". It must be a Southern thing, maybe someone can explain it, but she was called a "dandelion gir...

Any runner knows the truth behind taper madness, putting yourself in situations of stress and annoying people during this time is not the best idea. In the past 24 hours I have been on the verge of screaming multiple times and this is only likely to get worse until I am home on Friday. My grad program requires a once a year on campus week, so here I am sitting in an auditorium full of fellow grad students who like to hear themselves talk. In attempts to make the week a little easier my mom and Ophelia are traveling with me to decrease the pumping and transporting of a gallon of milk on the flights home. Luckily for me Ophelia flies well until you experience delays leading to a late bedtime. Yesterday’s layover that should have been 1 hour, plenty of time to grab a quick meal and continue on turned into a much longer time and a crabby mom and baby. We arrived late, had car seat issues and Ophelia was up until 11pm, the only good from this was she slept through the night for the first t...

I’m a little late on this update so it will be short. Ophelia is now 7 months old and is quite the little mover. She is developing such a fun personality and is quite inquisitive with no fears. In the past month she mastered crawling and has moved on to standing while holding things and has even started taking some steps. She has also discovered climbing: the stairs, people, her bouncy seat, the fireplace. Nothing is off limits to this kid which has resulted in a couple falls and bruises; I’m only the first of many. Baby proofing is in full swing around here. She now has two teeth and shows them off while she smiles. My measurements put her at 15lbs and 27” this month.

The organization I coach for put on an inaugural 5K today to promote our upcoming season in Las Vegas. The race was Vegas themed and throughout the run participants collected cards to make a poker hand with the best hand winning. For a small race quickly put together the turnout was great, over 100 runners/walkers. The whole family did the race, Matt and I ran and my parents walked with Ophelia in BOB. I rarely run 5Ks and never expect much, especially today since I had run 16 miles the day before. Prior to the start I was informed by the guy who organizes my running group and my friend who owns the running store that they expected nothing less than a win from me, uh ok sure. The race started and a couple guys were ahead of me and two young teens soon sped past me, I was wondering how long they’d keep up their pace. The answer came quick when I passed them and could tell they were fading. Around Mile 2 I was passed by a group of three other guys, so I was still the first woman. I ju...

A few months back I got an email advertising an inaugural half marathon that just happened to be on my birthday, so I figured why not run it. It was a point to point course which combined the early miles of the old (pre-bridge collapse) TC10 course and a reverse of the middle miles of TCM. I should have known early on that this race would be different: (1) Ophelia woke on her own and we were ready to leave on time (2) I was not waiting in the porta-potty line when the race started (3) We were actually in the start corral with time to spare (4) I actually had a good training week leading up to the race. I lined up near the 1:45 pacer, still with that as my goal but hoping for a PR (1:43:27). The race started and I kept near the pacer for a mile or so until I got frustrated with the massive amount of people weaving through the course, seriously run in a straight line unless you are passing! I quickly had the 1:40 pacer close in front of me and decided to keep him in my sight, but runn...

Running during my pregnancy taught me many things, most importantly to listen to my body and enjoy running. I have a bad habit of continuing to run through the pain figuring it will just get better. Last Friday I headed out with the BOB for a run only to have pain in my hip that got worse as I went, after a few blocks I turned around headed home, got Morgan and turned it into a pain free walk instead. A year and a half ago I would have never done this, probably the reason for so many injuries including the tibial stress fracture that I discovered during a 20 miler that started painful and only got worse or the foot stress fractures that I discovered the day after finishing TCM many years ago when I had a swollen, bruised foot and could barely walk after mile 20. As ma result of listening to my body I had a great 16 miler on Sunday that was pain free. Motherhood has also changed me as a runner, I know everyone said it would, but I haven’t quit running and I never will because of my ch...

Ophelia has been quite the mover since before birth, over the past few weeks she has gotten quite quick and discovering everything she shouldn't have. Earlier this week she decided it was time to start standing on her own, I thought it was a fluke, but nope not after she repeatedly pulled herself up to standing using the edge of the couch or my shoulder. We had always said she'd be walking at Christmas time, now I'm wondering if we need to change that prediction to Halloween! So proud of herself!

I haven’t been very good at writing lately, I think of plenty to write but never get to it and even this is nearly a week late at this point. Ophelia is 6 months old; I can’t believe how much she has changed! At her appointment she found a new toy as she took great interest in the pediatrician’s ophthalmoscope, maybe she’ll be an ophthalmologist. She is now 14lb 1oz (15%) and 26.5” (75%). This month she has gotten the hang of sitting alone even though she doesn’t stay long, she’d rather be on the go and sitting involves minimal activity and like her mom she doesn’t seem to sit well. She is constantly on the go and moving quite fast doing a little crawling, but mostly the army crawl. There is no stopping her as she is discovering more excitement in the things she can’t have: mom’s laptop, cords, shoes, the garbage, magazines. She now has her first tooth after a rough few days it is finally here and so cute. In the past month, really since our California trip, she has turned in to a go...

Wine country with an infant was a great experience, somehow traveling turned my child into a great napper. I was nervous about the flights, especially after the day started with a major poop blowout on the way through security, but she did great! We even managed to keep an open seat in our row on the flight home and bring on the car seat, which resulted in a nap through nearly the entire flight. The reason for the trip was to coach my team through the Napa to Sonoma Half marathon, a course that winds through the wineries and finishes with a wine tasting in Sonoma Square. All 32 of my runners finished, many ahead of their predicted times, and all said they felt great. One runner even finished 3rd in her age group, pretty great accomplishment for a first timer. Ophelia loves watching and cheering for the runners, I hope this continues as she gets older since I’m sure Matt and I will continue to race. Once again this trip followed the same pattern as most, food, wine, and running. I...

Matt and I ran an inagural race to start our 4th of July this year. We wentdown to the start area on Saturday to pick up our packets and while we were there I encountered a strange woman. I was standing with Ophelia and she came up and started telling me how cute she was, asking her age, name, etc. And then proceeded to tell me that my child had an "iffy" name and making reference to Shakespeare. Okay, thanks for the infornation. Really, is it even possible to pick a name for your child that doesn't in some way associate with something negative? After the half on Sunday I am remembering what I don’t like about racing, the early wake ups that are now even tougher with an infant. The race started at 6:30 and I knew it was going to be a tough one when it was already 80 degrees on our way there. We got there about 6am, figuring we’d have plenty of time to spare. Wrong! After waiting in the massive line for the bathroom, I started almost 7 minutes after the gun went off, good...

On Monday Ophelia was 5 months old, wow has time flown. She has developed such a unique and inquisitive personality. We had joked that with our backgrounds she would go to medical school, she seems interested already. She has been to doctor appointments with me and my mom and just listens intently to every word the doctor is saying and then lets out a few squeals of agreement, now the dentist on the other hand is a different story, she wasn’t quite a happy to be there with me. She also has a fascination with pagers and loves throwing mine on the ground, some days I agree! Today she was given a pager case to play with from one of Matt’s coworkers and loved it. Although I’m sure in 20 years these will be non-existent. In the past month she has started eating; rice cereal, oatmeal, carrots, and bananas. She loves it all, but the favorite seems to be bananas. Just recently she signed “milk” for the first time and can sit up for a short time unsupported. Last weekend she spent her firs...

Today I decided to practice efficiency and good time management and combine a run and a trip to the grocery store, wow that resulted in some strange looks. We live about 1 mile from a grocery store that we often walk to, we get looks doing this, but today I decided to make the run a little longer and go to the Super Target instead. I ran the 2 miles to the store with the BOB and the looks started when I entered the store. I don’t know if it was the BOB or the cute baby, but everyone stared. Maybe they thought I was stealing the card, red pepper, zucchini, and yellow squash I put in the basket under the stroller. Things got stranger when I got in line and the people behind me had to point me out. Maybe it’s the fact that we live in the suburbs and people just don’t walk anywhere, I’m not sure but I’d walk/run/bike everywhere if I could, with an infant it is almost easier than the entire car seat process. Now I’m wondering was this really that weird?

Happy 1st Father’s Day Matt. I was working, so it was a daddy day for Ophelia, perfect for their first Father’s Day. I came home to find her asleep on the couch in daddy’s arms. This year we have established a couple new family traditions revolving around food and holidays. This started with sushi on St. Patrick’s Day and then Cinco de Mayo, so we decided all ethnic holidays mean sushi. The second trend continued yesterday when we went out for Indian on Father’s Day, the same meal choice as on Mother’s Day; so the second tradition of Indian food on parental holidays. Ophelia got her second taste of Indian, she loved the mushy potato/pea mix from the samosas and the pureed spinach from the shrimp saag. As I wrote this I realized we don't have many pictures of Matt and Ophelia, this is the last one from Easter. Looks like we need more daddy/baby pictures.

Ophelia has seemed interested in food from quite early on, she is my child after all. She has been reaching for our food and loves to watch people eat. She was so happy when I cheated and let her lick some curry sauce or ice cream off my finger. We decided not to wait on introducing food and started with the typical rice cereal right at 4 months. She loved it, but seemed to quickly get bored with the lack of flavor. After a couple weeks we moved on to carrots and she likes those even better, I'll have to admit that they are pretty good. It seems I have an independent child already, she has taken the spoon a few times and tries feeding herself with the occasional success. Who knew eating was so messy! This is what happens when she wants to help. Morgan loves the carrots too and lucky for him Ophelia is willing to share, we'll have to break this habit when she is older and starts passing off her meals to him.

I ran my 3rd half of the year yesterday and they are only getting worse. Two of the past three that I have run have been frustrating and uncomfortable and all I wanted was to be done. The half I ran 4 weeks ago was the only one that felt good and was enjoyable. I think it is time to step back and reassess my training, racing, and fueling. I decided not to experiment with this race and went back to my old standbys of a PB bagel and banana for breakfast and a Gu before and during the race. To prevent myself for going out too fast I lined up with the 1:45 pace group to keep an 8:01 pace. This backfired too! I'm not huge on running with pacers and this only reinforced that. I tried not to look at my Garmin since I figured the pacer was on, but when the pace felt faster I looked to see the first 2 miles were around 7:30. I slowed to my own pace and ran for awhile with the 3:30 pacer for the full who was actually running the right pace. This lasted until mile 4 when the race was o...

In the beginning the time went slow, but now it is flying by and I can't believe it has been 4 months already! We survived another round of shots and had another perfect check-up. I was reading last week that babies double their brith weight at 4 months and thought, no way she was going be 15 1/2 lbs. I was right, Ophelia is not 12lb 2oz (30th percentile) and 25" (70th percentile). I was a little nervous since she dropped from 50th to 30th and we have friends whose 6 month old did this and they were told to start waking her up at night to eat, no way I was going to do this! I was happy when the pediatrician looked at the numbers, my healthy, happy girl, and then to me and said "she takes after you, tall and thin, everything looks great." We got the okay to start adding in foods anytime between now and 6 months, now to figure out when to start. I knew from before her birth that she would be a mover and she is. Whether it is just lying on her back kicking (or running ...