Marathon Mom

Last Thursday all over Facebook people were posting about starting their long weekend and their fun plans, how they had 3 or even 4 days off of work to relax and enjoy. I too had a 4 day weekend ahead of me, but mine was 4 days of work. I guess working in health care this is something to expect. Somehow this holiday weekend was well behaved and didn't involve much trauma, at least that I saw, so my work days weren't bad and I was able to leave early. Besides work it was a busy weekend and by Monday we were ready to do nothing. Friday night I had a great dinner out with some college friends some who I haven't seen in many years. A few glasses of wine and great conversation resulted in a late night and Saturday morning came way to soon. Much different and calmer then things used to be when we all hung out at the bars in college until close! Now we're all mothers, wow how life changes. Saturday after work I finally had a long run that felt good. 12 miles at an easy pac...

Saturday was our local half marathon and not a very nice day for a run: cold with temps in the 40s and drizzly with winds. Yuck! Not what I like to run in especially on this hilly course. We get to the race and line up for the first lap around the track before heading out on to the the streets and trails. There is just something wrong with wearing mittens and long sleeves in mid-May. I had 20 miles on my schedule so the plan was to finish by running home afterwards. As my typical race starts I went out way too fast, Mile 1: 6:50, yikes! This continued Mile 2: 7:03, but at this point I was the lead woman, I'm never in this position and it didn't last. I was soon caught by another woman (she ended up winning for the 3rd year) and we ran together for about 1 mile chatting about Boston since I was wearing my jacket at this point. Mile 3 came and so did the feeling that I was punched in the stomach. I was continuing to slow down to a better pace 7:10s and just...

With working some weekends I often need to change around long runs to fit them in, in the past (pre-baby) I would just run these a different day usually Monday. Now I have two not so wonderful choices: run after work on the weekend or run in the morning a different day either with the BOB or on the treadmill during nap time. None of these options is ideal so I tend to go for the late day post-work run. This weekend that meant 16-18 miles on Saturday. That wasn't fun! I have a hard enough time getting the eating right for a morning run, but add into that another meal and multiple snacks and it's a disaster. That combined with the fatigue of a day at work resulted in a sluggish 16.5 miles. my belly was not happy resulting in multiple pains where I'm sure I was making a lovely face as the sudden pain came on and slowly subsided. This allowed me to take maybe 1/2 a Gu in the entire 2 hours and 15 minutes I was running which also didn't help to sluggish feeling. My final...

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and moms to be out there. I spent my day working, but had a nice visitor today bearing flowers. Just before lunch I heard a knock on my office door and there was my cute little girl holding a single pink daisy for me while Matt had the rest of the bouquet. On the way home I stopped to pick up something for my mom and found the most interesting plant. As I was looking at flowers I smelled limes and looked up and there was a plant called "Cerveza n lime". Perfect, I grabbed two! Then home for a quick 4.25 miles in the rain before dinner. What a great day and the rain stopped just in time to grill for dinner: halibut with pesto, squash, garlic potatoes with a nice Cabernet and lime pistachio bars for dessert.

April was another long cold month that didn't bring Spring, still snow and cold here. I'm wondering if Spring will ever come and if it is safe to pack away the Winter running clothes. Ophelia is now 15 months and still my little peanut: 18lbs 12oz (5th percentile) and 30.5" (50th percentile) and that girl eats like crazy and like her mom never stops moving. She is signing so much, I think this is the best thing ever for babies, such a great way to communicate and prevent my little drama queen from having a break down trying to get her point across. April Highlights PR at Boston: 3:30:27 !! Running another 200+ month: 204 miles (27:47:03) Biking 6:10:00 (still all on the trainer) Acceptance into my grad program Back to weight training 2-3 days a week April Lows The weather, temps in the 30s, snow, rain, wind! Still no answers, but more theories on what is wrong with me. I seem to be getting worse with the gluten and am having symptoms that I had forgotten about. ...