Taper Time

The Cherry Blossom 10-miler is this Sunday and...I am a little nervous!! I haven't run this race since 2007 and ROCKED that race (1:06:44). I don't know that I have that in me these days.

I am actually doing a taper this week...which I am usually loathe to do. I just think runs less than 7 miles aren't worth the time. But, I am being a good girl and actually doing it. It helps that my hubby is working a ton this week and I have also started working a couple of hours from home this week, so I have less time to exercise.

Side note: I learned today that my little man is no longer the portable little infant he once was. I tried to take him to a business lunch because he usually sleeps from 12-1:30, but he was WIDE awake and VERY cranky. I was so embarrassed. I fed him before the meeting so that he wouldn't get hungry and didn't bring a bottle...but he was VERY fussy and I ended up nursing him. Nothing like whipping out the "hooter hider" in a meeting to make you humble.

Weekly Mileage

Monday, March 23, 2009: 9.4 mile run, MTV Yoga Video
Tuesday, March 24, 2009: Body Pump, 9.4 mile run
Wednesday, March 25, 2009: MTV Yoga Video, 9 mile run with 4x1600 @ 6:22 and 4x1600 @ 7:05 w/ 800 jogs
Thursday, March 26, 2009: 8 mile run
Friday, March 27, 2009: 60 minutes elliptical, Body Pump
Saturday, March 28, 2009: 16 miles
Sunday, March 29, 2009: 8.6 miles
Total Mileage: 60.4 miles

Double-Edged Sword

A training plan is a beautiful thing. Your life, your plans, laid out before you directing you toward your goals. Part of me loves the training plan. I get upset if my plan is not met. For example, earlier this week, due to the car dealership (surprise) taking 2xs as long to do a simple check-up on the car I had to miss a spin class. I realized later that I spent the better part of two days irritated that I missed the spin class and that my whole plan for the week was off kilter.

The other part...the adolescent, rebellious aspect of my personality...hates to FREAKING do ANYTHING anyone else tells me to! It seems that after one week of perfect training that I feel that things are too precise and I self-sabotage. Let's see. It's 9 am and I am supposed to be half-way through a 16 mile run. But, Chill Runner canceled on me (again), it's raining and cold, and I am dead tired after a week of Nathan waking up every 2-3 hours, so here I sit...nursing Nathan and trying to figure out when the heck I am going to fit in a long run now. There's something wonderfully glutenous about sleeping in when you know you should be out running.

I guess the real beauty of training plans is that they are a PLAN and things don't necessarily have to adhere to the plan.

Breastfeeding Update: We have issued a no-talking rule while Nathan is feeding...which has resulted in some interesting adaptations in self-created sign language and phantom librarians scream-whispering SHHHHH. Trying to create a quiet environment seems to be helping some. Nathan has taken to eating more frequently at night when he is tired. Just to be sure he was gaining enough weight, I took him to the dr's office and he weighed in at 13 lbs 8 oz. That means he's gained 10 oz in the past 2 weeks, which definitely has him on target for a 1 lb gain in a month. So, I am less worried about it.

Sofa Update: We are still debating the d@mn sofa. I just want to make a decision and move on with life...but seeing as we have waited 7 years to buy a new sofa I want to make sure that we are making the right decision. I invested about $20 in decorating magazines and have been pouring over them this week to figure out what I like.

The Best Update of Them All: I just booked us a trip to Puerto Rico at the end of April!! Hubby's company was bought by another company and he found out that he is going to be losing all of his leave, so we decided to go on a mini-vacation. I'm not sure about the wisdom in taking a baby on such a trip...but we are renting a car with a carseat and staying in a hotel that caters to families with children. I'll let you all know how it goes.

Breast Rejection

Seems Nathan thinks he has better things to do than be latched on to my breast for 40 minutes. I have been having a hard time getting him to eat for the past two days and don't know whether it is because (a) he has gotten more efficient at eating; (b) he is becoming more aware of his surroundings and is more easily distracted; or (c) he is teething and the suction from breastfeeding is causing him pain. I am loathe to feed him from a bottle, but am pretty anxious about him getting enough to eat because he fell off the growth chart at the last doctor's visit. I don't want to give up on breastfeeding and just pump and feed him from a bottle because I enjoy feeding him and HATE pumping. I am also worried that if I just pump that my milk production will fall off.

Anyone else have these problems? Any solutions?

Coral = Pink?

I have never really liked our living room. It was "compromise" between my husband's style preferences (nothing girly, earth tones) and my style (brighter, more traditional) and was what we could afford at the time (I was in grad school). We bought our sofa/chair set six years ago from Craig's List for $400. In truth, there's nothing WRONG with the sofa/chair. In fact, I really like it. It's a neutral beige with a modern square shape. The only problem is that it is scratched up (previous owner) and has TONS of stains that I can't get out. The faux leather chair was from World Market. I hate it because it is uncomfortable to sit in and cheap...one of the legs keeps falling off. The wall art was all stuff that my husband picked out and, again, earth tones. The curtains are a la Target because they matched. I also hate the side and coffee tables because I think they are too big.

I would like to have something brighter and happier and more reflective of my style preferences. I finally convinced my hubby that we could afford to spend some $$ on a new living room set and buy "grown up" furniture. So, I went down to Richmond last week to visit this great furniture venue that has quality pieces at reasonable prices. I found some great options and took pictures to see if there is something that we could agree on.

I am trying to figure out, though, what is the best material for our furniture given that we have two dogs, a baby (hopefully more to come) AND are accident prone ourselves. For example, the couch is covered with pen mark stains that I can't get out, coffee, bacon grease (I take that one), blood from our dog's tail (he is a bit neurotic and chews it until it bleeds...it's awful), etc. We NEED something that is stain resistant or at least cleansible!

Some people say leather is a good option, but others say that it get scratched up. Some people say pick a patterned sofa.

What do you all think?

Also...I found this one couch that I liked...but it was coral and my husband said that "no self-respecting man will allow his wife to purchase a pink couch."

This sofa was a cool tweed fabric, but it would blow almost our entire budget; all we'd have in the living room was this sofa!


I love this chair....I just have to find something that matches it....


I thought this couch was a great neutral ...only problem...it looks EXACTLY like the couch we already have!


A leather option...


The notorious *pink* sofa...

Weekly Mileage

Kinda busy today...will write more later...

Monday, March 16, 2009: Spin, 9.4 mile run
Tuesday, March 17, 2009: Body Flow, 9.4 mile run
Wednesday, March 18, 2009: Body Pump, 10 mile run
Thursday, March 19, 2009: nada...furniture shopping with my mom
Friday, March 20, 2009: 8 miles
Saturday, March 21, 2009: 11.3 miles
Sunday, March 22, 2009: 14 miles
Total Mileage: 61.1 miles

Why Do We Blog?

I have been feeling a bit self-absorbed by blogging lately. If relating and connecting with other humans requires revelation on the part of both participants and one person spends the conversation broadcasting his/her emotions, then it is more of a lecture than a conversation. If I believe this to be true, then why do I blog?

Am I really just narcissistic and think that the world would like to know about my (not so) fascinating life?

I stumbled across the blogosphere when doing research on intense exercise/running during pregnancy. Since I don't have any friends that ran through their pregnancy that could relay their experiences, I was happy to find some "case studies" of active woman who blogged about their experiences running through pregnancy. I decided to blog because I thought my experience with infertility would be helpful to other active people. I planned on writing tips for picking fertility doctors; how to deal with the emotional struggles of infertility; how to deal with your spouse, etc., but ended up writing about my exercise life and life in general during and after pregnancy. Through this blog, I have found a network of active peers to learn from and relate to online.

It is clear why a number of blogs I read exist...to inform family and friends about the growth and development of their little ones and their lives. But, no one that I know in real life actually reads my blog and I am not sure that I want them to. If not for purposes of sharing with others, then why do I blog? I think part of it is definitely the desire for connection with other people like myself. But...if I am honest with myself...part of it has to be self absorbed and exhibitionist.

For those blogging for personal reasons (i.e., not just a way to keep family and friends informed about their little ones), why do you think we blog?

• Do we blog simply because the internet gives us another venue to connect with each other? Or does blogging bespeak deeper issues? Do we blog because we have gotten disconnected from each other by our insular lives and are striving to find another way to connect?
• Do we blog as a form of self-expression? Or, do we blog because we live in a society that promotes individualism to the extreme...i.e., encourages us to be self-focused and braggart?

Boy, those are some loaded questions!

Just curious.

A Day's Worth of My Ridiculous Consumption of Food

I eat massive amounts of food and I thought it might be funny to post how much I eat. Have you seen those magazine articles where they show all that one person consumes in one day to identify weaknesses in one's diet? Well, feel free to point out any weaknesses you see in my diet! I think I eat too many sweets, carbs, and too much at night. It's a bad habit, but since I am running in the evening I am just hungrier then. Also, you should know that my cholesterol is 270 (!!)..so I shouldn't be eating so much cheese/dairy/sweets.

9:30 AM: Bear Naked Oatmeal (it is the BEST), Brown Sugar, Strawberries, Coke Zero (gross, I know)

10:30 AM: 2 Baby Bell Light Cheeses

12:00-12:50 PM: Spin

1:45 PM: Orange, PB Granola Bar, Turkey & Cheese Sandwich with Roasted Red Pepper Spread and Lettuce , Coke Zero, (I actually ate the granola bar at 11, but didn't take a picture of it)

3:00 PM: Large Granny Smith Apple w/ Peanut Butter, Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream

~5:10-6:20 PM: RUN 9.6 Miles

7:00 PM: Taco salad with turkey burger, refried beans, cheese, tortilla chips, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, and green salsa

7:30 PM: Small Glass of Riesling, 6 Girl Scout Cookies (yeah!)

8:00 PM: Still hungry from dinner so I have ~10 pieces of leftover Gnocchi

8:30 PM: STILL hungry after my post dinner snacks, so I have a bowl of Kashi Shredded Wheat in Low Fat Soy Milk

9:30 PM: STILL FREAKING HUNGRY so I have a bowl of Blackberries in Light Sour Cream with some Vanilla and Brown Sugar

I think that's it for the day....I hope. I LOVE EATING THIS MUCH FOOD!! I worry that I will have a hard time adjusting to normal food consumption without so much exercise/breastfeeding.

(POST SCRIPT: 11:00 PM: STILL STARVING...so I ate the rest of the gnocci/chicken concoction my hubby made, a handfull of chocolate chips, and a glass of milk. I am a little bit grossed out now by how much food I ate.)

Come to Jesus Meetin' (and weekly mileage)

Last night hubby and I had a "come to jesus meetin'" about the marathon training. Let me preface this by telling you all that my husband LOVES to debate. He has a double-major in engineering and philosophy and I think he might even consider it a hobby. In addition, we are both extremely stubborn and first-born children that like to boss others around. It makes for great marital strife and is a constant source of amusement for our friends.

I have found the best way to have productive debates with him is to remove myself from the situation emotionally and think about what his issues might be and have hard facts to counter his points. In addition, it's really important to stay focused during discussions because you can end up "throwing in the kitchen sink" and fight about every little thing that the other person has ever done to irritate you. So, I used Runner's World Smart Coach to develop a plan that would have me running about the same amount as I am currently running during the week: 48 to 69 miles a week and only 5 runs longer than 16 miles over the course of three months. Adding up the amount of time that these longer runs would take and the actual marathon itself, we're really only talking about 15 more hours out of our life. In addition, I brought our handy little white board which he loves to use during our discussions and had him write out all of his concerns about the race, which included: time constraints, injury, and giving up a whole weekend to run the actual race. From this discussion, I learned that he was making some assumptions about the level of training required (i.e., much more than I am currently doing) and that I would only be willing to run a marathon that required travel. I also reminded him that I am supportive of his hobbies (other than debating): CrossFit, training for the 1/2 marathon we are running, and his monthly gaming event which takes about 6-7 hours. Granted, if you were to add up the amount of time he spends watching Nathan while I run, I think I definitely get more "me time." We decided to couch the discussion until I went back to work. We will re-evaluate then whether I would be able to continue running at my current level and progress to more training for the marathon.

Thanks for everyone's advice. It's good to hear from other active woman about how they manage their interests with their family's. I imagine that things will have to change when I go back to work and I will be joining some of you in the wee hour or lunch time workouts (which I am dreading). I often think that it is easier to be married to someone more laid back about exercise, but I also think that it makes me less dedicated. I guess that can be a good thing. It's not like I'm going to the Olympics or anything.

Weekly Mileage
Monday, March 9, 2009: Body Pump, 9.4 miles
Tuesday, March 10, 2009: 8.6 miles, MTV Yoga Video
Wednesday, March 11, 2009: 10 miles, spin class (my first in a LONG time!)
Thursday, March 12, 2009: 9.4 miles, Body Pump
Friday, March 13, 2009: 70 minutes elliptical, MTV Yoga Video
Saturday, March 14, 2009: ~14 mile run with Chill Runner (yeah!!!)
Sunday, March 15, 2009: 10 mile run w 4 miles @ 6:22 and 1 mile @ 7:05
Total Mileage: 61.4 miles

Good news! Chill Runner and I actually met up for a run on Saturday! It was great to run with her and we had one of those conversations that roamed all over the place ranging from giddy to very serious. I loved it.

Grrr

My husband and I have been having a fight for the past several weeks. I would like to sign up and train for a fall marathon. He doesn't want me to run a marathon. He thinks it is too time consuming, but I tell him that it will just be an hour longer TOPS for my long runs on the weekend for three months. He won't budge. I don't know what to do to convince him that it is feasible and am mad at him for being such a bully about it. I hate feeling like I have to "get permission" to do anything. I am tempted to just sign up for a marathon anyway and do the training and just not tell him what I am doing until race day. I really don't think that I am asking for too much. I guess he is worried about how we will manage my running when I go back to work and that we might be doing renovations on the house in the fall, but I feel that it is unfair of him to curtail my activity/interests.

Side note: I know that I had said earlier that I would only run 10-milers and 1/2 marathons from now on because of my butt/hamstring issues...but I miss having something BIG for which to train. Putting in my 50-60 miles per week is easy....and I want something a bit harder. Maybe I should look into doing a triathalon? I doubt that he would be supportive of 2x a day workouts. Maybe once I go back to work I will realize that putting in 50-60 miles per week is tough enough.

Ug. Does anyone else have these issues with their hubby? This is what I get for marrying someone non-athletic.

Ye-HAW!

We have found childcare! There is a great at-home childcare around the corner from our house (literally, 0.1 mile) that has an opening in mid-June. I never thought that I would be comfortable with in-home child care, but I really like this place and the woman that runs it is wonderful. Plus, it only costs ~$1200/month, which is CHEAP in DC. (And, it's cheap enough that I could probably just work 30 hours a week and just pay the full price.) I am going to do a formal interview with the woman that runs it next week, but I know a mom in our neighborhood that has her baby in this woman's care and she loves it. So, this means only 1.5 month of my MIL, who is great...but having permanent company regardless of how easy-going they are is always hard.

In other news, Nathan has fallen off in his growth...he only weighs 12 lbs 14oz...and is in the 15th percentile for a four month old. At two months, he was in the 30th percentile. So, I am going to start feeding him every 2.5 hours during the day and hold off on sleep training until next month if his weight gain increases. Although....he did sleep from 9pm until 3am today! Too bad I can't sleep....

Delaying the Inevitable

My mother-in-law has been vying for our nanny position since oh...we first started dating. I feel like I am not in a good enough place to be decisive about how many hours I want to do a nanny share, etc. and am not good nanny-share criteria. Plus, we have the whole Denver thing. So, I decided to ask my MIL if she could watch Nathan this summer (she's a teacher in WV). She said she can get May off of school and watch him through August, so this will grant me a little more time to look for a nanny or get into a child care center. I don't know if I will regret this decision a few months from now and wish that I had just ripped off the bandaid and found a nanny. I figured this would be a good decision because I could get a better feel for how much I will want to work and know that I have someone I trust taking care of Nathan. I am still doing a lot of work for my non-profit and this would give us some help in the evening hours when I have meetings.

First Place! (and weekly mileage)

PHOTO: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ex2adventures/3341744598/in/set-72157615043511072/

I was the first female finisher at the Backyard Burn 10 mile race today! It's a hilly trail race in a park in Northern Virginia. As if getting up early to prepare for a race isn't hard enough, today was the first day of daylight savings, we had to drive an hour to the race, AND figure out how to feed a baby! My hubby and I both ran this race (well, he ran the 5 miler) and our sister-in-law happily volunteered to watch Nathan while we ran. To deal with the baby feeding issue, I pumped in the car before and after the race. It actually ended being a lot easier than I expected...the pumping/baby management part. The race itself was pretty tough. Lots of hills and MAN do I suck at hills. I was thinking that I would probably end up running 8 min miles. I actually had to WALK up some of the hills they were so steep. And, there were lots of roots and trees so you really had to watch where you were going. I twisted my ankle twice while running but thankfully not enough to do any real damage. I forgot my garmin, so I don't know my splits, but I ended up with 1:19:55. I have no idea how to compare trail race times to road races. I did WIN the race, so I must have done pretty well. For a large portion of the race, I was running alone. There were some guys in front of me that were way faster and I didn't see any women anywhere close to me, so I pretty much knew that I was in 1st place. I have to be honest...I don't think that I pushed myself as hard as I would have if I had a female competitor. Nathan was a real hit after the race and I met two other running moms with 4 and 5 month old babies that placed in their age group, too. Unfortunately, neither live close to me. I'm still stalking people to find a running partner and did ask the girl that came in behind me for her email. Neither of the two other potentials worked out so far.....Iromwoman is way too fast for me and Chill Runner is so chill that she never comes to Saturday runs anymore. So, we'll see if Trail Runner works out. One of the other running mamas told me about RunHers, a female only running group so I am going to check them out.

Weekly Mileage
Monday, March 2, 2009: 8 miles @ 8:06
Tuesday, March 3, 2009: 10 miles @ 7:48, BodyPump
Wednesday, March 4, 2009: 9.4 miles, MTV Yoga Video
Thursday, March 5, 2009: 8.6 miles
Friday, March 6, 2009: 7 miles, BodyFlow
Saturday, March 7, 2009: 75 minutes elliptical
Sunday, March 8, 2009: 10 mile race and MASSAGE
Total Mileage: 53 miles

No Sleep

For the past two weeks, Nathan has been getting up every two hours. I know that he doesn't need to feed every two hours, so we have been feeding him at 1-2 am and 4-5 am. The rest of the time we just stick a pacifier in his mouth and sooth him back to sleep after letting him CIO for 20 minutes. I think he might be teething. He is drooling a lot and trying to get everything possible in his mouth. Unfortunately, he is a small guy anyway and young to be teething, so none of the teething soothers fit in his mouth. He LOVES it when we rub his gums, but in general is just a very cranky baby these days.

I am miserable. I thought he would be sleeping more by now and miss the days of four hours of sleep. When will they come back? I hate all you mothers with your sleeping babies!!!

Plus, our nanny fell through and now we have to start the search all over again. I guess I'm pretty cranky, too.

Snow Day!!

We got some great snow in DC! Here's some shots from a family walk to our favorite local coffee shop to get some hot chocolate!