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!