Wells is 10 weeks old today!
Hello Mr. Personality! Ok, so he’s not a “little speedster” yet, but I have a feeling I’m going to have my hands full with Currie and this little guy. :)
Since my Turkey Trot, I’ve been a little exhausted. I recovered well from the racing, and even the long run (11.6 miles) with my brothers and husband 2 days later.
Husband Jeff, “little bro” Jason, me, big bro Josh.
But I am really far behind on sleep from all the family time and travel to see family. So my muscles are feeling good but my body is feeling pretty exhausted. My goal this week is get good sleep (and a nap!) at least 4 of the 7 days!
My proudest running moments of the week were:
- Reaching 40 miles in one week. I’ve been increasing 5 miles per week and adding 1-1.5 miles to the long run distance each week and it has been a great gradual transition so far. I am thinking I’ll hold at 50mpw for awhile when I get there in 2 weeks. I’ve been having the desire to run doubles again which I’m not doing but I’m happy to be craving extra running.
- Realizing my mental strength is still alive and well. I’ve had a few instances in the past 2 weeks where it would have been easy to throw in the towel mentally which would lead to physical decline. (Easiest one to explain is the pain train during my Turkey Trot, although my positive splitting was nothing to brag about, it could have been much more of a train wreck, but I held it together mentally even when my body was failing and finished strong.) I’m right where I want to be in the mental realm of my running.
- Flexing my abs in the mirror and seeing the slightest hint of muscle! You know when you occasionally (or frequently) step out of the shower and flex your muscles in the bathroom mirror? Well, I discovered that if I flex ’em really hard, I can see my abs again! They are there! Gonna be awhile till they look like this:
Karknocker 5k, Rochester NY
but I’ll get there!
- Getting my sprint on! I’ve been doing strides at the track for the past 2 weeks and today, I felt totally normal and fast again. Sure, the strides are the WHOLE WORKOUT right now so it’s nothing to “write home about”. Yes, I’d usually be doing strides as a normal part of my warmup to an entire speed session. But, sprinting hasn’t felt totally normal until today. I was a little concerned on the few snowy days of running to see that my usual toe-running style was replaced by trudging along making almost flat footed prints. Today, I was up high on the balls of my feet with my stride extended so much I literally kicked my butt on a few of the turnovers. I felt like my normal self and that was something to smile about!
My “cutest sighting on a run” this week was:
- Old lady out for a brisk walk using an old school walkman! You go granny!
My not-so-proud running moments of the week were:
- Lack of sleep leading to another cold! Must change that this week!
- Falling off the bandwagon with my strength exercises. While traveling for Thanksgiving, I missed a few days of my “at least one strength exercise per day” routine.
All in all though, I’m chugging right along!
Here are the 10 week postpartum pics!
10 Week photos taken by a hyper 3-year-old again.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend! Especially Heather and Laura as they run one of my favorite races, California International Marathon!
Questions for you:
Do you flex in the mirror daily, weekly, monthly, yearly?
What’s your cutest sighting on a run this week? Ever?
I want to know what and when the next “race” is?
Haha, I know Joe! I am having a hard time choosing my spring “goal” race which is holding everything else up!
OMG, he is beyond adorable!
I was worried that I was doing a 10 miler too soon, but seeing that you ran a little longer than that, makes me feel better, since we started back the same time.
Glad things are going well!
Thank you Kristy! Yes, I feel good about being over 11 miles at this point so I’m sure you are fine with your 10! We still need to run together someday soon!
Ahhh thank you so much Jen! I’m super excited for this race!
That face on Wells just kills me! Too funny. Both he and Currie seem like such hams, I love it 😀
They live up to the “Big-Ham” name! Ha!
I cannot flex my stomach muscles. I have tried and tried and tried but I cannot do it. Anyways-I’m glad you are plugging along and getting back (very quickly) to where you were.
Besides the Jersey drivers who are clearly cute sightings I saw a little girl finish a 5k this morning and I’ve never seen so much joy on a little kids face when they handed her the medal.
Haha, I have a hard time believing that Hollie! Please tell me you at least flex your biceps in the mirror.
I LOVE seeing little girls finish races. Makes my heart happy every time! Thanks for sharing!!
Oh my goodness you are doing fantastic! I am majorly jealous!!! I know you weren’t happy with the way your race went but for 10 weeks post partum and just starting back running again…well, more than impressive!
Ok, so what I want to know is 1.) you talk about getting more sleep like its something you can control with a 10 week old (please let me in on your secret!) 2.) You’re just awesome, I wanted to say it again. Not a question, but be sure to watch your iron levels. I was great 3 months PP, and then 4-6 months my running started feeling really hard. I blamed lack of sleep but finally got my blood tested and I was severely anemic because of nursing/running. Good Luck! Love watching you come back!
Thank you, Jen!! Oh, I’m super delighted with how the race went… just funny to see how much slower each mile got. But, that’s what I expected to happen, go out hard and die (exact opposite of how I usually like to race!)
I should have been more clear. Wells is sleeping like a sweet angel baby (like Alex did in the beginning, right?) but I’m being so ridiculous and staying up late for no reason… losing precious sleep! So, I’m making an effort to go to bed early, soon after he and Currie are down for the night so I can gain a few hours of time where I’m just wasting usually. And I’m trying to sneak in naps when he’s napping and when Currie is occupied. That one is harder but I got a little nap in yesterday so I was happy about that! I know when Wells starts teething this whole “good sleeper” thing will bite me in the rear so I want to be extra rested right now.
Yeah, if I could control baby sleep I would be a billionaire, right?!
Yes, thank you for saying something about the iron! I started thinking about that when reading Lauren Fleshman’s blog a few months ago and now I’m eating a can of oysters (which I don’t even like!) every week because they are high in iron. I’m also eating a lot of leafy greens. I’m going to remember what you said in case I start feeling tired for no reason. I’ve been extremely anemic before and I know what you mean… it’s horrible! And sometimes it’s not something you think of right away being a sleep-deprived mom! You think “I need to sleep more” or “I need to destress” before thinking, hey maybe my iron is low. So thank you for mentioning that!
I’m glad you are feeling better now too! Running after baby can be awesome when you take it day by day. It’s the only way I survive. I just do what I can with every given day (both in running and parenting!) and I try really hard to be happy with whatever I have that day.