Monday, February 25, 2013

Woes of a marathon mom

So it's been a few weeks since my last blog and for good reason. It's not easy training for a 50k, being a part time PT and being mom of two kids! My last blog I had mentioned how my husband was away. Well he eventually came back and since then it's just been a whirlwind of things going on not to mention our weekly mileage ramped up to 48 miles the last couple weeks. In addition to just being busy, I also had a little bit of feeling down. First I had the guilt of my husband struggling with his ITB problem. He wasn't able to do all the runs for a couple weeks due to the pain. He was really upset and worried which of course made me feel bad and really guilty that I was able to do all mine. He's been feeling pretty good the last week or two so hopefully we r good now. Then I realized I put on a couple pounds the last couple weeks. Emir and I went away for an overnight ski trip (my first time!!!) and it was my birthday so we ate out a bunch of Times and enjoyed many a beer the last couple weekends so I know that's why. But still overall I'm just frustrated with myself. I'm not yet back where I want my body to be. And yes I know my baby isn't even ten months yet but I just want to be where I was right before this pregnancy. It's just soooooo hard!!!! Obviously I put in at least 7 hours of running a week so why am I stuck?!?! But I know why. I'm still breast feeding which alone makes me want to devour every morsel in sight but in combo with this 50k training has made me STARVING!!! Which unfortunately makes me do bad things in terms of food choices especially because I will say to myself "I just ran 20 miles and I'm burning extra calories breast feeding so its fine to eat a Stromboli and have a couple beers". And yeah once in a while it is ok but it's been happening a little too frequently. I also had told myself that I wouldn't be able to even think of being pre-Una weight until I was done breast feeding because in addition to being hungry and also really needing some extra calories to maintain my supply, a lot of women retain that last 5-10 pounds as sort of a reserve so that their bodies can keep producing milk. But I let it get a little too far which is disappointing since I didn't want to get into the same habits as after my first pregnancy. But on the positive side, over a year after having Niko I could barely run one mile and here I am less than 10 months after Una training for a 50k so I'm definitely in way better shape. So over the last week I made a conscious effort to eat better and set a goal to lose a couple pounds by our marathon in march

A couple of training highlights from the past few weeks. Emir and I took part in a 20 mile group trail run in snow and ice. It was a super hard run with tons of elevation and technical terrain but lots of fun. The following weekend we skied for 7.5 hours, my first time and then the next day did 24 miles again on that same trail. I was hurtin so bad by the end due to many falls the day before but I made it through only with my tailwind. That stuff seriously rocks! Emir says I'm addicted but I don't think that's a bad thing ;-). And then this past weekend I did 18 Saturday in the rain and 10 Sunday. I felt pretty good so happy about that!