Running progress

after finishing my easy 1h ride at midnight, I dragged myself out of bed at 7 this morning to do my running intervals. I had to get it done before A woke up because we were going to St Louis in the afternoon to get the marriage licence. Woot woot!
I didnt feel stellar during the warm up and A was kind of fussing (I could hear her via baby monitor) and I was nervous she would wake up before I am done. But she slept right through it, and I even had time to make me a recovery drink and shower.
Anyway, the workout. I have been seeing improvements and after 400/800/1200/800/400 ladder last week I decided I need to try to run a mile at 8' pace And then I changed that to 2xmile. With 400 before and after. And I did it! I did 400 at 7:30 pace (felt great to open up my stride and run fast....it makes me sad to call 7:30 pace fast but it is what it is. My old coach told me not to worry about paces. Just run consistently and speed will come) and then a mile at 8' pace. I was struggling! But it was all mental. I wanted to quit, I wanted to cut it short but I knew it was all in my head. It was not too hard, my body was handling that pace well, there was no reason to quit!
The second mile went better, I used some tough love on me to help me stay strong.
And then I finished with 7:30 pace 400.

Overall, I am happy. Just 4-5 weeks ago I was struggling holding 8' pace for 4x400. Now I can do mile repeats at that pace. It is true, I just need to run consistently and speed will come. Plus these extra 45 pounds are not helping me be fast either:(
And the mental struggle? I havent done anything that pushed me for 9 months! It is normal that I lost the ability/willingmess to push through uncomfortable workouts. But i know that as I continue doing challenging workouts, the mental toughtness will come back.

Baby update

A is 8 weeks old and growing like a weed. I finally pulled the plug and bagged and put away A's newborn diapers. My baby is growing up. I could hardly fasten them anymore so it was time. I use cloth diapers and love them. Everyone that knows me would not be surprised that I am going cloth route. Disposable diapers create so much waste! I hate disposable things! I hardly ever use paper towels in the kitchen, just use a cloth towel and wash it! We had fight party on Saturday and Nathan's mom asked for a paper plate....just use a regular plate and wash it. I also got cloth wipes and not only I feel better about not creating waste but they work better. And to take cloth diapering/less waste way of doing things I am using diaper inserts that my mom used on me and my sister. And then my aunt on my two cousins. And there are even two inserts that my grandma used for my dad. (Things made in communist countries sure last longer than chinese crap we get now....) Yay for my family for not making diaper waste for over 30 years!

A smiles a lot. She sees me, she smiles. She sees Nathan, she smiles. I make a funny face, she smiles. We love it!

She is also trying very very hard to talk back to me but poor baby doesnt know how to use her vocal organs properly yet. She is going to be a talker.

She loves outdoors. And I mean loves it. She cries, you take her outside and all new sounds and smells and light contrasts make her stop and just look around completely mermetized. I love observing her.

She started sleeping 6-7h at night last week. She goes down anywhere between 10 and 11 and sleeps till 4 or 5. No complains from me. Although I would not mind if she went to sleep earlier, like at 8. That would give Nathan and I some time alone. And I could get done with my workout earlier. It is 11pm and I just started my bike workout:( (easy spin, so I spend it playing on my phone...real work starts next week)

She loves her baths. She is a happy baby sitting in the tub filled with warm water. I cannot wait to take her swimming.

My mom cannot wait to meet her. So far she only saw pictures and videos and camera calls and Oct 19 cannot come soon enough. That's when my mom comes and stays until the end of March. It is a win win. A does not need to go to daycare when she is still so small and my mom gets to spend lot of time with her first grandchild.

And that is it! She is awesome and we love her so much!

Hill repeats

My training for Madison 70.3 officially starts next week (I am not working with a coach as of now because I dont know how this whole new baby/new job/training for half-ironman thing works out snd I do not want to waste someone's time and spend money to prepare my workouts and then not be able to do them) but I have been some real running workouts the last month: some intervals (I almost died the first time I tried to hold 8' pace for 400m but it is getting better every week and I did 400,800,1200,800,400 last week and it felt pretty good! I am planning on doing a few mile repeats this week) and hills.
Today was hills day. Baby A slept from 10ish until 4am and I had to get it done before she woke up for a day since she doesnt nap long and I never know whether her nap will last 10 min (she loves her powernaps) or an hour so I cant get it really done during the day and Nathan has an evening class on Tuesdays.
I really did not want to go run outside because it was still dark and Nathan was sleeping so I did not want to leave without him knowing where I disappeared but then I remembered that I bought a treadmill for this reason. Plus he can sleep through anything so if A was to wake up she would be bawling without nobody comforting her. So off to treadmill taking baby monitor with me I went.
I decided on 6x2' with 1' rest at 10% incline and I think it was a good workout. I was naive and started to fast (10' pace) and had to lower the speed to 12' half way through the 1st interval if I wanted to finish that workout. Baby steps!
I also did little bit of weights afterwards (back, triceps and biceps) so I call it a productive morning!
By the time I was done with it (feeding the baby, pumping the rest, running, weights, recovery drink and shower) it was almost 8 and A woke up again to eat. She ate and then slept until almost 11. Crazy! She has never slept that much. But it was fine with me and I took a full advantage of it and took a nap myself:)

New start

I have not blogged for over 3 years but I have decided to give it a go again so i can look back at this time in my life in a few years.
It seems that not much has happened in those 3 years.....that's what happens when you work/live in small town in rural Illinois. But there has been some changes so let's recap the last few months.
I bought a house in 2015- I never lived in a house, my parents and I and my sister lived in an apartment but my grandparents lived in houses and I always prefered that. I live living in a house although it is a lot of work. Because I dont want to put too much money into this house be ause I know I will move eventually (3-4 years) I (yes, I me myself) sanded and refinished and stained my hardwood floors, took one wall down, repainted and rearranged the kitchen caninets (well, my sister helped when she came visit on Christmas), build a deck, build a fence (again my sis and a cousin helped me with this). I am impressed by myself:)))
I found a wonderful guy who moved in with me in summer 2016
I was supposed to go on a work assignment in India starting in 2018 so we decided to start a family before we go.
We found out I was pregnant in November, due July 2017
Everybody told me not to go to India with a tiny little baby so we decided not to go. Instead, I decided to change jobs. I have worked as a plant controller for a tire manufacturing company the last 3 years and I decided that it was time to try something different and I have been playing with the idea to move closer to production process. Everybody has been very supportive and when I go back to work after the maternity leave (November 1) I will be going into Industrial Engineering. I am super excited!
Baby girl Alexa was born on July 4. My firecracker baby! She is adorable and we cannot get enough of her!
I signed up for Madison 70.3 in 2018.

And this is where this starts. I would like to document my journey about getting back to training and racing  (I did stay active during pregnancy but not as much as I would have liked , esp first 6 months when I was puking my brains out daily, even ended up in ER one night on IV for fluids), losing weight (I gain weight very easily and I gained close to 50 pounds), while raising my sweet little girl and working a new job.

I started running 2 weeks after giving birth and saying that it was horrible is an understatement. I did not have any physical birth-related pain (well, it was as painless as it can be after birth and episiotomy). Finally after 3 weeks I started feeling little better and i could actually use my core while running! I ran 6 miles today and it has been my longest run since....forever. I ran at 10' pace these day and my interval workouts (I did 400,800,1200,800,400) are at 8' pace. It makes me super sad and mad how slow I am but I think that after I loose more of this baby weight (I was at 215-220 pregnant and am down to 193, still loooooot of pounds to loose to get to 150ish) and am consistent with running it will come back.
Because of the episiotomy I was very cautious about biking and I started after 4 weeks and no pain at all. I have mostly been doing easy peasy pedaling. I need to start some real biking.
I have not swam yet......I swim at college that is 20' drive and their summer pool hours suck, they are only open in the morning and Nathan (my soon to be husband:)) goes to work before 6 so I have noone to watch Alexa. But now summer is over and school started so I need to find out new hours.

And on a baby front....Alexa is a happy easy going baby. She is super alert and moving all the time. She smiles a lot, especially at her dad, and she gets frustrated when I talk to her and she is not able to talk back. She tries very hard! She changes very fast. Every day we discover that she does something new!