Using races for tempos!

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. I am the worst blogger ever! We just have so much going on right now, and of course when I sit down for some quiet time to write I get interrupted by a screaming child. But all is good right now, as both Travis and Eileen are very happy hanging out with their daddy.

Since last I wrote I have run two 5k's and a half marathon. I definitely did not expect to be super fast, but it doesn't bother me at all. I have learned that there are some runners that won't come out and race unless they are in tip top shape, and there are other runners who really could care less and just want to toe the line!  I just like to race. I've always liked to race, since 7th grade when I was getting my butt kicked by the two Christine's, both 8th graders on my own team, I just wanted to get out there.

While riding the bus up to the start of the Decker's Creek Half Marathon, I realized that racing is my drug. I love the nervous energy and the anticipation. Here I was 10 weeks post baby and I was nervous for some stupid reason. I knew I was only going to try and run 8 minute pace, I wasn't going to be anywhere near the winners, but I was still giddy with anticipation.

Right now there is only one good reason for me to race, FITNESS! I need to do some kind of faster paced runs with other people pushing me, but I'm not near fit enough to do workouts with my usual running partners, so race it is. That's what 5k's are for. I decided to run the Half Marathon because I was having a hard time getting over 9 miles on my long run days, so I figured I would use it as a hard long run. I had the extra bonus of Don watching the kids since he had to time the race anyway!

I thought a lot today about how having kids changes a long distance runner. When you are a runner you are a very solitary person, and you are a very selfish person. You do whatever you can to work life around your runs. Before kids came along I could plan my day according to work and running, and when I went to a race all I had to worry about was racing well. Now I have to make sure the baby is fed and the diaper bags are stocked with an emergency bottle, sunscreen, and snacks for Travis. When Don went away over Memorial Day weekend, my babysitter canceled on me because her dog got sick and she had to make an emergency trip to the vet, so I didn't get my run in that day. You have to learn to roll with the punches, that's for sure. Luckily it had been about 3 weeks since I had a day off, so I was glad to take it! I realize every day that I am luckier than most and my husband will watch the kids in the evening if I am too lazy to get out of bed at 6 am and get my run in, or that my kids are both very good in the baby jogger if I have to go that route.  I also have wonderful baby sitters if need be!

At more than 10 weeks postpartum I have somewhat relaxed my expectations, even though my training is going very well so far. If November comes along and I am not in marathon shape, so be it! But I have a feeling it will happen, as long as Eileen keeps up her awesome baby attitude and I can keep getting some decent sleep!

I have recently started my HABIT prolapse rehab dvd. The physical therapist that came  up with the whole program is a triathlete and she claims that within 8 weeks you should be good to go, if you do the workouts three times a week. So I am trying hard to get it done 3 times a week and I am hoping for the best. Really the whole thing is not bothering me much anymore, but I'd like to do whatever I can to make it better and maybe it won't be so bad after the next baby (oye, next baby, lol)!

Only Seven Weeks!

Seven weeks yesterday I gave birth to Eileen. It seems like she's always been around. I can't remember life without Travis and Eileen. It's a bit weird to think that, I guess. Of course, as soon as I sit down to try and write this she is fussing and wants to be held. So now I am sitting with her in my lap and typing away. We are human beings after all, and we have an amazing ability to adapt.

Against every baby and parenting journal out there I have had Eileen in the jogger stroller already. Our hand me down side by side double stroller reclines just enough and I have a funny little device that keeps her head stable. She's a strong baby and she already holds her head up, so I just try to stay off the rough roads and the three of us go out on lovely 4 mile runs.

I am now up to 8 miles on my "long" runs. I ran that yesterday. My quest is to break the 4 mile a day barrier. Somehow 4 miles seems so easy to get in, but 5 miles not so much! Most days I am pushing the kids in the jogger, so that probably zaps my energy more than I like, but it burns more calories and makes you stronger.  I am lucky to have an understanding husband who will watch the kids while I run, but I don't like to take advantage of this if I don't have to. Lately the weather has not been very good for being outside with the kids because of all the rain. I've decided it is probably time to start retraining my body clock to go to bed early and wake up early so I can run before Don goes to work. I will certainly hate it, but we moms must do what we have to in order to maintain some sense of ourselves.

Last week I went to my 6 week check up. The doctor says everything is fine, considering I've had two big kids. He says my prolapse is not going to get any better without surgery, but I've read otherwise. I've done a lot of research and decided I may try some Yoga moves to help. I really do not enjoy yoga, I am very inflexible after years of running, but I'm willing to try anything!

I'm planning on running my first 5k this upcoming Saturday. We'll see how that goes!

Slacker no more!

Okay, Okay, I've let this blog go for too long without updating. I haven't been too good with my New Year's resolution either, but that is still fixable.  So after about a month here is a post that I hope will get me posting more often.

I'm coming up on 6 weeks postpartum. I can say that I feel great. I've been running for almost 3 weeks and I feel much better than I did when I started running after having Travis. As they say, it is important to remember that every person and pregnancy is different. I think the difference is that although I stopped running at 35 weeks with Eileen, I made an effort to keep walking every day right up to the day I went into labor. With Travis it was the dead of winter and I was unmotivated to move after a while.

I've worked my way up to about 4 miles a day and 5 on my long run day last Sunday. I hope to run 7 this Sunday. This is not without it's issues of course, nothing ever is. Just before I wanted to start running I discovered what is called a bladder prolapse. This is one of those things they don't tell us women when we are so anxious to get pregnant. I kind of knew what was going on, so of course I googled the heck out of it and read all these horror stories about doctors telling women they could never run again because of this and other prolapse (there's Uterine and Rectal too, joy!).

Afraid that my bladder was going to fall out, I went to the doctor at 3 weeks postpartum and he told me everything would be fine and I could keep running. This apparently was caused by two large babies, and can only really be fixed by surgery, which they will only do if you are done having babies. We'll decide that in a year, because if you asked me right now, I'd be done having babies! ;)

So that day after I got over my depression I started running. Some days are good, some days are uncomfortable, but that's how running is regardless of a prolapse. I've also started back on the weights (mostly exercise videos because that's just easier) and although it is tough, it feels great after wards and I'm well aware of all the muscle tone that is lost during pregnancy, even if you still workout. Those abs aren't going to go back by themselves! It takes a lot of work and patience.

I had myself talked into "racing" a 5k this weekend, but it turns out I have to work anyway. In reality it is probably too soon and I may come away from it very disappointed. But I have realized through two pregnancies that after about 25 years of running, it's fun to have a reason to be sub-par. When I stepped out for my first run, even though it was only a mile and a half, I was so excited! Then last week when I ran 4 miles at 8:40 pace, again I was excited. Then when you start going to races and you run a time that you ran in high school, people think you are super woman. You're able to enjoy the process and the small accomplishments again, instead of chasing a PR that you set 5 years ago. you may never see that PR again, but now you have postpartum PR's. It's a new lease on your running career. In a way I guess it makes racing and running fun again. It also gives me a chance to be out in the quiet of our woods and fields with out hearing a 3 year old that won't stop talking and a 5 week old who won't stop screaming. My kids are great kids, but sometimes I need a time out!!

2 Weeks with Eileen

Tomorrow our little girl will be 2 weeks old. So far she has been a great baby. I think God knows that I need good babies because I have little patience. She has been a joy.

Thankfully the weather has gotten better and I've gotten some good exercise in. I've worked my way up to 3 miles of walking now, while carrying Eileen. I've also been doing my  postpartum ab exercises so I'm nice and strong by the time I start really running again.  I feel great and almost had myself talked into trying to run tomorrow, but I decided it would be best if I waited another week like I did with Travis. I wouldn't want to go backwards! I only want to move forwards.

Today Eileen and I walked part of the Mt.Summit Challenge. This is a race I have always wanted to do, but something has always come up. So I decided to take Eileen, my newest walking partner, with me to do the race.

The race is 3.5 miles uphill from the little town of Hopwood, Pennsylvania. What I didn't realize was that there is no shuttle back down the mountain. I couldn't very well hitch a ride with just anyone since I would need a car seat, so I decided to just walk 1.5 miles up the hill and then turn around and walk back down to the car. This was 1 mile longer than I have walked in a while. On the warmest day of the year so far Eileen and I made the trek. We had a great time, and she slept most of the way. Lets hope it's the first of many races for Baby Eileen!

The spring racing season is now in full swing, and Boston Marathon is coming up next week, so I am really itching to run. I have to remind myself that I am still a good 15 pounds overweight and it will not be easy or even really enjoyable when I go out for my first few runs. I'm just hoping I can survive for 30 minutes. I just have to look for the light at the end of the tunnel! I make it through these first few weeks and the rest of the summer will be awesome!

Eileen Lorraine Parks, 3/28/11

I've neglected my blog long enough. I guess I was preparing for our little one to come and it slipped my mind. I wasn't walking much, and I wasn't cooking from scratch much in the past couple weeks, so I really didn't have anything to write about. I have made Huevos Rancheros, corned beef and cabbage for my birthday (not a cookbook recipe, but it's tradition), Tacos with sweet potato puree and deer meat, and others that I will get to at a later time.

On Sunday I woke up having minor contractions. I had been having these kinds of contractions for about a week and they would go away, so I thought it might not be the real deal. As the morning went on they kept up and got a little more intense. I told Don that he may not be going to work on Monday, which he didn't mind one bit.

That afternoon Don had to time the Cooper's Rock 10k, and I took Travis to Morgantown to the Dance Baby Dance children's cancer fundraiser. We were having a great time, and we saw lots of friends. These friends all thought I was joking when I told them I was in labor. Nope, I was serious. It's kind of funny to tell people that though, standing there having a contraction "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm in labor". I was the only one that knew there was no reason to panic, after all I figured it would be about 18 hours. Travis was 36 hours with 2 1/2 hours of pushing. No fun at all.

I picked Don up on the way home and still the contractions were getting more intense, but still bearable. We got home around 4:30 and Don went to go do some chores around the farm. I thought he was only going to be gone for about 30 minutes or so. An hour went by and the contractions were getting bad. Travis was not feeling well, so he wanted to be hugged. Every time a contraction would come on I would ask him to get off me. He had no idea what was going on and I was getting pretty upset that Don was not back yet. I called Don and said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" To this he responded that he would be home shortly.  At that point I was in tears and Travis was saying "Don't cry mommy!" I felt so bad.

Don came home and we made Tacos. I still didn't really know if this was a fake out, so I wanted to eat some spicy food (well, spicy for me). I could barely make it through the meal. I called the mid-wife and she said I'd better come in sooner rather than later so I could get an IV in. So I called my assistant track coach and told him to come get the track book, then I called Travis' baby sitter and asked her to come get him. We still weren't in a panic yet, but by the time everyone came and went, my contractions were 5 minutes apart and we live about 40 minutes from the hospital.

On the ride in my contractions continued to be 5 minutes apart, so we were now panicking.  I could hardly stand to walk, and of course they wanted me to fill paper work out when I got to the desk. Why do they ask you if you have a living will and power of attorney right before you're going in? Not very reassuring!

So, at about 9 pm I layed down in the bed and my contractions of course slowed down. They were so intense though that I could hardly breathe through them and I would tense up. I got the nubane but it really didn't help at all. I knew I still had a while to go, so at midnight I gave into the epidural. I don't know why I tried to tough it out. With Travis when  I got the epidural my contractions got closer together and more regular and did their job! Same thing happened here.

While Don was trying to sleep in a recliner, I also tried to sleep all the while looking at the monitor for Eileen's HR and my HR and wondering about contractions and being worried that maybe I'll have to have a C-section if she doesn't progress. I was having flashbacks of Travis' birth.. The mid-wife refused to break my water which was making me angry, but I'm no doctor, so whatever.

At about 6 am the mid-wife came in and said "well, you're 9 3/4 dilated, but you're water hasn't broken yet." Great! Jeez! I've got some stubborn kids! She told me I would know when my water broke and that I would feel some pressure when it was time to push. The 7 o'clock hour came and I didn't think my water broke, but I was starting to feel some pressure.

A little before 8 o'clock a new mid-wife came in, fresh off of vacation. She said "oh, you're water broke" and I said I had been feeling some pressure, and she said "Oh, there's the head, we're ready to push"! Not 15 minutes later (thank GOD!) Eileen came into this world, all 8 lbs. 12 ounces of her. 

So now we're recuperating. I went on my first walk yesterday (Friday) and another one this morning. Just an easy 30 minutes and some very light abdominal exercises. I will do this for another 2 weeks then I will hopefully try running. Easy does it! I hope Eileen likes being outside as much as Travis does!

Mashin' Taters!

Ahh, another week gone by. 37 weeks and I'm beginning to think I may start charging this kid rent. It is getting painful to even walk now, but I try. The wicked March weather isn't helping my situation any, but it is what it is.

This week I tried a couple of fairly easy recipes. I think although I am nesting, I've lost my drive to create great food. Some of the recipes in the Mealtime sections of Jessica's cookbooks aren't really "meals". Some are just side dishes. This week I decided to make mashed potatoes from "Deceptively Delicious" and Skinny Egg Salad from "Double Delicious".  I had already made the Skinny Egg Salad before New Year's Eve, but Don told me that I couldn't count it towards my resolution. Stickler!

The mashed potatoes were very easy. Just like making homemade mashed potatoes, only you add cauliflower puree. 1 lb. baking potatoes peeled and cubed (we used red), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup cauliflower puree, 2 tablespoons margarine spread, 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk. We never use buttermilk, so I just used skim milk. I also added a little bit of garlic salt.  We had it with our deer steak stir fry that Don likes to make and it was delicious!

Onto the Skinny Egg Salad. 1 dozen large eggs hard boiled, 4 green onions (left them out, didn't have them), 6 tablespoons reduced fat mayo, 1/4 cup plain yogurt (used greek, but i think it made it taste funny), 1/2 cup cauliflower puree, 1 teaspoon dijon mustard, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, pinch of sweet paprika, whole wheat sandwich bread. Mix everything together and yummo! But really, it tastes a little bit funny to me just because of the greek yogurt I think. But hey, I used a lot of our eggs!

Tonight it's Huevos Rancheros! Can't wait!!

36 weeks! Can you tell I'm counting down the days?

I have to admit, I have not gotten in any running in the past week. I have been walking about 2 miles a day though, so I'm happy with that. My ligaments are starting to protest my daily activities. It's so strange the things that happen to your body when you are pregnant, and fascinating at the same time. I'm not quite sure how we came to be (God, evolution, yada yada) but it can be really mind boggling when you find out how everything works to bring a new life into this world. I must admit though, I sometimes wish I was a kangaroo so I could store this baby on the outside of my body for a while. I suppose that's what the Baby Bjorn is for.

If you'd like a good laugh, you should go walk around Target or Walmart with me right now. You can see the fear in people's eyes as they think my water is going to break right on the spot or something. I am quite a sight. Don says he will wait to take a belly shot of me at least another week since I was almost 40 weeks when he took the picture of my belly with Travis. So maybe I will post that picture until then and you will get the idea.

On to this weeks recipes!  The first recipe is Tortilla "Cigars" out of "Deceptively Delicious". The picture of this recipe in the book reminded me of my high school days working at Ponderosa. One of my favorite things to steal off of the buffet were the Toquitos. They were probably very bad for me, and I have to admit, although I worked there all through high school, I've only set foot in a Ponderosa once in the last 17 years.

So, I decided to use my leftover deer meat for this recipe instead of making a meatloaf. I was running out of time in the week to get my two recipes in, so I looked for something to make here instead. 1 cup of sauteed meat (you can use chicken or turkey if you like), 1/2 cup shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup yellow squash puree ( I used sweet potato), 1/2 cup carrot puree, 4 ounces reduced fat cream cheese, 1/4 tspn garlic powder, 1/4 tspn salt, 6 large whole wheat tortillas cut in half.

Stir together meat, cheese, purees, cream cheese, garlic powder, and salt. Spread about 2 tablespoons of the mix on the tortilla's edge. Roll the tortilla into a cigar shape. Place seam-side down on the baking sheet. Bake until the tortillas are begin to brown, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Don and I loved this recipe, Travis does not like red meat so he wasn't too fond of it. Oh well, more for us!

My other recipe for the week was home made macaroni and cheese out of "Double Delicious". I told a friend that I made it on Sunday and he said "oh, yum, my mom and grandma always made home made mac and cheese". I had to explain to him that his mom's recipe was probably much tastier just for the simple fact that it is traditional southern mac and cheese, and not the healthy hidden veggie kind I made.

The recipe is as follows: 1 lb. whole wheat pasta, 2 Tablespoons fat free margarine, 2 1/2 cups skim milk, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 cup cheddar cheese, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup sweet potato puree, 1/4 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan. Heat margarine in a saucepan and whisk in the flour. Slowly whisk in the milk. Bring to a boil and cook until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Add the cheddar cheese, salt, and sweet potato puree, whisk until smooth. Stir the cheese mixture in with your already cooked pasta. Transfer to a baking dish and sprinkle the top with bread crumbs and Parmesan. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

We all loved this one and we had plenty of leftovers.  It's another recipe that I will probably make again. Tonight I made the chicken enchiladas recipe again and it was just as good as the first time.