Speed Training, Slow Subways and Feeding Time

After only running a couple miles on Saturday I’m feeling great this week. Tuesday it was supposed to storm…I should know by now not to listen to NY1 TV channel. It will be pouring rain outside and I’ll turn on NY1 weather on the 1’s and they’ll be saying something like, “It’s dry right now, but it’s going to rain tonight.” And it will be 12 noon, POURING RAIN. Well anyway, since it was “going to rain” Tuesday, I decided to take the day off and catch up on some work.

Wednesday, I went to Central Park and ran around the lower loop (1.7 miles) 3 times. I did the first half speed walking/running slow, then I did the second half running as fast as I possibly could like I was racing or running for dear life. I repeated this three times. Each time I finished the fast half, I felt so energized and pumped. It was a really nice, breezy day…just beautiful! This is my variation of a speed work out and should help me get faster. Afterwards E-man and I visited the children’s park in Central Park full of all kind of fun-looking kid’s rides…something to do next summer…he’s a little young for it now (only 5m).

After our run we got stuck on the train for an hour…no announcements or anything just sitting there and sitting there and sitting there. E-man, after being his normal sweet, patient, happy self all day, just lost it after a 20 minute bout of sitting and sitting and sitting on the tracks about 30 seconds outside our stop. He was hungry and tired and stuck on this crowded train next to this guy who wouldn’t stop farting and he suddenly just decided to voice everyone’s feelings and began screaming and screaming and screaming uncontrollably.

This guy sitting down next to us was just sleeping right through it and here I am standing there next to his comfortable self with my screaming baby and my big stroller and diaper bag trying to keep my balance and finally I did something I never did before…I was like excuse me sir, would you mind giving me your seat. I mean how could he sleep through all that?! I hate when guys pretend to be sleeping so they don’t have to be courteous and offer a mother holding a screaming baby a seat. It is just so wrong! But anyways, I finally sat down and was able to feed him and then he was okay. He is really a very happy baby as long as he’s not hungry and stuck on a stupid train with a bunch of rude people.

Oh, I have to tell you about this morning. He had cereal for the first time. I mixed some rice cereal with breast milk and apparently I’m supposed to feed it to him in a bottle, but I didn’t know this. So I mixed it in a bowl and fed it to him with a little baby spoon. For the first couple bites he opened his mouth wide like a little birdy waiting for a worm. But then he started closing his mouth and making faces….so cute…this little personality! So I thought well maybe he was full. I changed his diaper but then he started acting like he was hungry again, you know trying to suck frantically on my arm and stuff. So I tried to feed him again. This time he would open his mouth but he just kept fussing and looking for the boob. So I put the cereal away and gave him some more boob. But he had a little taste. I’m going to try it again over the next couple of days, but in a bottle next time.

I was thinking that if I don’t manage to wean him before November, I’m going to have to take nursing breaks during the NYC marathon. I wonder if they will allow that. I think I would have to start like two hours early to make up for it, because I’m a slow enough runner as it is. :-\

So yesterday we all (E-man, E-man’s daddy and I) went to a little park in Astoria under the Tri-borough bridge where we often hang out by the water, watch the motorcycles, have pic-nics and eat Mr. Softies ice-cream. But as I was exploring it the last time we were there, I realized they had a track. So yesterday we went to the track. My BD walked around the track and talked on his old faithful phone and I pushed the jogging stroller and ran around two for his one. I did about three miles, I’m estimating.

I always over-estimate for psychological purposes if I don’t know. I figure, running a marathon is partly physical but a much bigger part psychological. If you think you can, then you can. If you think you’ve trained enough then you have. So if I’m not sure if I did two or three miles, I tell myself for psychological purposes that I’ve done three miles. So yesterday I did three miles.

Today I’m taking a day off.

Tomorrow I’m volunteering to tell people about my experience with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraising and running a marathon. It was so worth it. E-man’s going to come along and offer to be their coach…lol.

Sunday morning I’m meeting my running buddies in Central Park for a 12 mile run. The best part about the 12 mile run is meeting in the diner afterwards for brunch. The faster we get our run in the sooner we get to go to brunch! :-D

I’ll let you know how it goes…but you can’t join me for brunch unless you first put in 12 miles of running…that’s the prerequisite! ;-)

Day 1

In Waco, TX where I spent most of my years growing up there was a big traffic circle downtown that was famous for its crashes because of the lack of moderating incoming/outgoing traffic. There was a restaurant on the circle where you could get a souvenir matchbox that said, "I survived the circle." Well I need one of those match boxes that says, "I survived the first six weeks."

Of course everyone tries to warn you, but you just gotta find out for yourself...and now I know that those first six weeks after giving birth are quite trying, from the lack of sleep to taking ten minutes to change a dirty diaper only to have him spray all over your face and make a dirty diaper just as soon as you've gotten a new one on, to the complicated decisions of whether to get dressed, take a nap, or catch up on “Lost” in your 5 "free" minutes / day, to the "what did I get myself into?" to the guilt for wondering "what did I get myself into?"...if ever you have a kid, I don't need to go on and if you don't have a kid, well you just got to experience it to understand. (Not to discourage anyone…you get past it, you get to know each other...now he’s at that wonderful age where he is becoming aware of his hands and feet and will laugh and kick with all his might every time you rub his belly or his cheek and he has long conversations with me, his daddy, the mobile, the television, the ceiling…its wonderful…so hang in there!)

The only thing I can compare it to is the one marathon I ran so far...the San Francisco Nike Marathon in the fall of 2006 (gorgeous time of year in SF!!!)...overall a wonderful experience that just like motherhood, I was 100% sure I was ready for, I trained for it, I looked forward to it...I pictured myself crying tears of joy as I passed the finish line, but somewhere around mile 19 of 26.2 I asked myself..."what the !@#^&* did I get myself into!?"

Of course both of these experiences were absolutely worth it and once I got through that mile 19-26.2 and the first six months I laughed at myself for what a whuss I had been. But immediately after both of these experiences I said exactly the same thing to myself. I absolutely plan on doing this again but not for the next million years.

Well here I am, a million years later, having forgotten all the hard work, the whole experience having become idealized with time: week 1 of training for the NYC marathon this November. My baby is now 11 weeks and I am ready to do this: loose that baby fat, get back in shape, etc....(oh and I heard and believe from experiencing that running indirectly improves memory...and mine is going faster than it takes my baby to burp up half his meal...what was I saying?).

So I decided to keep a blog sharing my experience in case there are any other crazy mothers like me who need to know they are not alone. I hope to humor, encourage and share any advice I pick up along the way.

This morning, after nursing my baby and packing a stroller full of water, rain covers (since NY1 said it would rain on and off throughout the day but was not any more specific), pacifiers (in case he decides to angrily protest the run just when I'm too far to turn around / pl. because he will be sure to drop at least one), and a misc. of other non-necessities, I was off at 10:00 in the morning for my first run.

It turns out the jogging stroller that all my running buddies got me from my baby registry tells you in the maintenance guide after you've already bought the stroller that even though the website recommends the stroller for babies 2 months and up, they do not recommend you jog with it until your baby is 8 months...and that wouldn't do me any good unless I was planning on running with him in the marathon...so we'll save that for the next marathon (in Rio De Janeiro http://www.maratonadorio.com.br/, right E? Meanwhile, I am running down the cracked, bumpy, dog-poop-infested, annoyed-pedestrian-crowded sidewalks of Queens pushing my baby in my Eddie Bauer cruiser.

Oh yeah...gotta take a moment here now that I've mentioned it, Dog-Owners: when you leave your dog's poop in the middle of the sidewalk, it is then picked up on the soles of feet and the wheels of strollers and carried into homes where children walk and babies crawl with hands that they love to put into their mouths. Please think about this!

Well now that I got that little bit of venting out of the way, back to the run...it was actually a beautiful day today, not hot and humid yet, that rain never did come 'till much later, the sun was out but I used a blanket to keep it out of his eyes, and I made it 1 mile without stopping except to occasionally put the pacifier back in his mouth. That's better than I did my first time around while training for San Francisco back in 2006, I became winded after about four blocks and had to walk home, wheezing, and took 30 min. just to catch my breath. This time, not only did I make it a mile, but I actually took about a half mile walk after that.

Might I mention that I am not a fast runner at all...I did not time myself, but I'm guessing it took me anywhere from 12-20 min. I am also not a scarecrow with long, strong legs. I have just lost enough baby fat to almost fall into the “normal” category of the BMI. If I take one minute less than the 6 1/2 hrs it took me to run SF to run NYC, I will be ecstatic. All the joy is in the journey for this runner.

...more to come on gear for the full chested, milk spewing, runners and other such joys.

;-)