On Your Marks!

All right fans, here's what I've been waiting for... a new challenge and something exciting to work on.   In 2009, I gave birth to my dear son Oren in mid-June after a very healthy, easy pregnancy and a natural childbirth that was a bit rough on the nether regions (we'll leave it at that).  I was a complete wreck for two weeks of intense recovery and a little bit less of a wreck for another month.  At my six week check up, my midwife asked me if I'd gone running yet and I looked at her like she was suddenly speaking Chinese.  It hadn't even crossed my mind.  To my credit, I took myself to the pool that very week and was back running a couple of weeks later.  The last weekend of August I joined some of my former racing teammates to complete the swim leg of a triathlon relay (I rocked it, too).  Though under trained, I completed the Detroit Half Marathon that October, exactly four months after giving birth.  After training all winter, spring, and through a hard summer I raced my first half ironman distance triathlon in September 2010: a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, and a half marathon (13.1 miles).  I finished in just over six hours with a huge stupid grin on my face.  A month later- I was pregnant with baby #2!

Somewhere in there, my dear husband looked at me across the top of the baby jogger as we ran and pointed out that not every mom is at her lowest weight and training for half ironman races within the first year after having a baby.  I pointed out that I had a lot of support (part time job, day care, etc) and he pointed out that, "Still...".  He encouraged me to write a book.  A book!  What kind of time did he think I had at my disposal... what with the training and the kids... ;)

So here I am.  Another (a bit less) easy pregnancy come and gone and a (much easier) recovery almost complete I am ragged, antsy, and stressed out of my mind as a newly two child-ed mommy.  Someone throw me some running shoes and push me out the door, puh-leeze!  Time to set some new goals.  I don't have the faintest idea how I'm going to get them done, but somehow I got there once before and I have faith that I can do it again.  Gotta set that bar high though: 1 marathon, 1 century ride, 1 5k swim.  I figure June will be marathon month (don't want to train into summer for those long runs), July for century ride, and August for a long swimmy.  Why no triathlon goal?  Well... frankly that might be too hard!  Does that sound wimpy?  The truth is that training for a triathlon takes up a ton of time due to all the disciplines- I figure if I stagger the events through the summer I can start my biking later in the spring and a swim event late summer means I don't have to worry about open water swimming until the water warms a bit.  I will definitely put some shorter tris on my calendar but the thought of attempting another 70.3 (or longer... do you think I'm NUTS??!!) right now sounds insane... even to me.

So there it is folks!  The gauntlet is thrown.  Please feel free to be my cheerleaders and my nags.  I need to start collecting my strategies and registering for races.  This is going to be a challenge but I can (and will) figure it out!  Cheers!