Newborn/70.3/Weight Gain

A lot has changed this year.

I have the best thing that ever happened my little one 3.5 weeks old and absolutely beautiful. She is my world, which has altered every part of my being.

As I am navigating this new life I realize pretty much nothing can be the same. I am happy to change but also uncertain on how to maintain my current level of fitness and training. 70.3 AC NJ is months away and I want to go sub 6 hours which would be a huge accomplishment. On top of the baby I am coming off of a 11 week recovery from breaking my ankle in November. The ankle has healed completely and does not bother me but the inches and extra weight have made training harder.

Going forward I think it would be beneficial to track my journey to align everything in my new life. Losing 10 pounds and gaining muscle is ultimate health goal. 70.3 under 6 hours. Best mom that I can be!

Resilience

The last 6 months have been so challenging. Getting promoted I thought would finally allow me to have more time for training and financially I would be in a better place to purchase so much needed gear upgrades. I was mistaken. The promotion brought on more hours, more responsibility. The pay did not increase and on top of that I fractured my ankle on the 3rd day.

I have broken bones, fractured bones, sprained muscles, you name it I’ve injured it. This injury was the absolute worst that I have endured. I still can’t wear flats because I just envision the roll or twisting of my ankle all over again. The injury decimated my left ankle strength so I spent three months working on that before I could even put pressure on it. Thankfully no surgery was needed. However, this was a workers compensation claim and I am praying that the doctor wasn’t just trying to save money by not performing surgery.

Fast forward to the past two weeks. Started running with just a mile and the most I’ve been able to do is three. I haven’t even started cycle training, I plan to do my first ride on Tuesday next week. I have also started Insanity to build my body back up. I feel the weakest I’ve ever felt these past few months.

Escape the cape is literally a month away and I am terrified that I will struggle immensely. I want to continue to push the timeline of recovery though. Not excessively but enough to positively effect me mentally. Therefore, I am going into the race without expectations and I am forgetting PRs. This race will be about finding myself and resilience. I want to perform to the best of my ability and after the race I can access exactly what I need to work on or build up.

Serious about being serious about training!

I think failing to complete a training schedule happens to the best of us once in a while. I believe it starts with not having a full fledged commitment, in that case it allows for that slip. I recently have experienced a slip in my training and I believe it is mostly due to my lack of commitment mentally to my cause. 

I last posted about a significant and glorious 30 min run. I felt like I was on top of the world until morning came and the next day I spent limping around. Sometimes it becomes so easy for injuries to mask themselves with endorphins and it seems for a short time you are invincible. I received a quick reality check. Discouraged, I withdrew from my training. I have refocused, I am recommitted. 

I swam today just focusing on form and getting meters in. My back feels tight so I’m gonna stretch it out tonight. Run/bike tomorrow not sure which I will do tomorrow depends on weather! 

Slacking

Hello all! 
I am back after a few week hiatus… And I am so glad to be posting this. 1) My wonderful doggy is healed up and his nail is growing back 2) I am planning big things! 

I have been slacking hardcore on anything to do with exercise. After a surprisingly bad results month at work I was a little demoralized and exhausted. I know my life is better with a routine but my mind refuses and pretty much rejectes the idea of scheduling. I think this stems from a strong desire to live free of the restrictions that a schedule brings. I love to be spontaneous and would have no problem driving anywhere at any moment on a crazy trip. However now that I am older and I have responsibilities I am finding  having structure is crucial in happiness. Now I have by no means mastered this… I still end up dead tired after a day of work and a workout forgetting to eat dinner. So how can we especially those like me (a rebel at heart), submit to a schedule and structure that leaves us time to spend with the ones we love and still accomplish all the things we need to get done throughout the week, oh yeah and find that time to train! 

              
So honestly I feel like I’m back at square one. Consistency is really significant in maintaining that feel good feeling when you are training regularly. I want to identify my hurdles, the things that hold me back, so when I run into them I can gage what I need to do to jump over them in time. 

• Work
• Eating
• Sleep
• Relationships 

Work is the biggest hurdle for my I work a 70+ hour work week and it’s physically and mentally taxing work. This is the main reason why I need a schedule. I’ve never had this kind of commitment before, I waitressed for ten years and had a ton of retail/odd jobs when I was in college; I am used to setting my own hours and tailoring them to my other priorities. Now that my career is such a large part of my day I have to find a way to balance it with my other three hurdles. How do I work, eat enough, sleep enough, and still have time to see my loved ones? 

Eating… Always a challenge for me usually I don’t eat all day and then binge eat at night. I have tried everythingggggg! The one thing that helped me is the 24 day challenge with advocare, it really regulated my body and eating habits. I plan to start another challenge the same time I start training. It will consist of vegetarian shakes, mostly carbs like rice and tortillas, and a lot lot lot of veggies and fruits! Hopefully I can get a eating routine down again I think this is absolutely key in regulating a persons mood. 

Sleep… I am always tired. I want to try and meditate for a week before bed to see if this helps a deeper sleep. I also need 6 hours of sleep a night so I can have some REM hours. In order to make this work I have to eat at a reasonable time! The goal for this is also to get up earlier so I have more time in the morning. Currently I literally have it timed to the minute of how long it takes to roll out of bed make a cup of coffee dress and run out the door! 

  
Relationships… The most important hurdle that is always the hardest to jump over. We often don’t make it a priority because we’re so busy with our careers, like when is the last time I had a date night with my love, I can’t even remember! Other people may have the opposite problem, FOMO people. Fear of missing out, those of us who need to be at every event and be out every night so we don’t miss anything (ps I used to be a spontaneous FOMO). Either way if your at either end of the spectrum you feel like I do that there is no balance in you life. It’s hard to prioritize it takes a certain amount of discipline and introspection to be able to define importance of different aspects of your life. I am hoping with a routine I will be able to define importance of these four hurdles and balance them a little more, leaving plenty of time for my passion: training for my events! 

So basically I am starting my training program next week, along with my advocare 24 day challenge to help regulate my eating, as well as my meditation experiment before bed. I will be chronically blogging how this transition unfolds. I have attempted scheduling numerous times in be past, and it never seems to work because I lose my planner or get distracted so this will be a really strict attempt to see if it makes a difference in my overall mood and training level. 

I can’t wait to post the schedule for you guys!!!! 

It’s good to be back 

-Steel