Spin Ride Announcement

I had a lot of fun teaching my spin ride this morning.  Since I'm 15 weeks, and definitely starting to ... grow... I felt it was time to announce my pregnancy to my spin class.  But I don't know, I just feel weird bursting out things like, "By the way, I'm pregnant!" so I wanted to have a little fun with it.

I decided to make a baby themed ride, by choosing songs that have the word baby in them.  Now, they definitely have nothing more to do with babies than the use of the word, but I thought that was better than trying to put together a ride of lullabies, Raffi and Laurie Berkner songs.  So I had songs like "Hit Me Baby One More Time," and "Baby Likes to Rock It," etc.

I do theme rides pretty often, so my riders are used to my quirks.  They come back, so they can't hate them too much!  I told them that this ride did have a theme, but this time they had to guess it.  So as the ride went on, I gave little reminders about listening for the theme.  One of the riders had it in like 3 songs.

At the end of the ride, I let them shout out what they thought the theme was and they said, "You're having a baby!"  It was a fun way to announce and took the weirdness (for me) out of just putting it out there.

I let them know that I didn't plan on being affected much as an instructor by the pregnancy.  Afterall, I went to a spin class when I was in labor with Gregory thinking it would move things along.  Spoiler: it didn't! However, I did mention that getting on the bike right after labor was definitely NOT going to happen.

Now I just have to figure out a fun way to tell my 8th graders...or should I let them just figure it out on their own?

Training for Two (for Boston)

Last May, when I finally qualified for Boston, I knew actually running Boston might not be an option.  My son was turning 3 in July and our family was ready to start expanding.  I told myself that, really all I wanted to do was qualify.  And don't get me wrong, that's still an accomplish that will NOT get old.

However, as our family tried to expand, we were initially unsuccessful, I used the idea of running Boston as my consolation prize.  If ti was going to take a while for this to happen, at least I could still run Boston... Well, just as I was starting to think this way, I got back a positive result on a pregnancy test.  I couldn't believe it, so I took another the next day.  And hooray!  There it was we were finally pregnant.  In my head, I had myself at a June due date, but when I calculated it, my due date was May 9th.  I could hardly believe it! The idea of Boston was still in my head as signs ups were only 3 weeks away, but I wasn't sure what I would do. I was just too excited.

Then the sign up date for Boston came. I still hadn't been to my OB, as it was about a week too early.  I honestly didn't think too hard about it.  I've tried to qualify for 10 marathons.  I ran my whole pregnancy with Gregory.  And I know I would feel no shame in not finishing.  So, I did it, I signed up for Boston at which I will be 8+ months pregnant.  It certainly will be an adventure.

So how's running been going?  Pretty good.  Very slow.  Since getting pregnant, I've run 3 half marathons, one of them pushing Gregory.  By the way, that was super hilly and I kind of hated myself at parts of the run.

I also used this picture for our announcement.  It captioned "Family Half Marathon Tally: Carlee 12, Gregory: 7, Our Newest Running Partner, (Due May 2016): 3, Eric: 0"

 I've had some low mileage weeks where I've stuck more to strength training than running, but I've been consistent about working out about 5 days a week.  Running is starting to get more regular this week and if today goes as planned, I'll be at my first 30+ mileage week since getting pregnant.  I've been trying to keep one 10 miler or more a week and that seems to be working out.

So what's my plan for training for Boston.  Honestly,  I don't have one.  I certainly don't plan on putting in 65 mile weeks like I did last year.   I also don't plan on multiple 20 milers or speed sessions.  I want to finish Boston.  I want to get us there safely.  I don't care if I walk most of it.  Therefore, I'd like to get in some 15 milers or so leading up to the race.  Teaching keeps me on my feet almost all day and I think that actually helps with being able to stay on my feet for long enough to finish the race.  I still haven't decided if I'll come up with an actual run/walk strategy or if I just want to play it by ear.

It's certainly going to be an adventure and I look forward to sharing it with you!

The BQ!

Good Afternoon!  I can't believe it's been a year since I last posted, but the last think I wrote to you all was about the almost BQ I had at the Vermont City Marathon in 2014.  Well a few weeks ago I ran the 2015 Vermont City Marathon.  And instead of missing my BQ time of 3:35 by 28 seconds as a I did in 2014, I qualified with a 3:27.46!

It's been almost a month and I still can't believe it!

So what did a do differently?  Honestly, you're not going to want to hear it.  But it was the treadmill and loads of yasso's on the treadmill.  I also changed my diet, added Shakeology and strength training.  I also lost about 10 pounds.  Finally, I found an awesome running partner for my after school runs.

So first, the part you didn't want to hear...the treadmill and why.  Well, this winter was NASTY in New England.  Now, normally that wouldn't throw me.  One of my best training cycles was for the Hyannis Marathon which is held in February.  However, my runs revolve around my toddler now and I couldn't take him with me for my long runs as the sidewalks couldn't handle the stroller.  I also had to have them done before my husband went to the gym to coach and in the winter that would have meant dark runs on icey roads.  Again, not what I felt was right.  So I was left with the treadmill before my husband left for the gym.  This meant 4:14 a.m. wake ups on Saturdays to get in as many miles as possible before my son woke up.  I did 3 20+ milers on the treadmill this cycle.  I also did many 18, 16 and 14 milers on the beast.  The thing is...I hate the treadmill, so I ran them fast.  I averaged under an 8 minute pace for ALL of my long runs.  Yes, this goes against everything you read, but it sure worked for me.  What got me through this?  Netflix on my tablet.  First it was Orange is the New Black and then Breaking Bad (which I've already seen, but actually that made it easier to run hard).  Also, I used the closed caption feature because our treadmill is not of the quiet variety.

OK, so on to the eating and cross training.  I started drinking Shakeology and following the 21 Day fix program in November.  I loved my results, continued to run and became a Beachbody Coach.  I went on to do Insanity Max 30 and 21 Day Fix Extreme.  I've been following the diet and incorporating the workout and shakes daily ever since.

Finally, my running partner is another teacher at school.  She's a bit faster than I am (though she will say she's not) and one of us always wants to run after school.  She totally kept me from skipping runs and certainly helped me to get my pace up!