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That’s right! It’s been over 2 months since my last post! Sorry to say that writing has not been on the priority list.

Baby is getting bigger and training is well on it’s way.  We are more or less on a routine now and trying to fit it all in. I struggled in the past couple of weeks to increase my training volume. I think it was mainly a mental blockage but I think we got it fixed. By the end of this week I will have completed 8 hours of training for the week. Wow. Seems like nothing for the big athletes but for someone who could barely walk 3 months ago, it feels fantastic!

Last November, I remember feeling completely overwhelmed by having to run 25 minutes, or bike 30 minutes, or swim 1000 yards. Now, none of my workouts are ever that short and I can finally say things like ‘my workout is only X minutes’. Best. Feeling. Ever.

So, with 6 months to go, I think I’m well on my way to complete the Ironman.

That’s Andre-Philippe and I at the 2012 US Olympic Trials.

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One of the reasons I wanted to start a blog was for myself, to document my first year as a mom, and my return to ironman. Lately I kind of reminded myself of it and thought, well, I better find a few minutes here and there to write cause time is flY-ing!

Indeed, time is going by at speed of light. Some days I have no time to breathe. And I mean NO time. Here’s my day today:

6:00 – Wake up. Baby also wake up so feed baby

6:30 – Breakfast, prepare lunch

6:50 – Shower, get dress etc

7:10 – Leave for work

8:00 to 12:00 – work

12:00 – Rush home to drop stuff and grab my gym bag (this was not a lack of planning, I had to come back home around noon)

12:25 – Eat lunch at home super quick

12:40 – Leave for a doctor appointment

1:00 – Doctor appointment

2:30 – Leave for the gym. Workout: weights routine followed by 1000 yards swim

3:40 – Got out of the pool to shower and change

3:50 – Rush out and drive to the dentist

4:00 – Dentist appointment

5:35 – Rush to an ATM to withdraw money to pay the nanny

5:50 – Arrive home just in time before the nanny leaves

6:00 – Feed baby

6:30 – Give baby’s bath, order dinner (yeah that’s right folks, it’s Friday night, you think I’m gonna cook?)

7:00 – Eat and rock my baby to sleep

8:30 – Grab my laptop to write because I’d really like to remember days like this in the future

9:00 – I’m dead tired now and going to sleep

Really?

 

Oh, and that’s who’s making all this so worthwhile…

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Yeah, that’s right. I always knew that there was some magic happening once you gave birth to a baby when all of a sudden there was more time, or time was more organized and efficient or something like that. I was heavily relying on that magic to happen since I had chosen the hard path of having a baby, working full time, training for an ironman – and blogging??  Turns out that you’re the one making the magic happen. And it’s hard work. I’m constantly researching on ways to be more efficient, how to use technology to improve my efficiency etc. You can see by the number of blog entries that it might not be working as well as I’d hoped!

While baby sleeps: There are so many things you can catch up on while baby sleeps. IF baby sleeps. HA! Luckily, even though mine doesn’t nap much during the day, he sleeps 10-12 hours a night. The first thing to catch up on is sleep, then the rest.

Running with stroller: How is that multitasking? Well, I’d like to think I’m spending time with my baby while I’m running. He loves being outside and I talk to him as I run.

Cooking with baby in carrier or chair: Major entertainment for baby. Dinner is ready when hubby arrives. It’s all good.

Preparing breakfast for the week to go: Why? Grab and go in the morning. You can eat while driving to work (not recommended for safety reasons, but of course I do it) or eat at your desk. Since I go to the gym in the mornings, I’m usually hungry when I get out so I like to have my food ready to eat in the car.

Listening to podcast or movie while cycling on trainer or running: I’d like to think it’s multitasking since I wouldn’t sit down for 2 hours and do it. Works for me!

I’ll keep trying to find new ways to multitask and will definitely share them. What are your tricks?

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Time, time, time. Seems like that’s all you hear these days. I’m running out of time for this. I don’t have time for that. I didn’t have time to do this. It seems like once you have a baby, the meaning of time takes a whole new dimension. You can either go crazy and panic because you have no more time, or you can ‘bend’ time and make more of it. Yes, that’s right, make more. I always thought that people that had time to do ten times more stuff than I were super efficient and organized. Now I know they are, but more than that, they have to be driven with a purpose.

I’ve been back to work for two weeks now and started training (exercising to get back in shape that is) this last week, 6 days a week. Now, my husband works long hours and train as well (remember, we’re both signed up for Ironman Mont Tremblant). I get up around 5 to go to the gym and get my workout in before work. That means I have the evening shift (cook diner, bathe baby, feed baby). But what really gets me going has to be the fire inside my belly. The fire that’s going to bring me to the finish line months from now.

…

Well, indeed we’re all running after time. I wrote this over a week ago and I just didn’t have time to post it!

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Well, there is only a week and a half left of my maternity leave and I’ve been taken advantage of the fact that the nanny is taking care of André-Philippe to get myself in a workout routine. As you know, I started running last week and I’m already up to 15 minutes – for a mortal person that has not ran once in a year and had major abdominal surgery, it’s equivalent to like 15,000 miles for you super athletes.

I really want to start my ironman training on the right foot. I think the biggest lesson learned from doing my first ironman was to be consistent. I say that because I wasn’t during my ironman training. I was stressed about not making the cut-offs and stayed on the course for way too long. Sure I finished, and sure Mike Reilly called me an Ironman, but that was way too close for comfort. I knew I didn’t want to repeat that again. I like to go in a race and not feel nervous about not finishing, never mind the time it takes!

So, this afternoon was the perfect time to give swimming a go as I won’t be able to for the rest of the week. But first, I got to make sure I can fit in one of my swimsuit, which if I remember right were pretty tight already! I tried the biggest and with a bit of effort I squeezed in – literally. Off I go to the pool. When I walked in, I instantly got this burning chlorine smell up my nose. All the memories of swimming and how much I enjoy it came back to me and I started to giggle. Got in the water and even though it felt cold I didn’t hesitate to get wet. I was happy to be back!

For some reason, getting off my butt and doing a workout has never been so easy than these last two weeks. I was afraid I’d be discouraged of being so out of shape that I would procrastinate forever to start exercising. But knowing the amazing feeling of completing an ironman and wanting to finish another one feeling better than the first is great motivation. I also have a bigger purpose as I’m now a mom and want to be an example for my kid.

For the record, the swim was only 500 yards at a turtle pace but in my head, I was swimming 3.8km like a dolphin.

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First run! Look how happy I am!

Well, the ice is broken! I have done my first run on Saturday and did another one this morning. It felt so so good to run, the whole 3 minutes of it! I have to start very slowly, even if I could do more. The feeling of my belly where it was cut for c-section is quite weird I must say. My legs are like concrete and I was actually sore afterwards. Cardio? Not as bad as I thought it would be and definitely not the limiter at this point. I’m just happy to be ‘running’ again!

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2 months since birth and yes! I got the green light to start exercising! I was aiming at October 1st as my official start date for training and it looks like I’ll be able to meet that. Now, keep in mind that I haven’t exercised AT ALL since week 20 of the pregnancy, and that since beginning of pregnancy, exercise was a very minimum. Last time I ran was almost a year ago. I know my last race was 10 for Texas of last year, which was in October.

So… I’m a little bit scared to start to say the least. I’ve been thinking of how to start, what to start with etc. I know I have to do a lot of strengthening and stretching in the beginning, that will be key for me – and my tendencies for injury (IT band syndrome, shoulder tendinitis, back and neck pain). I will make myself a little schedule to keep track of progress but mainly to keep motivated.

Of course, I’m still hauling a few extra pounds. Like 20. Amazing. It’s a weird feeling really to have 20 pounds to loose. I never thought I’d say that. But I’m optimistic. I haven’t been watching what I eat since birth and not exercising, except for lifting my now 10 pounds bundle of joy – hey, maybe I’m building biceps? I started this week to count the calories and I plan on doing my first workout this Saturday. Hopefully it melts off fast!

How will I get through this year and make it to the starting line in Mont Tremblant??? Hmmmm…. I need some serious organisation, support and will power!!!!

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Well yes, it took me 6 weeks after birth to finally sit down and write a little. I’d like to mention that what got me going is starting to read this ebook from familyonbikes.com – check it out! It reminded me of my sense of adventure and who I was before baby arrived. It’s amazing how you get absorbed by the baby in the first weeks and forget that the rest of the world exists out there. And time goes by so freakin fast!

I won’t get in the details of telling the story of the birth etc. He has his own little page on andrephilippe.shutterfly.com.

Everything went well considering the placenta previa and c-section. The baby is perfect! Not even jaundiced at birth. The c-section recovery is taking quite some time though. I just started to feel ready to move (mentally) but my body is not at all. I can tell my abs are not healed yet as there is soreness and weakness in that area. But I do feel like I can start taking some short walks so that’s what I’ll do! Oh yeah, there is also this extra 20 lbs I’m carrying around… No, not the baby, but the ‘baby fat’ I put on with pregnancy, sigh!

So, next week our little family is going to Paris (husband’s meetings) so it will be a good opportunity for me to start walking a bit. And also, it will be a welcomed cool down from the scorching month of August in Houston.

Now, Ironman training… right…. Just how challenging will that be? VERY challenging! HAHAHAHAHAHA Yes, you can all laugh, I’m laughing too, and the baby is laughing as well, as this will be insane! Now that I’ve spent 6 weeks with the baby, I can have an idea of just how crazy this will be. But I’m still on my friends!

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That’s it! 4 days to go and baby will be here! Hard to believe really. Thursday July 28th at noon is our scheduled delivery by c-section. We feel ready. We learned as much as we could on delivery, post-delivery, feeding baby, etc. We read books, went to classes, got all sorts of supplies to take care of baby, organized the nursery, organized the house. Now it’s just a matter of practice I guess.

Most important is that we found a name and we’re very happy about it:

André-Philippe

I stopped working on last Tuesday and try to rest as much as I can – not that easily done! At least I had the Tour de France to watch every day so I did a lot of tv watching. I just want to do so many things before André-Philippe gets here. I know I won’t have time for a loooooong time afterwards.

I did ordered my brand new Macbook Air a few weeks ago. Funny enough it’s supposed to arrive on the 28th. My (not s0) old Dell laptop crashed more than it makes me feel comfortable with so I think it was time for me to move on and upgrade. After having a few Apple devices these last years I knew my next computer was going to be an Apple as well. A bit of a luxury I admit but I’d like to think I deserve it!

The Dell of course I will keep because my next gift to myself will be a CompuTrainer (YAY!!!) and they are not Mac compatible yet. Finally, a real good justification to get a CompuTrainer! Otherwise how will I train for Ironman working full time and taking care of a baby? Yep, I definitely need the CompuTrainer

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Anxious times

It’s amazing how time slows down the closer you get to delivery day. My friend used to say how her pregnancy felt like it lasted 2 years to her. Now I understand…

I’ve been starting to wonder if I should feel more nervous than I am. There’s only 17 days left to go and I’m more excited about seeing our baby’s face than anything else, I can’t be bothered by being afraid of the surgery and everything that comes around it (epidural, catheter, bed rest, etc). I think what helped me put things in perspective is how sick I have been for a week. Early last week felt like I was hit by a baseball bat, forced to swallow knifes and rolled over by a bus. I got so exhausted that it made me almost panic, thinking how am I going to take care of a baby feeling exhausted like this – imagining that this was how I was going to feel after the delivery, for some reason. Then as I was reading through What to Expect When You’re Expecting (which is way better than people describe it by the way!), I get at the end of a paragraph and it made me feel so much better:

“You’ll be a mother. And mothers, in case you haven’t heard, can do anything.”

And then the Ironman motto “Anything is possible” came resonating as I remembered that I can, do anything!

Here’s a pic I love and gives me strength. The Mom to-be medal comes from the baby shower my co-workers threw me. I told them it will go next to my future medal of Ironman Mont Tremblant next August. How motivating is that!

Whole Foods

Last week-end was a long week-end but being so sick and stuck to the bed or couch I think the highlight of my week-end has been to go to Whole Foods with my husband for breakfast and grocery shopping. We have a brand new Whole Foods that opened very recently and that became the closest one from our house. We are so excited about it! We had noticed the previous week that they have an electric car charger station (no idea what to call it!) and this week we saw this tiny little vehicle parked at the station. Houston might be full of big trucks but I tell you, the little cars, hybrids and electrical cars are gaining ground for sure!

Belly Shots

Today I feel a bit better and thankfully, because we had our belly photo shoot scheduled this afternoon and I didn’t want to miss it (or have to reschedule, time is kinda limited now). I can’t wait to see the pics and have a feeling there will be a lot of very good ones. Here’s a sneak peak, the family’s most special medals