Fresh start

And another month goes by.. Time just seems to fly these days! I've officially returned to my usual working out..and so far..pretty humbling, actually! But it feels so good to be back at it. I'm loving every butt kicking workout. I've realized that my endurance, obviously, took a huge hit from a year ago. Understandable and completely predictable, given that my 'runs' for the last several weeks of pregnancy were limited to 20-30min at a crazy slow pace..but still..kinda surprising to actually see it play out. So. I'm embracing this time as a 'clean slate', of sorts, which allows me to set goals and slowly build to achieve and surpass them. I think I mentioned before that my plan is to focus on running and crossfit for right now, so I'm mostly working on making gains in those areas. I'm still getting some swims and spins in, but pretty much just for maintenance purposes at this point. So..where am I starting from with running and crossfit?.. I've been lucky to have a few benchmark crossfit workouts come up in my first days(literally..my first day back, we did the notorious Fran workout..welcome back!) and weeks back in the gym. As rough as those workouts were, it gives me a great chance to see where I am now..and hopefully I can improve from there! So my Fran workout hurt..and was relatively slow..somewhere in the 6 or 7 something minute range? I'd have to look at the JoCo CrossFit website, but it's there for my reference when it comes time to do it again. I'm constantly sore and the first days back were rough..some still are..but I'm already feeling stronger and getting back in the swing of things and feeling more like my old self again. So I've started with 3-4 days a week of crossfit, which is working out well so far. Running..has also been rough..a bit.. But, again, gives me a chance to really see some gains after kinda stalling out when training for long distances through my knee injury last year. So I'm running about 4 days a week, but very short distances. I get about 20 minutes before heading to crossfit where I get whatever I can get in on my treadmill. I'm basically just working to get my base speed up and working on holding a good pace longer and longer. Then I'm working to up my distance in my 'long' run on Sundays. I started at 3 miles and did a 'baseline' run that I'll do at the start of every month to see how I'm doing.. First test? 3 miles in a whopping 26:16. Like I said..lots of room for improvement! So then my next Sunday run was about 4 and a quarter miles. I'm wearing my garmin again, but only for distance and to reflect after the run to see where my pace is. I'm not using it for speed work and only glance at it occasionally. Seems my comfortable pace is hovering right around 9min miles right now, which would actually be fine with me if I can maintain that as my comfy pace as my distance increases, so we'll see if that's how it works out. I think that's all I have to say about my workouts. I had a birthday, so that was awesome. Started off with the toughest workout I've ever experienced at crossfit. It was hard for me, anyway.. I'm sure it's not 'toughest' for everyone, but that's how it works there! It was 5 rounds of 30 each of kettle bell swings (started with the 53, but half way through round two, decided to switch to 44), Burpees and 'GHD's', which, being pregnant, I hadn't done in a long time! (it's an ab thing that has you hang off a back extension thing, so you're arched back, reaching for the floor, and then come up and touch your toes..let's just say every inch of my core STILL hurts!). It took me over 40 minutes, which I don't think has ever happened before. So that was the start of the day.. Then Mason decided to be in quite the mood. Lovely. Kids don't care when it's mom's birthday..fits and tantrums wait for no one. But we did go out to dinner..first time as a four!..Miles slept through it, but it was nice to get out. So anyway, typical birthday of a mom, I guess. Miles is growing a ton! He's definitely more than doubled his weight in under 2 months. We see the doc next week, so we'll see where he is on the charts. But he's doing great. Now pretty well in to the day time pattern of 'sleep about an hour, wake up, eat, up for maybe an hour or so, eat a little more, then back to sleep'. Ah, the life of a baby! People always ask about how he's sleeping..I say he's doing pretty well. He goes about 5-7 hours in the first stretch, which usually starts between 6 and 7, then after that first wake-up/feeding, he sleeps in about 2-3 hr shifts most nights. Some nights are better than others, but for a young guy, I think he's doing just fine. He's smiling lots now and seems to be getting a little more interested in little toys and things..but pretty much is just content with a rousing game of 'peek-a-boo' and then it's back to sleep! Man, it's so great to see him get such a kick out of seeing your face.. Mason is still doing a great job, overall, at the big bro thing. He loves making him smile and even enjoys being my helper quite a bit. Of coarse, he's not perfect..he has his moments..and he likes getting up in his face way too much.. But, again, for a little guy, I think he's doing pretty great. So that's what we've been up to around here! Can't believe thanksgiving is next week already! I'm debating doing some races that weekend, but I'm kind of leaning toward keeping things simple and just running at home. This Saturday is a friendly competition of sorts at crossfit to celebrate their second anniversary..we'll see how that goes! First I need to get un-sore from Monday's shit show..ow, ow, ow. Even my rib muscles are sore!