Our newest blogger is training for two!
Once upon a time I ran like the wind blew and cycled with drive and determination, laughing in the face of a stiff offshore headwind and all the snowbird traffic. I swam hard and graceful and mostly at the ripe hour of 5 a.m. I was enthusiastic, passionate and in love with all three triathlon sports, both combined and separate.
And then I got pregnant. On one very unforgettable day in week six of my pregnancy the hormones took over like a bossy drill sergeant and all hell broke loose.
Six weeks into my pregnancy
Oh don’t get me wrong, I still run to the bathroom (swiftly!) approximately 15 times a day. I also find myself – more often then I’d like to admit – running down the aisles at Publix looking for their freshly baked calypso cookies. I love you calypso cookies!
But my training is for the most part on hold. Since, motion sickness rears its ugly head whenever I move off the couch too quickly, cycling is a no-go. And as far as swimming goes….well….the world isn’t going to see me in a bathing suit for about a year. You’re welcome, world.
But while you won’t get to see me in a bathing suit, I am going to share everything else—or, well, just about everything else—with you as I transition from triathlete to triple-wide in the next nine months. (And try to stay at least reasonably fit along the way).
Here’s what you need to know about me. I am a 35-year-old living in Fort Myers Beach with the love of my life. My husband Scott is the male version of me and we have all the right things in common to have a very fun, active, healthy and joyful life. We share a passion for adventure, a love for sports, an obsession with good beer (sigh, how I miss you, beer) and, of course, the desire to have a family. We’re both transplants from New England, but we’ve lived here for three years and we hope Southwest Florida will be our home for a very long time.
Our happy family is anxiously awaiting baby #2!
Like most endurance athletes, I treat my body like a piece of equipment that I need to keep finely tuned, not only for performance (races and training) but also for overall health. I am an organic, perimeter grocery shopper, even ordering proteins from an all-grass-fed, organic farm in the Midwest when I cannot find the same quality locally. I follow a mostly no-grains and no-sugar diet, but with the occasional cheat of the above-mentioned beer and wings. And by occasional I mean weekly; I mean, a girl’s gotta live a little!
For the first half of my last pregnancy (yes, that’s 20 weeks) all I could stomach was McDonald’s, pizza, bread and other such carbs. And I am not talking about an occasional McFlurry craving here and there. All that I could manage to put in my mouth was McDonald’s french-fries and the occasional cheeseburger. Obviously that does not fit into my above-mentioned eating plan. I can’t comment on the pizza but I have abstained from McD’s so far in this pregnancy. I am also eating a lot of fruit and have even been able to stomach a salad or two. I really hope the changes in needs do not last 20 weeks again and I hope if it does, that I can muster up some energy to at least go for walks on the beach. After all, we live on a gorgeous beach!
Please come along and follow me as I transition from the person I described above into the science project I am turning into more and more each day. I promise to be real. I hope to be humorous. I’ll strive to speak to both men and women. I will share the ups and downs of having the world’s most amazing privilege—growing a beautiful new life.
Ironman 70.3 Florida Pre-Pregnancy