I posted Last week Late so if you missed it click the link to check it out! Last week was my first week running more than 5 days... Looks like 4 days is the winning formula for me right now. Not my best week, Not my worst, but depending on how I recover from this week, the rest of my training may be completely different or my Road to Boston takes a big turn. My body continues to send me signs that running a marathon at 8 months postpartum isn't it's favorite thing. If it were any race but Boston, I would probably decided at this point that a later marathon would be better.... but it is Boston, and somehow, even though I've only completed two marathons, and both were 30 minutes ahead of the Qualifying standard, I can't seem to get my Ass from Hopkington to Boston. At this point, if I am unable to run Boston, I wont be able to do 2019 either (unless I travel for a summer marathon that isn't gross) so I'm just doing the best I can. This week I almost lost all hope.... and as I say each week, I'm not out of the woods. This time I"m not even close.
Monday: I had a cross Training day, so I did the stronger Yoga. I like going to this class because we try some really hard and fun new poses. So far I've been pretty successful with all of them (although I can't remember the names of them). The instructor said "What is great about these poses is if you are too strong, you're not flexible enough to do them, and if you are too flexible, you are not strong enough. We are trying to find balance between strength and flexibility" This really resonated with me, and when I was able to get right up into the pose (not in it's full expression, but in the way the instructor was telling us to start with) I thought to myself "this is a really good sign. I'm flexible. I'm strong. Exactly what I need to be." But I was still feeling under the weather quite a bit, and I was getting a cough. Boo!
Tuesday: OFF I had today completely off because I still wasn't feeling well and I was barely sleeping because of the cough and the baby. Suddenly Maebel does not want to sleep at all unless I am holding her. Sleep regression is kicking my ass. Anytime I've tried to let her "cry it out" she wakes up Raea.... and then I've got two kids up... and My husband is gone again. This day off was needed.
Wednesday: 7 miles. Big snowstorm coming in so I had canceled school. I was supposed to go to PT but I had to choose between running and PT for babysitter purposes. My mom came to the house and watched the girls as I went for a really slow jog up and down the insane hills near my house before the snow started to stick. I ran like 8:40 pace. Ugh. Somehow my husbands flight wasn't cancelled and he made it home around 1am. I was nervous so again I missed out on sleep that I very much needed.... and then there was Maebel.... cryfest all night unless she was in the bed. WTF child. Seems easy enough, bring her in the bed, but I only half sleep when she's in the bed since she wants me as a pacifier. I was too sick and tired to deal with her. This girl has no self soothing skills because I have just done whatever it takes to survive most nights. I keep saying I'll sleep train her after the Boston Marathon when I'm on school vacation... because I'm a working mom training for a marathon. I can't afford to miss any more sleep! But I'm missing sleep at this point anyway because I'm so annoyed nursing her at night. Before teeth it was fine, but she's vicious and bites me all night. I can't take it anymore. I need to do some aggressive sleep training and conditioning like I did with Raea... but it's just exhausting. Meanwhile, I've been potty training Raea for what seems to be a year, but she isn't a fan of going potty for the babysitter so we haven't really buckled down. Another thing I say I'll do after Boston on Vacation... but in the meantime she wakes up in the middle of the night to tell me she needs the potty pretty much every night. The problem is she wakes up having already wet her diaper... so she sits on the potty waiting to produce but there's nothing there. She wants a sticker so bad she wont get off the potty until she can show me she went. The middle of the night in the Germain Household is full of failed behavior modifications from the person who modifies behavior for work. But everyone shoud get to take a break from their "work" to sleep! #teamnosleep is not in favor of mom running a good marathon right now. Still coughing, still sick. I just need sleep.
Thursday: 8 Miles We got about 16 inches of snow, but by mid afternoon it was sunny out and the roads were melted and clear. I lacked motivation. I was tired. I slept a little extra since Matt was home. I just can't seem to kick this cough without sleep. Because of this, and the snow, we pushed the workout to Friday. From where I'm sitting now, I don't know if it was better or worse that we moved the workout. I guess I'll never know. These miles were 9:11 pace though... I couldn't imagine running faster. So tired.
Friday: 8 miles total... but was supposed to be more like 12. Today was my workout:
Looking at the workout, Maybe I should have gone slower, maybe things wouldn't have gone south so quick? But I can't help think that no matter the pace I wasn't heading in the right direction. How do you run an exact pace for 1:00 intervals... or for 12 minute intervals. The GPS watch can only give you so much information and really you shouldn't be a slave to it. You have to go off of feel. This is the problem I keep having is that my cardiovascular system has gotten fit much quicker than my physical body. I'm very excited about my progress because 6:40 pace was EASY even after the faster intervals (which also felt easy. I can't believe they were that fast, honestly) I ran all through pregnancy so my lungs got to do the work everyday, but my body has changed so much in that time. My center of gravity has changed, my weight has changed, and due to the extra pumping, I've probably needed more nutrients than I maybe have been getting. I can't seem to catch a break! At exactly 6 minutes into my 8 minute interval I felt a cramp in my calf and I immediately stopped. Having had my calf "blow up" on me so many times I knew that the next few steps would be the end of the road here. A calf injury puts me out for 3 weeks minimum, but usually closer to 5. I stopped before I really pulled anything. I think I kept this to a very mild strain. Of course this was the one day I ran phoneless, but fortunately my Aunt lives right on the route and she was just a few houses down so I stopped by and called my husband. I don't know if you are noticing a trend here, but my husband has been absolutely heroic throughout this training. We sort of had a pact going that he would put my running before his own for a while as long as I do everything to support his career. This is why when he is traveling and gone I try not to get upset at all. He put his career on hold for our family when we had Raea by staying at home with her and only working part time and now it's his turn to thrive with his career. I put my running on hold for our family both times I was pregnant, and now it's my turn to thrive there. We both took this "pact" very serious and I can't even tell you how impossible this would all be without him. Anyway, I also foolishly only packed half tights and it was squalling out and really got cold. I felt really warm, but I know feeling warm doesn't necessarily translate to warm muscles.
Saturday: Massage, ART: Today was a scheduled off day anyway, so I Matt and I have been having someone come to our house to do Massage and ART as opposed to booking an appointment somewhere. It's really hard with the kids to schedule something that we have a sitter for. Chris has two kids and has been doing in home treatments so his schedule can be flexible for his own family needs. It's great because he doesn't mind the kids playing on the floor while he works. Also, in this case I wouldn't have been able to get an appointment anywhere else because I had both girls and Matt was working. I'm very thankful for all the people who have been flexible for me and for my goals. Thanks to so many people I'm able to do all of this without having to sacrifice much time away from my girls or without needing to call for a sitter for an appointment. I feel that what Chris did was very effective, I'm just not in a place where I can fully trust my body yet. I'd rather have another 5 days off (which I don't think I'll need) than 5 weeks (dear Lord, NO!).
Sunday: 90 Minutes on the Bike: I was supposed to have 15 miles today, but instead I'm going to cross train on the bike for 90 minutes. I can't imagine I will have much to report so I feel comfortable blogging it before I do it. I don't want our whole day to be taken up by workouts so I write this post as Maebel naps and Matt runs... and I'll workout while the girls are sleeping tonight so I don't miss any more family time.
In case you missed them!
Check out some of these products that will *hopefully* help me return to running next week! I never post anything I don't believe in, so if it's something you'd like to try, purchasing from here helps me out just a little bit! Thanks in advance, you guys have been awesome!
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Hello!Welcome to my blog! I've been blogging for a long time on various platforms. My intention has never been to reach the masses, but rather to give myself a chance to reflect and journal. I feel it at least challenges me to be somewhat coherent, however you can expect ramblings and grammatical incorrectness here!
I've recently been diagnosed with CECS and fPAES and had it treated with BOTOX of all things... So I suspect to see more and more people looking for answers with that in the future and hope to continue blogging so there will be easy to access follow-ups as that was helpful for me. NOTE: Apologies that some of the pictures incorrectly load sometimes. I try to keep up with the glitches, but can't always! Hope it doesn't impact the blog experience for all the PAES visitors. 
My Past
January 2023
The Beginning |
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