Holy cow. I done did a du!  Yesterday was the Iron Girl Duathlon  an all women event:  2 mile run, 22 mile bike, 2 mile run. Their mission is to empower women to live a healthy lifestyle.

The Iron Girl had been a 2007 New Year’s resolution of  mine - then I went and got pregnant.  So I forwarded that goal to 2008 and strong-armed encouraged two high school friends to join me. We were all turning 40 this year and thought it would be fun to complete this event together. I also needed an event to train for to keep me on track to post-pregnancy fitness.  Now, more than ever I need strength and endurance to keep up with my two speedy little kids.

My friend Katie e-mailed me this spring to tell me that a wrench had been thrown in her training.  I excitedly, yet warily, e-mailed back ” Is it a really cute wrench?”  “It will be!” she replied.  Hooray! She had been trying a long time to get pregnant and it happened!  That was the best excuse I could hope for.  So, she was off the hook. Then Beth went and tore her ACL (OK I don’t really know what it is but it sounds like it hurts) and she was off the hook too. 

I was on my own for the big day but that was okay

- I made new friends along the way…

(more…)

Why did I sign up for a 15-mile run when I’d never run further than 5 miles ever?

Well, I was inspired by my husband’s two skating marathons this summer and also by Kay, who’s in the Iron Girl Duathlon coming up.

But really, it was a second glass of wine one evening that sent me over the edge. And so, it came to pass that while looking online for something I could train for (and survive!), I rashly signed up for the City of Lakes 15-mile race.

“Don’t drink and register!” warned Kay. Too late.

And that’s how I ended up on the southwest corner of Lake Harriet Sunday morning, along with more than 1,000 other runners of all ages, shapes and sizes.

My husband, who is as diligent as I am impulsive, had found me a program to follow on MarathonRookie.com. Only it was a 10-week program and I had five.

No sweat! I already ran several miles three times a week. I run the way I swim, with enjoyment, at my own granny pace, never pushing. I use the time to think. I figured all I needed was to add one long run in the weekend.

My real goal was to lose the final three pounds of pregnancy fat I’ve been carrying around for almost three years. Then I read what MarathonRookie had to say: Examine your goals. If your goal is to lose weight, you will FAIL. Oh.

I must say, the potential for public humiliation was a great motivator for training.

Each time I ran longer - 8 miles, 11 miles, 13 miles! - I felt a rush of achievement. When the day of the race finally dawned, my goal was no longer just to finish. It was, er, to not finish last.

I read “What I talk about when I talk about running,” a book by my fave Japanese novelist, Haruki Murakami. After he gave up operating a jazz bar and began writing novels full time, Murakami said, he needed a way to keep the flab at bay. So he began running marathons, one each year. Once, for a magazine article, he ran the original marathon route in Greece alone in the brutal heat of August, a van bearing a photographer following him the entire way.

While there’s little similarity between Murakami - 50-something celebrity Japanese novelist - and me - 37-year-old Minneapolis mom trying to fit into my pre-preg clothes - I was nevertheless inspired.

Sept. 7 came. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect - 54 degrees. (more…)

Somewhere in that old dog-eared “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” is a quote that says “In some ways, your pregnant body is working harder even when you’re resting than a nonpregnant body is when mountain-climbing.” Ah, the validation for the days where I was spent just walking up and down a grocery store aisle. My body had been mountain climbing all day of course I was exhausted!

Speaking of climbing a mountain…I could relate.

We’ve had previous posts about what to pack in your hospital bag. Well, one of the things I packed the first time was the photo above. Peter took it of me atop Fairview Mountain (elev. 9000 ft) overlooking Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies. Pre-babies we had been Canadian Rockies addicts spending a week or two there every summer.  I kept saying we had become “scenery snobs” because, to us,  no other place could compare to the beauty of the area.

I set that photo next to my hospital bed to remind me if I could do that hike, I could do anything. (say, like push a baby through the birth canal). That climb had been the most challenging yet most rewarding feat I had accomplished up to that point.

I remember at one point during our climb on our way to the peak in the photo above. I looked down and there was a tiny plane flying so far below us it looked like a toy. It was a tough ascent but once we made it to the top the feeling was exhaustion combined with exhiliration. The view was gorgeous 360 degrees around! The beauty was dizzying and absolutely breathtaking.

Ben’s birth proved to be a long physically difficult test of endurance. I looked at that photo often for inner strength and to help me dig deep.  Peter hadn’t found the climb to be nearly as arduous as I did. I wanted him to relate somehow to what I was going through. As I neared hour #4 of pushing, I looked over at him and said - between pants. “OK. Now. I’ve. Been. Pushing. Longer. Than. It.  Took. You. To. Run. Grandma’s. Marathon.”  Granted he didn’t have the luxury of having an epidural for his run - but still….perspective.

So when I had  Vivian - I  packed a picture of a newborn Ben in my hospital bag. The more recent end result of the physically hardest most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.  The view when I was finished. Breathtaking.

I’m happy to say that if Ben was a marathon labor, Vivian was a 50 yard dash. A sprint.  She was a molehill not a mountain of a labor.  2.5 pushes and “Hello Vivian!” Phew. Much easier, but the end result just as rewarding. And again - the view, breathtaking.

It is funny how childbirth completely changes your threshold for pain. Now in my current training for the Iron Girl I’m tapping into all of the above experiences for motivation. If I can climb mountains and give birth. I can certainly do this duathlon. Right? Right!

So moms  during your delivery - did you summon up strength from any previous physical endeavor? Have you been able to accomplish things you never thought you could now that you’ve experienced labor and delivery?

Today we have a ”lousy” article from Lucie Admunson. It first published in Family Times magazine - she was kind enough to share this  piece with Cribsheet.  Warning: I shuddered about 12 times reading it. But it is good information to know - you can have the most squeaky clean family and still get them.  Lice aren’t nit picky when it comes to choosing scalps.

Our lives have been pretty wild recently. We’re in a transitional phase where our family home is on the market, dad lives the week out of town and I’m having a hard time fitting in all my client work. Making a house into a real estate fantasy while real children live there hasn’t been easy on any of us.

So when I saw the school nurse phone number pop up on caller id, I sighed the sigh of a burdened parent. Honestly I know I’m blessed there wasn’t a terrible accident or exposure to a flesh eating bacteria, but what I heard stopped me cold. “Mrs. Amundsen, you need to come get your child; she has lice.”

Now before you stop reading thinking this will never happen to you, I’ve got bad news. Lice are more prevalent than ever. Schools right here in the Twin Cities have temporarily closed due to outbreaks they couldn’t get under control. Sadly, lice happens.

(more…)

How do two parents with two under three train for two big events? This is the question I’m trying to answer daily on a separate “log blog” Training Wheels. (Because, you see – I’m not busy enough).  We are parents in training on many levels.

I am currently in training for the Iron Girl duathlon in September. It is an event for women only run 2 miles bike 22 miles and run 2 miles. It is my goal to accomplish this in honor of turning 40 and also part of my “Deflate in ’08” resolution. (deflate update: back in pre-baby (Ben) jeans with a belt!) I’m an event newbie aside from several 5K Reindeer Runs, so this is rather ambitious for me. I’m logging it because accountability works for me. If I have to write it down, I’ll do my darndest to follow through

Peter is no stranger to marathons and is training for the Twin Cities Marathon in October. But this is the first time he’s training with kids in the mix and it poses extra challenges.

The kids needs come first. We work around their schedules and take turns going alone if possible. We’re both finding time management challenges, along with a lot of entertainment and motivation from eachother and the kids. It adds about 50+ of pounds to the training runs with 2 kids and a jogging stroller combined. It makes hills more brutal - but comes with a built in drill sargeant named Ben, who loves the runs.

So we’re managing our training time by including the young ones, dividing and conquering, waking up really really early, or working out at lunch hours. Best of all we’re supporting eachother in our goals.

Of course there are days when I ask ”does back and forth walking across SuperTarget twice then diagonally because you forgot this or that count as a workout?” Cause that’s all I had time to do…I think it does.

So are we nuts? Perhaps. But we are enjoying the journey towards each respective finish line.

Anyone else training for an upcoming event? Has anyone done the Iron Girl? Id love to ask you further questions. Feel free to follow along on Training Wheels - (after you’re done reading Cribsheet of course!) and share advice or motivation as we continue on our path as parents in training.