Melissa's Journey

A Name is a Name is a Name

2012-01-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

This child is never going to be named. Why are boy names so hard for us? We want something strong, yet not over done. I feel a lot more self-applied pressure to get a boy's name RIGHT. Yikes! I know we have a ways to go but Gabby was Gabby for a while. I'm starting to be convinced Baby Boy Schwartz is going to be "2.0" for quite a bit longer. Oh well, at least I know if he turns out to be a she we have a name ready! And if 2.0 gets vetoed by the hospital, there's always Brutus.

Motivation Pregnancy Style

2011-12-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

As an athlete, I'm motivated by goals and races, and that can make things tricky when I find myself pregnant and unable to run without peeing my pants. So, what keeps me motivated when the going gets hard? Breakfast. Case in point:

Friday morning. Vacation day. 18 inches of snow 24 hours prior. 5:20 wake up time. Honda Civic. After I spent 15 minutes digging out my car just so that I could legally drive it on the road I threw that thing in reverse and....and......got stuck. One pregnant lady, stuck in the middle of the road and on a hill, snow up to the door of my car, in sneakers and PJ pants, cursing up a storm. I was not happy. And neither was Michael when I had to tap tap tap on his shoulder and wake him. At this point a normal person would have thought about calling it a morning but french toast dreams were dancing in my head and I was going to make it to the pool (and then breakfast)! Poor Michael. He pushed and dug and pushed and dug, and after 30 minutes he managed to free up my car and sent me on my way. Now in my defense, I NEVER drive my car when there is that much snow, we always just share the 4-runner. Michael shoveled the driveway and around my car, but I completely forgot about the nice present snow plows leave you at the end of your driveway. That's what got me. Oh, and the inch of ice under all that snow. Is it summer yet? I think I drove 20 mph the entire way to the pool.

In all, it was a great swim with a wonderful swim partner (thanks Sharon!), some social hot tub time with more friends, and a tasty breakfast. And it's a good thing Michael went back to sleep, he ended up pushing two other cars out of the snow throughout the rest of the day.

Morale of the story: promises of syrup, bread, butter and freshly squeezed OJ work wonders on me right now.

What's that noise? Oh, it's just the crazy neighbor lady trying to get out her driveway at 5:30am after a big snow.

Well Hello There!

2011-12-02T23:13:00.001-07:00

Oh, hello there friends. So nice of you to join me for a cup of coffee, it's been way too long. Coffee makes everything better, including those uncomfortable silences that occur when you don't update for...oh...4 months?

In all honesty, I've been toying with the idea of keeping my blog or not. But the thing I keep coming back to is that I enjoy writing, and I'm super appreciative and grateful for the relationships that I've made through the world wide interwebs. So with that, I bring you my cliff notes version for the past 4 months.

Gabby is awesome. She is a full-on toddler with two speeds: sitting and running. She has yet to master the flip turn but I'm confident with some extra after-day care tutoring and weekend practice she'll be flipping like Phelps before she hits 18 months old.


Gabby working on running while carrying a purse. Note the sophisticated "elbow hold" position for the purse, a very advanced shopping skill used only by a few.

Everything else is business as usual. Oh, except I now have this:

Yes, this was with Gabby but you get the point. I'm working on Schwartzie 2.0, to arrive this April. What does this mean for us? Well for one it means having two kids under the age of two. They will be 21 months apart, which happens to be the age difference between my sister and I, so I'm super excited about that. We also found out that we are having a boy. Yippee!

This pregnancy has been different than it was with Gabby. I just hit the halfway point and I'm feeling much better than a few weeks ago. I'm still swimming and am also walking and elliptical-ing (oh, the joy). Like my goal with pregnancy #1, I'm planning on swimming and walking right up to delivery. Since this is a Spring baby that means I should be able to do some mid-late summer racing too! I'm excited about that!

And with that...I conclude my cliff notes update. See you in less than another 4 months. Promise.

Photo from Sarah Nicole Photography....love them (her)!

Age Group Nationals

2011-08-18T09:02:00.000-06:00

Who's going to USA Triathlon Age Group Nationals? If you are, swing by the TrainingPeaks booth and say 'hi'. I'm here for work, so I get to talk to athletes and coaches all day Thursday and Friday. It's very inspiring.

Burlington, VT is the host city and this place is beautiful. If it weren't for the winters, I could live here. One of my favorite things about traveling to new cities is checking out the running scene. We woke this morning and hit the Burlington bike path for an hour jaunt. This path runs along Lake Champlain, even on an overcast morning it gets a top spot on my list of cool city running paths (the Charles in Boston is #1, sorry Burlington).

The next two weeks for me is very crazy for work. This week is the USAT Age Group Nationals and next week I'll be working the US Pro Cycling Challenge. Did you hear? TrainingPeaks is an official partner of the challenge and we are very excited. I'll be in the lead car for two days and working the booth in Vail. The field for this race is stacked!

Burlington sunrise. Beautiful!

Happy First Birthday!

2011-07-28T10:16:00.001-06:00

Last week was Gabby's first birthday. It was a very full week, and excellent all around. I put together a video for her 1st birthday.

What a year it's been! Best year of our lives.

Trans Tahoe Swim Relay

2011-07-25T22:43:00.000-06:00

This past Saturday was the Trans Tahoe swim race! This is a 12 mile swim across Lake Tahoe. It was my first time there and it was even more beautiful than I expected! Wowzers. We had a wonderful weekend and finished 2nd in our division. So much fun! This is definitely one of my favorite sport outings.

To answer the #1 question I've been getting: No. No you can not.

You can not wear a wet suit. Part of the challenge of open water swimming is dealing with cold water. This was pure open water swimming sport. No wetsuits, no double-suits, no booties, nothing. The water temperature was 61-62. My strategy was a warm parka, hat, sweatshirt, a few dry suits to put on, and some hot tea to sip. Getting out of the wet swim suit was key.

How does it work?

The race is a relay, 6 people per team. This team consisted of my awesome swim partner and friend Sharon, Jenny and Jenny G from Boulder, Lara from Boulder, and Jen D from Florida. Most of us have done the Horsetooth 10k swim race too, so there was a lot of long distance swimming crazies in one vicinity.

Each person swims 30 mins for the first round, then 15 mins in the second round and 10 mins for any additional rounds. The first swimmer starts on the beach and has to swim through 180+ boats while trying to find their team boat. That was a tad stressful, but we found her!

Melissa, Jenny G, Sharon, Lara, Jen D, Jenny

Jenny was in charge of our blow up boat identifier! It was hard work.

Jenny G concentrating on her swim leg. Jenny G and I were the most nervous about the cold water. I like this photo because you can feel the nerves and focus in her face.

Lara did most of our timing. For each swimmer we held up "15" and "5" minute markers. The swimmer in the water would give the "thumbs up" sign when the marker was noted. The technique worked out well.

Sharon getting ready for her second leg. I love this pic because she is usually smiling big in all the photos but here you get a sense of those few moments before getting back in the lake.

Sharon grabbed some shots of me swimming during my second leg, this was my favorite.

There was a whole huge lake and I still swam over someone. You can take the water polo player out of the pool, but you can't take the polo out of the girl. He was all over the place, so it wasn't as if I searched him out. Good grief people, how hard can it be to sight 12 miles away? (answer: very hard).

This is me frozen. I'm smiling on the inside.

How beautiful is this location?! I would love to do this race again!

I also got to meet Eileen finally, and that was so nice! Not only did I get to meet her, but I met her husband and super cute baby girl. I hope I get to see you again next year Eileen! You guys crushed it!

The weekend finished in skirts and dresses at the bar sipping fancy drinks and then eating pizza. I had a blast on this girls weekend away! And as cheesy as it sounds, the best part was coming home and seeing my husband and my ONE YEAR OLD! Yep, we also had a big birthday last week!

The Power of 37

2011-07-05T12:19:00.000-06:00

The state rejected the City of Boulder's permit request to move prairie dogs to the open space where we live. You might think they are cute, or don't care about this news item, or don't understand what this would mean to both sides of the issue. I have my own opinion, I am happy. The reason why I am posting this is because it shows the power of 37 people. 37 homeowners received the letter over a year ago from the City letting them know that the city was going to move 500 prairie dogs to the open space that backed their property. What started with 37 letters very sneakily delivered turned into a neighborhood meeting, turned into a larger gathering at the local church, turned into letters and peititons and city council meetings, please to politicians, please to the media....

And this past week, in the final step the city needed to approve the move, the state of Colorado denied permission!

Not only am I super excited that they are not being moved I am also very proud of my community and my neighbors. We didn't just sit back and complain about what was happening "to us". Instead we let our voice and concerns be known. So the next time you hear about something happening but you feel like one voice won't be heard, think again. This started with 37 people.

From the article on www.dailycamera.com:

In a letter sent to the city on Friday, state wildlife officials wrote that they denied Boulder's application to move the prairie dogs to the open space site because the plan failed to adequately mitigate neighbors' concerns about the colony's eventual expansion into the nearby neighborhood.
"Until the city can develop a plan to effectively contain relocated prairie dogs on the property and as long as local opposition, especially from adjacent landowners, to the project remains strong, we will not issue a permit," the letter reads.

-Melissa

Bullets

2011-06-27T19:56:00.000-06:00

Time for a bullet list!

I will be traveling to Age Group Nationals (Oly and Sprint) for work. If you are racing, be sure to stop by the TrainingPeaks booth and say "hi"! I'd love to meet you.
It occurred to me the other day that getting up at 7am is sleeping in for me, and it feels like it too. Just one year ago getting up at 7 was....earlyish. I don't know why this is news, it's not like it's anything new.
My co-worker just got her 5 year class reunion invitation...from high school. I had to get out my calculator to do the math on mine.
I cannot think about Gabby's birthday coming up without getting emotional. She's really blooming into a little girl with a distinct personality. The highlight of my week are those hours on Saturday mornings from 7-10am when she is so happy and smiley and our whole family is spending time together in one place. Drinking coffee.
I may or may not have a coffee problem.
We have a secret tree trimmer in our neighborhood. Several neighbors have had their trees trimmed (the ones that are over the sidewalk) in the past few days, but nobody knows who did it or exactly when. Though I've been meaning to do this for a while, I'm bothered that the person didn't just ask us to do it. It's very odd. They could have at least pulled some weeds too. Thank you? I think?
In three weeks I will be joining some other great women to swim across Lake Tahoe. I am very excited, though nervous about two things: the cold water and getting boat sick. Last week someone said something about 45 degree water temperature? We're talking...no wetsuits for this race. It's open water swimming, totally different swimming than triathlon swimming. Brrrr. I refuse to accept 45 degrees. Or the fact that snow still lines the lake area.

Walking!

2011-06-25T22:52:00.000-06:00

Boulder Sprint Tri Race Report

2011-06-25T22:12:00.000-06:00

Last weekend was the Boulder Sprint triathlon. This was my first true triathlon back after taking last year off to grow a baby. My brother flew in from Houston for the race weekend, so not only was it a fun race but it was a great time with my brother too! Ryan has done a few tris but those were years ago, so it was like being with a newby again, so refreshing!

The race overall was....well....not too bad. The swim was good, the run was great, and the bike was crap. So overall it was a nice race but the bookends were much better than the middle.

Overall goal: To catch up with my brother who started a few waves before me. And to have a fast run. Indicative of my mental attitude towards the bike? Perhaps. My goal for the race should be to have a solid bike and to push hard, but instead I was just itching to swim fast and really push the run!

Swim: I swam faster than I felt, if that makes sense. I came out of the water 1st in my age group (of 98). 750m swim, time = 10:36. 1:00 faster than the last time I did this race.

The bad part...my T2 was so slow because I have a heck of a time getting my wetsuit leg over the timing chip. I think I"m going to cut a slit in one leg opening and see how that works. And when I say slow, I mean sit on the ground pull the leg off slow. Ouch. I thought about getting a new wetsuit since mine comes mid-calf but to be honest, I don't want to drop $$$ on a new suit. I'd want to get a really nice one and that's out of my budget right now. Nice tri gear has been replaced by new windows and our future plans for a finished basement.

Bike: Very disappointing. I have work to do here. 2:00 mins slower than the last time I raced here. Really? Really.

T2: In and out. What more can you say? Oh yeah...I passed my bro in T2 but didn't realize it at the time.

5k Run: Much better than I expected or felt! I told myself that I would take it out steady and hammer back. I went 22:48. 3:10 faster than last time I raced here. This 5k is a 2nd-best PR for me too! On one hand I am excited about this, but on the other I say that I should have pushed harder on the bike (yes) and not be able to get close to a 5k PR time on the run.

Overall: 11/98 age group. There are some really fast women around here! It's great to be able to compete against these super athletes in my backyard. I wanted to go 2:00 faster and lost that on the bike and my super slow T1. There is a race on the exact same course later in the summer so I'm shooting for that now. In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of planning for the rest of the summer season, but more to come on that in the next post. My brain is fried right now. Case in point: I totally missed a baby shower today, thought it was tomorrow, and I have been looking forward to it for the past month. Where has my brain gone?!

In non racing news, we are quickly approaching Gabby's first birthday. I refuse to accept the fact that I will soon have a toddler, despite the fact that she's entered the "throw yourself onto the floor when you are mad" phase. Somewhere along the way in one of my Target outings I found a top for Gabby that I had to get, here's why:

Don't worry, we didn't step foot out the door in our matching outfits.

Today also marks a big day in our parent life...Gabby is now walking!

First (kind-of) Multi-Sport Race Back!

2011-06-10T21:29:00.001-06:00

I say 'kind-of' only because it was a swim/run.....my favorite type of race!

There is a race series in Boulder that runs every Thursday night. The competition varies week to week, some weeks it's super tough and the pros show up, other days is just a tad less super tough.

I needed this race, it's been a tough two weeks for me and training. I'm not going to lie, I've been in the midsts of a parenting/mom-guilt/training and racing breakdown. I saw the light today and have broken free of the crazy thoughts running through my mind. So with that...here's my little race report...

Swim 1500m: 22:36. Not too bad but I've swum 3k in the past two weeks so I am excited to do the next race when I'm back at it. Life got in the way. No biggie. This swim is two loops and there is a beach run. The best part of the beach run....seeing Michael and Gabby! I stopped to give Gabbs a kiss but I'm not sure she knew who I was. I would have scared myself. Have you ever smelled the Boulder Res water? Ick.

Run: This is the best part. 22:24. PR! Apparently I am at my fastest running when I race a mile swim at the beginning. Or maybe it's just the swim suit and racing flat combination? Definitely not winning any "Best Dressed" awards for the week.

I felt sluggish on the swim and good but hurting on the run. Just as it should be! I don't think I can do next week but I definitely have plans for more this summer!

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!

Bolder Boulder 10k race report

2011-05-31T21:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was one of my favorite races, the Bolder Boulder 10k! It's not a fast 10k due to all the turns and rolling hills (oh, and the lack of oxygen but that is what it is), but the course winds through the city and is lined with fans the entire way. It's a classic Boulder event!

Last year I didn't get to do this race because I was all fat and pregnant. I remember bursting into tears that day as I drove around town and saw people walking towards the race start, I wanted to be them so bad. Hormones anyone??

On to this year....I was nervous Monday morning because it's been so long since I really raced hard. That would have been last November. Ouch. The race started...I felt great! First split...40 seconds faster than my PR goal pace. Woopsie! I tried to slow it down. Second mile...still about 15 seconds faster. By this point the insanity of race day mind takes over and I start to think "oh, maybe I'll have a HUGE PR!" Ha. Right. I am proud to say that I squeaked out a 5k PR for the first half. But I'm not proud to say that I failed in my attempt of negative splitting the 6.2 miles.

Official time: 46:22. 10k PR - 45:50. In all I'm happy with my race, though I would have been happier with a PR. No complaints though! I'm toying with the idea of making this an A race next year, I really want to break 45:00 on this course.

Another thing that makes this race so much fun is the fact that everyone does it. Really. Everyone. It's like a party with your friends and coworkers that starts at 7am.

If you are ever looking for a fun race to do in a cool location, I highly recommend you do the Bolder Boulder!

Deciding Not to Race

2011-05-24T21:42:00.000-06:00

I didn't race on Saturday. This past weekend was a really interesting one, and a nice reminder of what is most important to me when I lay my head down at night, what it is in my life that fills my heart. Triathlon is a big part of what makes me happy and what I enjoy doing. But most importantly, what triathlon has given me is a wealth of amazing friendships.

Bottom line, the change of location for the swim meant my entire day would be spent with the race. I went from expecting to be home at 11am to being home around 3. And on a usual Saturday this would be OK, but I had a full weekend planned. On Friday one of my very best friends had surgery to remove his "right nut" (his words, not mine) which was found cancerous a few days earlier. Thankfully it was caught very early and looks to have been fully contained and removed. I told him Michael and I would swing by on Saturday and spend time hangin'. I also had a 3 hour ride planned with two of my other very close friends to kick off our girls weekend. And when it came down to it, I wanted to spend my time with my friend and do that ride more than I wanted to chase the race around town.

So, there is my Aquathlon recap. Didn't happen.

Dinner! Me, Sarah, Kitty, Susan

But a great weekend did! The three hour ride was fantastic. At one point, we were talking about how it felt like life before babies, way back when we all first met and we could be gone all day with no worries. It was nice. After the ride we met up with the girls night participant #4, Dr. Kitty (the pregnant one) and grabbed dinner and some drinks. And to top off the girls night, we had a hotel room! Cool, right? This was a hotel room in our town, maybe 5 miles from my house. But the purpose was to celebrate girls night! And it was fun.

On Sunday morning we made it to the race site 5 mins before transition closed. I toed the line to run the 2 mile leg that took the place of the swim (boo). If you ever want to see me in a total state of confusion, catch me at the beginning of a duathlon. My body doesn't understand that concept.

After the race the four of us met at my house and did a 1:40 ez run (one of *us* is Ironman training, and it's not me or the pregnant lady). Later in the afternoon we regrouped for Kitty's baby shower. It was the main focus point of the entire weekend, and it was so sweet! Since Dr. Kitty is doing her residency away from Boulder we don't get to see her very often, so this entire weekend was a treat!

So, the weekend didn't start off as I envisioned, but it was more fun than I imagined!

Go relay team "Kitty's Litter"

Change of Plans

2011-05-20T20:08:00.000-06:00

Crap. Literally. Weather and high bacteria levels have messed with my weekend of races.

Tomorrow is the USA Aquathlon National Championships, however it's been raining non stop here for the past few days. The bacteria levels at the lake are 4 x what is the maximum allowed. That being said, the Aquathlon has changed. It's now a 5k run up in Longmont at 9am. Then in South Denver they are doing a mile swim in a lake. That's about 1:15 from the run site.

Here's my dilemma: I can deal with the change of the race. But I can't help but think that if the bacteria levels are really high in one large reservoir, the levels would be high in another. Two years ago I got really sick from high bacteria levels in the Boulder Reservoir, it took me four days to feel better. And then I think about seeing Gabby after the swim or when I get home and getting bacteria all over her and getting her sick. I can't help but think maybe I'm over-reacting but I also don't want to take any chance when it comes to Gabby getting sick.

The sprint triathlon on Sunday has turned into a duathlon. And since I was doing a relay with two of my super fun friends, that means I'm out of a job.

I have to decide what I'm going to do about tomorrow.

Swim Meet Event Workout

2011-05-11T21:02:00.000-06:00

I'm here to report that we successfully accomplished the Swim Meet Event Workout. This is swimming every event in a swim meet all in a row. For two weeks I couldn't stop thinking about having to do the 200 fly and the 200 breast stroke. But I'd like to say that I made it, and I made all of the strokes too. 5250yds.

I did have to use zoomers for the 200 and 100 fly. Shhh.....

In the end, this was actually a little easier than I expected, it was 1:11 of swimming (with rest and chatting it was more like 1:30ish). What made it fun was the company. There were five of us, including one very competitive person who would not let me swim the 500, 1000 or 1650 without racing ;-) Everyone should have great swimming partners for hard workouts, the last event of the day was the 1650 and the last 500 of that 1650 was my fastest 500 of the day. I LOVE SWIMMING! I'm still not making it to the pool as much as I want (I'm getting there 2 times a week) but the swimming I am doing has been very fulfilling. Actually, I'd say that about bike and run too. Things are just clicking and I'm having a great time!

My awesome swim partner, Sharon!

If you want a reminder:

1000 free
200 fly
50 free
200 free
...400 IM
100 back
100 breast
100 free
100 fly
500 free
200 IM
50 back
50 breast
200 back
50 fly
200 breast
100 IM
1650 free
(5250 total)

What's with all this?

2011-05-10T09:08:00.000-06:00

Is it me, or is there a big increase in spam comments? I took the word verification off for a few days, got a bunch of spam, turned it back on, and I still get a handful of spam comments each post.

Anyhow, I'm turning on comment moderation for a bit.

That's all. Carry on...

9 Months!

2011-05-05T09:51:00.000-06:00

We took Gabbs to her 9 months check up last week and all things are good. She's consistent with the % that she's been pretty much since birth, and that's a good sign. 3rd% for weight (yeah, she's a little scrappy) and 50% for length. The 9-month sleepers are already too short for her so I'm buying 12 month clothes. I don't know that I'm quite ready to think about 1 year!

Babies go through different developmental phase, it's a sign of them discovering something new that they can do. For example, about a month ago she started clicking her tongue, super cute. She also makes a scrunchy face if you ask her. But I'm not so sure I like this new phase she started. At first it was funny and cute, but now it's just messy.

Another Good Swim WO

2011-04-28T09:08:00.000-06:00

Alrighty, I have agreed to do another fun swim workout, this time with a group of friends! Next Saturday, 7:15am. Feel free to join in, we can have a virtual swim date.

It's not so much the distance of the WO that makes it hard, but the amount of non-free style that will be the big challenge. This is all 18 competitive swimming events swum in order:

1000 free
200 fly
50 free
200 free
400 IM
100 back
100 breast
100 free
100 fly
500 free
200 IM
50 back
50 breast
200 back
50 fly
200 breast
100 IM
1650 free

Total: 5250

I don't know what the rest interval will be, I'm thinking 5 minutes but that probably won't fly.

I already checked with the boss and got permission to do the swim next weekend, so it's on! Thanks Dave for planning this! I might have to pull out the water wings for that 200 fly.

Friends

2011-04-24T22:27:00.000-06:00

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. ~Albert Schweitzer

No, no...my inner fire has not gone out at all. But I do think this quote is so spot on, we've all been in a place from time to time where we find our inner spark is relighted after time spent with a friend.

My friends have been on my mind a lot, especially over this past weekend. When we are little, we're thrown into play dates, school, sports...settings that make it 'easy' to make friends with others who share the similar interests. But once you are an adult in the 'real world', it's harder. When I moved out to Colorado I made friends at work. Then I got married and found friendships that came from my husband's world. Then I got pregnant and now I have friends through my mommy life. I got into triathlon and made friends, I started blogging and made more friends....I am grateful for all the people who are in my life, whether we see each other daily, or we have never met IRL (and you know what IRL means ;-) )

Like I said, my friends have been on my mind a lot these past few days. I met some new friends Friday night and had a blast on, what basically was, a date with a group of ladies (wives of Michael's friends) and I'm excited to do it again. I spent hours playing with some mommy friends while watching our babies play together and building their own friendships. I heard great news from one friend, scary news from another, and heartbreaking news from a third. I said a prayer for a friend I've never met "in real life". I got in a great workout with one friend and the next day missed a workout with another one.

This may all seem random but I can't get past my observation of how one day can bring the most happy moments in life for one person I care for and then sad things for another, all happening at the same time. It's life, that's how things go and that is why love and friendships are so integral a part of keeping our sanity.

As my life progresses and my family grows, the free time I have may be decreasing but I am more and more grateful for the friendships that help make up the web of my life.

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels. ~Author Unknown

This and That

2011-04-19T22:07:00.001-06:00

A little This and That.

Last Friday morning I did what has been dubbed "Schwartz Swim Special" (thanks Beth!). This is 11x500s, totally my style of swimming. I love 500s, my favorite distance both in practice and racing (well, back in high school, when I was about a full minute faster, ouch). I mentioned this in an earlier post. Anyhow....Julia was doing it so I decided to do it too, a virtual swim practice. Teresa has done it too...I'm so glad I can add some nice swimming pain into people's lives ;-)

The swim went well, though I was a little disappointed in my fast 500s (#3, #6, #9, #11). My fastest time was good, but there was too much difference between the fast times, they should be pretty consistent as this is a good set for pacing. I'm doing this again in May to mark my progress over 4 weeks. Anyone want to join in? It will probably be May 11th.

On Saturday I did a Time Trial race, as in, a real cycling race in Colorado. I registered for this thinking it would be a good test to determine my FTP. But what it did instead was beat down my cycling self esteem. I was bummed about it for most of Sunday but then decided to make the most of it, so I'm taking away a good lesson in mental strength and a refined focus on what I really need to focus on to reach my triathlon goals this season. The 40 mph winds didn't help either, but that should just make me tougher.

My friend Courtney got a pic towards the finish...oh, funny story...I forgot my cycling jersey (so I'm wearing a running top) and my Powertap hr strap (so I'm wearing my Garmin). Woopsie. Brain fart. I know I can be more aero but this fit is good for me and my tight hips. Thank you. I followed this ride with a family run with Mr. Schwartz and Gabby. That was the best part, especially since we were going nice and ez. My legs were screaming.


The pink bar tape reminds me of chewed hubba-bubba gum.

On my run today I started day dreaming about my first real race, and I am itching to get there. End of May, 4 weeks, counting down the days. It's just a swim/run and those are my favorite races!! I am going to barf when I cross the finish line and keel over with nothing left in my tank. Michael will have to put me in the baby carrier and hike it back to the car with both Gabbs and me on his back.

May: May is turning out to be like our March, something schedule every single weekend. I'm starting to wonder if this is the new reality. And I think that's the case.

In family news, last week I got a call from day care to come pick up Gabby:

Oh, how sad is that face? We had one night where Gabby was inconsolable. The minute we put her in the crib she would scream, and the second we picked her up she was cuddly and quiet. That means lots of time in the recliner. We thought it was an ear infection but the doc said they weren't that bad and by the next day she was happy Gabby again. Then I thought it was teething but 7 days later and we are still waiting to see any teeth. So, I'm marking it down to the viral bug that's floating around day care. I have no idea but I just know she's happy now and sleeping fine. But that face she gave me when I picked her up at day care broke my heart. Imagine the worst puppy face ever and multiply that time 100.

The end.

Camp! Or, Mingling with the Locals

2011-04-07T21:21:00.000-06:00

Ice bath! It was so cold I couldn't even drink my beer. This was the 97 degree day. L-R: Me, Kate and Sharon.

If you ever have the opportunity to do a training trip (preferably in the cold months) to Tucson, do it! I had a great time at camp this past week, and Jen and Jerome did a wonderful job putting on the camp.

The highlights for each sport:

BIKING: riding up Mt. Lemon was so sweet, but almost just as much fun was the descent. It was so thrilling! This climb is 26 miles base to top (or, maybe it's 25, now I'm drawing a blank). I haven't been climbing outside in over 1.5 years and this camp has me excited to get out of my basement and up to the mountains. What's neat about climbing up Mt. Lemon is that the road is perfect, a nice big shoulder, the pavement is smooth, there aren't too many side streets or little towns that bring side traffic, it feels safe. This is a must-do ride!

RUNNING: We did a trail run called Phoneline trail, located in Sabino Canyon. This is a beautiful run, lots of climbing on the way out, and all downhill on the way home. It's so nice to do some running in other geological settings that are breath taking. I mean absolutely beautiful!! I should have stopped more to enjoy the scenery, but who am I kidding, I don't ever do that. I just take little sneak peeks while trying hard not to eat it on a big rock.

SWIMMING: I loved swimming outside in the heat. The pool at UofA is an oasis of swimming pleasure. I enjoyed both swims we did, and I had the chance to swim with Jen, that was a treat. It was nice to swim three times in one week. I've been doing longer swims when I can get to the pool, but never 3 times in one week (hopefully that will start happening). And since I love swimming hard, on the last day of camp, at the end of the swim, I did a 500 all out for time and was pleasantly surprised with my time. It was about 10 seconds faster than I expected (5:58).

Other Highlights: It was a major highlight to meet some new friends and to see some old ones. That is what makes training camps so much fun, the people who you get to spend time with. This was a wonderful group of athletes. I just realized some of you guys have blogs so now I get to stalk them :-) Ha!

On the last day we did a trail run through the desert and guess what we saw? First we saw a pack of wild boars (called Javelina). How cool is that? After realizing there were some babies and mommas in the pack, we decided to turn around and not run through the pack. And 5 minutes after that.....we saw a mountain lion! It was crossing the running path, on it's way to the boars.

If you don't know what they look like, here you go:

Nice kitty kitty. The next time I go on a run through desert I'm bringing a hunting gun. Or someone who I can out run. Either works.

Michael and Gabby survived without me for the week. When I left she was just barely taking a few crawls forward, and by the time I got back she was unstoppable. Now she does laps around our front room.

This photo cracks me up. What a motley crew.

Sunshine

2011-03-22T21:33:00.001-06:00

Did I tell you? I'm taking a trip very soon. March is our crazy month, two business trips, one family reunion long weekend, weekend house guests, and I go to Arizona.

I'm going to Arizona!

In one week I will be in sunny Tucson riding my bike (outside!), running my heart out, and swimming in a huge pool. I am so excited for training camp! The other day someone asked me how my life has changed since having a baby, and I said the only thing that I 'miss' are those weekend days where you just go out and kill yourself with a long long training day, then you get to lay on the couch for the rest of the day, watching trashy tv shows and just passing the time until dinner and then bed. Besides that, I don't really miss anything else (well, slight lie, I also miss sleeping in past 6:30). So I am extremely excited for all the training I have ahead of me at camp. I want to lay in bed exhausted at 8pm...exhausted from training.

I digress...

I am looking forward to the workouts and also meeting some wonderful fellow triathletes and seeing JPH once again! I am not looking forward to being away from Michael and Gabbs. Our weekends are so valuable, but I also think it's important to be able to do things like go away for a training camp. Not that I want to do it all the time, but for my life and me, it's a good thing. It's just like Mr. Schwartz going away for his weekend pond hockey tournament. Except I don't anticipating wining a case of PBR at camp. If you don't know what that is...shame on you!

Until I take that first pedal in the hot AZ weather, I will continue to ride my bike in the dark, cold basement at 5am. Giddy up!

I also heard a rumor that there is excellent Mexican food around Tucson. I plan on eating my body weight in guacamole.

Confession

2011-03-16T21:51:00.002-06:00

Confession: Today it was 76 degrees and I rode inside at lunch. And yesterday it was 60s and I ran on the treaddy. I'm in a funk and I can't shake it.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

2011-03-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

Gabby is almost 8 months! So I figured I probably should open the "OMG you have a baby!" book and read about this month. In the past I always enjoyed reading the monthly updates....they were always full with fun things like sleeping through the night, starting solid foods, baby's first smiles, learning to crawl. However, these are the topics I found tonight when I opened the book:

"Eating off the Floor"
"Eating Dirt - and Worse"
"Getting Dirty"
"Erections"
"Discovering Genitals"
"Change Your Ways"

Sounds like this is going to be a busy month.

My ABC

2011-03-08T21:38:00.001-07:00

Everyone is doing it...actually I really just want to post my favorite pet peeves, as a PSA...

Age: 33. More often now I actually have to think about this answer. The other day I thought I was 31. And I hate that my bday is in Dec so I have to race up an age group. So as a 33 year old, this is my last year racing 30-34. I know, makes no sense.
Bed size: King. And our guest bed is King too. Anyone want to come visit?
Chore you dislike: Picking up dog poop. Gross. I am *almost* willing to pay someone to do this.
Dogs: Sky Marie. 8 year old Weimareaner. She is deathly afraid of water, a very convenient quirk when it comes to trail runs near lake-y places.
Essential start to your day: coffee. I'm drinking more now than ever. I blame that on Gabby and NOT on my weak self control when it comes to caffeine drug.
Favorite color: green. Hands down.
Gold or silver: silver. But really Platinum.
Height: 5'9
Instruments you played: Saxophone, violin, piano. I still play the piano...kind-of.
Job Title: Professional Account Manager at Peaksware. This means I get to talk to coaches and other professionals all day, I love my job!
Kids: Gabby! Gabrielle (NOT Gabriel. She's a girl). 7 months. I never knew love could be like this!
Live: Boulder. I've been here longer than any other place, but if you ask me I will still tell you I'm from Ohio. You can't take the Midwest out of me.
Mom's name: Lillian.
Nicknames: Mel, Pippi, Mimi
Overnight Hospital Stays: 5 nights when Gabby was born (longer than usual since I had a 104 fever), then a few nights when I was little and had spinal meningitis. Scary stuff, and I understand that even more now that I have my own daughter
Pet Peeves: 1) People sucking on hard candy (ahem...) or chewing gum. I cannot stand listening to this and I believe it is rude in a public setting. 2) people who are rude and mean when they are contacting customer service.
Quote from a movie: "Bring your green hat!"
Righty or Lefty: Right
Siblings: Big sister Liz (2 years older) and little brother Ryan (5 years younger). Middle children unite!
Time you wake up: depends. On Sunday it was 4:30 to get in a ride. Usually 5:15 if I workout. NEVER past 7 now that I have a kid. I love the early mornings when nobody else is up. That's my Melissa-time.
Underwear: under where?
Veggies you don't like: I live in constant fear of accidentally eating olives (are they veggies?) I also don't like the type of greens that are spicy. Arugula maybe? Ick.
What make you run late: Talking too much. Surprised?
X-rays you've had: a few. X-ray for two stress fractures (then MRIs for them), probably some other finger/toes issues I can't remember
Yummy food you make: I make killer guacamole, I'm not going to lie. The Mr. is really the good chef in the house, I'm just good at chopping stuff.
Zoo animal favorites: I hate the zoo because it makes me sad. And I really don't like monkeys. And as I told the office maintenance guy today, I also don't care about the pigeons that are nesting in the ceiling above my new office. And I hate the woodpeckers that are trying to destroy our house and doing so by pecking at the wall outside of the nursery (have you ever heard how loud they can be at 5am!?!) Oh, and prairie dogs. I do not care for prairie dogs. But I love animals, really, I do.

Weekend Wrap Up

2011-03-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

Wow. This past weekend was busy! We had company all weekend, plus a swim "lesson" and lots of time on the trainer down in the basement.

I either need a new TV series to watch or some better movies for all the trainer sessions I'm doing. I foresee more quality time with my basement riding in place for hours on end, so please help!

Here is a sampling of my viewing pleasure in the past 72 hours:

"Dexter", Season 5 episode 1 (LOVE this, though the particular episode was a little blah)
"Winter's Bone": humph. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't on the bike. Boring. Depressing. But good, kind-of, in a "it's either this or ride in the 50mph winds" sort of way
"Salt": someone please tell A.Jolie that she should not take running lessons from her toddlers. The plot was interesting, but I just could not get past her funny running form (think "Sesame Street").
"Nurse Jackie", Season 2 episode 1: Love this show.
"I Used to Be Fat": MTV, because I can't get the remote control to work and it was stuck on MTV since watching Jersey Shore on Thrs.

How often should one replace their cycling shoes? I realized mine are from 2004 and starting to fall apart. Is it time?

In other news...
We made it to swim lessons this week, and I played photographer (last week we didn't go because Miss "I don't nap" decided to finally nap 5 mins before we have to leave for swimming, so I made the executive decision that sleep trumps swimming).

Game face!

I wonder if she has my swimming genes?

My loves, My family, One of my favorite places!

Dear March, I Love You

2011-03-03T23:49:00.001-07:00

Oh, hello March. So nice to see you. Though you are not my favorite month, you definitely stack up in the top 1/3 of the year.

March means the temperatures are *hopefully* on the upswing. Soon the flowers will start peeping through the dirt (before they are smothered and killed by feet of heavy April snow), and before we know it, April will be here and that's ALMOST Memorial Day weekend which means that summer is here! Yeah for summer and racing! Break out the chicken and apple brats!

A lot has been going on in the past few weeks. I've had a few internal meltdowns, which is bound to happen. I just now feel like I'm getting a manageable grip on training and my schedule. Here's how I'm doing it (success rate ~ 90% of the time):

Two mornings a week I swim. After stressing about trying to fit in more swims, I finally accepted that at this point in the season two swims a week is OK for me, it would be cool to get in another swim, but not necessary. And thank goodness for my swim partner Sharon! I know that she'll be there, and I also know at 5:15 when my alarm goes off, there is no option to sleep in, because the bottles are already made, the baby sitter is on board (aka, Michael) and if I waste an available morning it's not something I can reschedule. Sharon is up for big workouts, and someday I'll convince her that 11x500s is a fun set (for curious minds, done as 1-9 are descend 1-3, 4-6, 7-9...then 10 is ez and 11 is all out for time.) 500s make me drool. I love them. And that last 500 is so hard!

Bike: I've been spending lots of quality time in my basement. Even on the few beautiful days we've had, I've been inside. On the mornings when I'm on baby-duty I try to get up early and ride before Gabby gets up. Success rate, ~75%. I'm working on this one. If I don't get it in the morning, I'll ride after G goes to bed, which means dinner around 8:30 and that stinks. I try to schedule my long ride around nap time on the weekend, which is hard since I have a non-napping baby. Who knew they existed? They do. She got my genes here. Unless she's actually napping ON Michael or me, then she'll go for 2 hours. Please, no comments on how that's messing her up and keeping her from napping well in her crib, I am fully aware of it.

Run: I've been running at lunch. Good stuff. Not much more to say about that. I'm getting a little bored with the same running routes.

Sometimes things throw a wrench into my perfectly planned schedule. And I hate that.

In other news...things I do love...

Michael grew a creepy mustache and has been playing lots of hockey. I took Gabby up to the mountains for the first time to watch a pond hockey tournament.

There is a baby in there somewhere

It was really fun to watch Micheal do what he loves and to have Gabby there too. It's just like the two of them coming to one of my races.

I also used my secret homemaker sewing skills to make their pond hockey jerseys, and they won the award for "Best Uniforms".

Earlier this month Gabby "booked" a modeling job with Boppy. Yeah, I know, how random is that!? The used a few different babies all with different looks. Michael and I were proud parents. Here she is getting ready, waiting for her call time:

And here she is working it. For the record, it takes three adults to make a baby smile, one to photograph it, and one to take secret pictures with their iPhone.

March is going to be a crazy busy month! Lots of fun stuff going on. I'm thinking it might be time for another 5k race. I wanted to do the State Swimming Championships at the end of the month, but they have the mile on a Friday....hello....don't most people work on Fridays? I'm bummed about that but not bummed enough to take a vacation day for it. I have better things to do with those...like a training trip to Tucson! Bring it.

My Win

2011-02-15T22:38:00.001-07:00

Thank you everyone for sharing your own super bowl wins, they were fun to read! Three things came to mind for me. First, I think about my 500 free race during my junior year in HS at District championships. It was one of those swims!!!! I remember hitting the wall, looking up at the timing board, and see a PR by a few seconds. To take a few seconds off a swimming PR, even in the 500, is so sweet! And I went on to swim the State Championships that year and PRd, but I don't remember by how much, it wasn't nearly as exciting as that district meet.

I also remember my senior year when I decided to start racing the 100free. I never got to do this my first three years of HS because it was too close to the 500 during State. But my senior year I decided I was no longer doing distance. I remember at the district meet (again, districts...I raced at States but don't remember it so well), I was racing against the big sprinters, and I held my own and came in with a much faster time than I ever thought I was capable of doing! It's that feeling....those few sweet seconds between finishing the race and looking at your time where you don't know what is to come, what your time will be.

I miss racing and being fast like that. There. I said it.

And my third super bowl win is water polo state championships my sophomore year. We won it again after that, but this one was great because my sister was on the team too and we had to work for it. It was a game that came down to the very end, and you know that NOT winning is NOT an option, it's just a matter of getting it done.

I feel like I should have more recent significant wins. I'm working on it!

And by working on it, I mean this:

Yeah, I know. I'm aware of my contradiction.

What is your Super Bowl Win?

2011-02-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about watching sports championships is the very last minute, when the athletes know what side of the knife they fall on, if they will be spending the evening shaking bottles champagne all over the locker room, or drowning sadness and disappointment in a long, hot shower (or, at least for me, I find moment of disappointment and sadness are often made better with scolding hot very long showers).

Tonight's Super Bowl has me thinking, what is MY Super Bowl win? What sports moments in my life had made me feel that moment of elation? I don't believe that you have to be a professional athlete to feel those overwhelming emotions of accomplishment, greatness and winning is all relative to what you are doing in your own life.

I LOVE the picture above. Can't you just feel the emotion? I have the Michael Phelps DVD from the 2008 Olympics and to this day I still cheer out loud when I watch the 4x100m relay...one of the most amazing sports finishes I can recall.

This week I'm going to be asking myself, what is my Super Bowl moment? What will it be for 2011?

What is yours?

Yearbook Picture

2011-02-04T11:54:00.002-07:00

2011 Race Schedule

2011-02-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

My 2011 race schedule is up! You will notice that it's all sprint and olympic distance triathlons, nothing longer. I decided this season I really want to focus on learning how to suffer, really push my comfort zone both mentally and physically during races. I can do this with the swim, I do it every time I get in the pool, but I just don't have it on the bike and run, and that's what I'm working on for 2011.

I'll also be hoping into local 5ks and the Stroke and Stride Thrs night 1500swim/5k run this summer. I'm working VERY hard to resist signing up for the Boulder 70.3 (half ironman). It feels like all of my co-workers are doing this race (probably about 70% of them....really...I"m not exaggerating!) and I get all wrapped up in the excitement and "trash" talking. But! That's not my focus this summer and I have to remember that.

Notice the last race on my list? Yes! I'm excited to be part of a 6-lady relay for the 11 mile swim across Lake Tahoe. How neat is that?! I heard it's very very cold. And this is completely open-water sport, so no wetsuits...just pure simple swimming. This means that I'll need to find some local open water swim races. I LOVE this!

Karma

2011-01-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

Well, you know how the saying goes....Karma, it's a b*.

I should learn my lesson not to brag about our awesome warm days during the winter. Shame on me! I just can't help it, especially when you find yourself on a Friday lunch run dressed like this:

That's my reflection in my office window...short shorts and bra, AND I was really warm! 67 degrees.

This morning I turn on my computer and see this:

Convinced that the wunderground people are wrong, I start shopping around for better forecasts, and I find this on our local news channel's site for tomorrow:

Good Lord. If the weatherman is starting the forecast with all caps VERY COLD then there is no hope. That's like putting in your staring pitcher late in the 9th inning, praying for a miracle, only to be let down when the first pitch flies over the brick wall.

I'm going into hibernation.

Disney Marathon Race Report

2011-01-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

OK, here's the situation. My parents went away on a week's vacation and, they left the keys to the brand new Porche, would they mind...hmmm....well of course not.

If you have no idea what that is I will cry :-(

On to business.....Walt Disney World Marathon, 2011!!

I've done this race once before and it's actually my marathon PR of 3:42somethingish. If you are familiar with Boston qualifying times you will know that it is <2 minutes from qualifying (3:40:59 gets you in). I did this race in 2006 when I was a young, single, lean mean whipper-snapper. Now I'm just old and saggy.

My little brother peer pressured me into doing the race back when I was in that "oh I'm pregnant and I can't wait to get my body back and be training and racing again" stage...that's about two months before the "oh my gosh someone pull this baby out of me because I can no longer move/function/deal with society" pregnancy stage. It sounded like a good time (the race, not the final pregnancy stage, that was interesting).

We stayed off campus in a condo, something I highly recommend to anyone doing this race! We had three bedrooms, a kitchen, and easy access to Disney, all for about 1/2 the price of a mid-level single hotel room at a Disney resort. It was much easier than I expected. On Sunday morning we woke up at 2:30 am (12:30 am Colorado time) to get to the race by 4am for the 5:40 start (you had to be there by 4am). It was EARLY! Holey cow. But, being the good big sister that I am, we got there early and literally...front row parking. Who gets front row parking at a huge marathon? We did. And we hung out in the warm car for a long time and just marathon-people watched as we stuffed our faces with breakfast and I facebooked/texted my friends who were still awake from the night before. It was great.

Fast forward a while to the start....it was dark for quite some time. We saw my parents at mile 1 and mile 4 (yes, that pic was taken during the race, not before)

The first few miles you are running through Epcot, very cool even if it is dark. I couldnt' get any good pics in the dark, so I took self portraits instead:

I had to keep reeling my brother in and telling him to slow down because we didn't want to go out too fast. See, that's what happens when you invite me along for the ride, I can't turn off my bossy big-sister micro chip. And I take lots of pics.

Around mile 9 you get to the Magical Kingdom and the sun is up. This is where you get to run through the castle. We took more pics:

This park carries you through some good miles and then dumps you out at the waste management area. Icky ickyness. Talk about picking it up! We could not get through that area fast enough.

We were still feeling good around mile 15...16...17....then it hit. All the long runs my brother was doing...we reached the point of no-return and slowed down. We switched to more run/walking, keeping in mind that the goal of the day was to finish and enjoy ourselves.

After running through the 5 parks, you circle back around to Epcot for the big finish. Right around mile 25 we saw my parent again! Now...I've said it before and I"ll say it again, it is so awesome to have them there at races! Ryan and I spotted them way before they spotted us, the key to successful big-race spectating/cheering are all in the signs...see the red arrows below? I had already spotted them by this point:

And finally...after 26 miles of mostly fun, a few "dig deep" conversations, and lots and lots of Disney magic, my brother crossed the finish line of his first marathon! We got our medals, space blankets, and...what's this?....an entire area full of people giving out ice bags? yes please! My brother iced his glutes and I iced...yes...my crotch...it still hurts when I run, and that was a lot of running.

This is the best part:

Since the race started way too early, we found ourselves with an entire day to spend at the park! We stuffed our faces with IHOP food (lots of coffee and bacon, very hydrating, no?) and then hit Disney for SIX HOURS of walking around. Oops. That brings a total of 11 hours on our feet for the day (marathon was 5:12). I thought we were going to have to carry my brother from Space Mountain to the car. We got a little carried away. Woopsie.

In all, I think this is an excellent race for people who want to have fun and enjoy themselves. I can see us making a long weekend of it once Gabby is old enough to appreciate Disney, that would be really fun! I'm really glad I was able to be there for my brother's first marathon experience, the few days I spent thinking I wasn't going to run really bummed me out and I'm so appreciative that I was able to do this. I am grateful that my parents drove up from their place to spend time with us too!

And for the record, I tried to smuggle Gabby with me but was caught red handed:

Next up: Time to train for Sprint and Olympic races this summer...short, sweet, and very painful!

Race Update Update

2011-01-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

What? Where am I? What's going on? Is this a race? Am I going the wrong way?

Nice pic, right? I cropped out my brother, I captured this pic as he was in the middle of hacking up a lung.

It has come to my attention that people really want to know how the marathon went, and that I am a major blog writing slacker. So, I will have something up tonight with an actual race report and photos. In summary, it was not pretty, it was not fast, but it was a great time! And....once again...I am reminded that I have the best cheer squad known to man, my parents! I'm thinking about hiring them out as rent-a-cheer-squad. :-)

Packing

2011-01-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I'm packing these things:

Since Gabby is staying in Colorado, I'm stealing her monkey and taking it with me. It smells like Gabby and will keep me company at night. And by smelling like Gabby, what I mean is that it's covered in spit up.

And, since baby is not coming with me, I expect to get some really solid sleep. Not "Michael is on baby duty tonight" type of sleep, but sleep-through-the-night-like-before-I-got-pregnant sleep. I will not hide the fact that at this point in time, I am more excited about sleep than I am about running 26.2 miles. And I'm excited to run!

Lots of these.

And lots of this too.

Christmas Trip Review

2011-01-02T20:22:00.001-07:00

Another wonderful Christmas trip in the books, it's a New Year, and things are great! Instead of going through my outstanding emails or other things that need to get done, I've been uploading photos from the past few weeks.

I love going home for Christmas! Since it was Gabbs first Christmas, we took a ton of family photos:

(if you look closely, you can see my brother and my senior photo, a Glamor Shot of my sister, and two dead animals ashes all in the bookcase).

Gabby, Liz and I did some swimming practice, she (Gabby, not my sister, Liz is a pretty fast swimmer already) has to get ready for swim lessons starting in February (I recorded this in Gabby's own TrainingPeaks account, of course):

We also did a lot of driving to see family "up north" (aka, northern Ohio). Photo courtesy of my loving husband:

My dad added a special short extension to the height chart so that Gabby could be recorded. This chart goes back to my sister, brother and me being very small and now has my nephews on there too. Construction phase:

...and measurement:

...it's fun to measure an infant:

And of course, no trip is complete without a lot of pork product. Mmmmm, bacon. I have to confess, this pic is from last year, but you get the idea. How early is too early for baby bacon puree?

We didn't make it to Skyline Chili or Montgomery Inn for ribs, but I did beat my sister and Michael at the Wii dance-off game. WootWoot!

Happy New Year everyone!

Is it January Already?

2010-12-29T22:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! Time flies, December has gone by in a blink and I've been a lazy blogger. The top thing on my mind as I type this:

I feel like I won a new Mom badge on our flight back last night...after changing a diaper in the tiny airplane bathroom, I then managed to hold baby while I "took care of business" and did not drop her...I mean....I managed to even wash my hands and buckle my belt with baby in arms. There has to be some type of award for this! And with that....
Heaven help me if I have to fly again any time soon with a baby. >Gasp< Hard work, but 100% worth it to spend Christmas home with my family!
I have consumed more bacon in the past week than I have in the past 6 months.
Why does my pelvic area still hurt when I run 5 months after birth? Boo.
My knee still hurts from my bull riding episode back on Dec 11. Ouch. Luckily it only bothers me when I try to sleep on my side.
Sometimes I feel like I'm falling apart. Physically. Boo.
Marathon in 1.5 weeks. I'm on the fence about this. I have not been running much at all in the past 1.5 weeks. Nobody want to hear me complain about my ankle so I haven't said much. Whine whine whine. I decided last week that I was out. But..of course now I have sugar plum fairy dreams about doing the entire race with my brother...plenty of time to figure it out.

I really like this time of year. My birthday, Christmas, and a new year! Have you been thinking about what you would do differently in the New Year? I have!

And now I leave you with this excellent picture from Christmas, I call it "Baby Paparazzi". How many people does it take to get a good picture from a 5 month old? 4. :

My Birthday Present

2010-12-08T22:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is my birthday and I decided to take the day off work. I am very excited for the day! For my present, I'm giving myself a day all to myself to clean the house, unpack from our DC trip (only two weeks ago), and put up the Christmas tree. I plan on running and swimming, drinking way too much coffee, eating bacon, and watching the latest episode of "Bridalplasty". Gabby is still going to day care for part of the day because I just can't get this stuff done with her around. There. I said it. I need some time to be by myself.

Mommy needs a (partial) day.

Later in the afternoon Gabby and I have a play date. The most exciting thing I'm planning for my birthday, however, is going swimming with my husband and his mini-me this weekend. I cannot wait! Now THAT is my true birthday present. Family time doing something that I love!

Somewhere around there I also need to "squeeze in" a 2:45 run.

We made it!

2010-11-29T20:49:00.001-07:00

This past week the Schwartz family packed up and flew to DC for Thanksgiving, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't super-nervous about it. I have this fear of being that woman with the screaming baby. I know, I know...it happens and people (who have kids) understand. But still...

I've realized that flying with a baby...wait, no, let me rephrase....taking a trip with a baby is almost like flying somewhere for a race. You have to pack way too much crap, half of which you won't even touch, and there is that underlying anxiety about everything coming together and working properly. Michael can contest to my 'normal' self at airports; I like to walk fast, they (airports) bring out the competitor in me. I like to get through lines quickly, like to walk through the terminal quickly (those flat-escalators are fun for me, I like to walk fast along side them and race the people walking slowly on the escalors...hahahahaha), and I thrive on the challenge of getting off the plan as fast as possible. Hanging out at baggage claim? Don't get in my way, I'm there on the carousel waiting for my bag(s), laser focus turned ON. One of my most proud moments was being American #1 through customs on our last trip to Mexico. I don't mess around. If you are a lollygagger we will not travel well together.

All of that has been shattered by a mere 11lb3oz of baby. We are poky, literally the LAST people off the plane in DC. I felt a little bad for my sister in law (who flew back with me on Sunday) because I was so sloooooow. I was driving myself nuts at how slow everything is now.

OK, let's move on to the good stuff. Gabby :-) Are you tired yet of hearing about my beautiful mini-Michael? She slept the entire flight out there, and almost the entire flight back. No fussiness, no crying, and most importantly, no public diaper explosions!

I should stop, because I know I'm jinxing myself.

Marathon training is going forward, all things are good. I squeezed in my long run last Wednesday after work, 2:20 in the books. Wootwoot! Getting in the long workout before the DC trip was a big relief. It's easy for me to get in runs while I'm there, but sneaking away for 2:20 after sleeping only...maybe...3 hours the night before (thanks to a baby who is on a different time zone and sleeping in a different place for the first time) does not set you up for a successful long run. 1:00 was much better, and I did that with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law. Fun!

Up for this week is a 2:30 long run on Sunday!

I love running.

I Won a Medal

2010-11-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Well lookey here, I won myself a medal! Please allow Yoji to model:

On Saturday I did a Turkey Trot and pulled off a 5k PR and 2nd in my age group...WooHoo! And dare I say....I enjoyed all 22:45 of the race, it hurt in all the right ways that 5k's tend to do when you race them wearing your big girl pants.

Of course, now I just have to race that plus 23.1 more miles. Piece of cake, no problem. I got this. How many more weeks do I have?

A lot of racing for me is in my head. Example: my 5k PR before Saturday was 22:55 but that was in a Stroke-&-Stride race so I did a 1500m swim before the 5k. My 10k PR is at the end of an Olympic distance triathlon, and my half marathon PR is actually from my full marathon PR. I'm still working on my 2011 season goals but I do know that a big part of reaching my goals will be running more stand-alone 5k and 10k races, really learning how to embrace the sufferfest. In fact, this should be my "Season of Sufferfest". Sounds good. Is that a word? It should be.

In other news, I'm taking a photography class and that means anyone within 50 feet of me is in constant threat of being snapped. Today I captured this little nugget of fun:

Apparently a 5k race to me is like tummy time to a 4-month old, painful yet beneficial in the end.

Weekends

2010-11-14T22:04:00.000-07:00

I love the weekends! But who doesn't? I kicked off mine with a long run Friday after work. 2:00 in the books. It wasn't fast or pretty, but I'm laying down a nice base right now that will carry over to this summer, and that's where my bigger goals for the year are. Tick tick tick...running out the miles and putting hay in the barn. As I said before, I'm really trying to behave myself and am sticking to the appropriate heart rate zones as written in my workouts. I'm being a good little student.

With my long run out of the way, that gave me all of Saturday open, yeah! We put a fire in the fireplace, drank lots of coffee, watched Ohio State beat Penn State, did chores, sang "The Wheels on the Bus" over and over again (did you know they go Round and Round? They do), and I continued to dig deep into my secret identity and made this:

Pay no attention to the look on the model's face, those are actually tears of excitement. I knitted Gabby a Christmas elf hat. Let's just pretend that she was as excited about it as I was.

Moving along in the weekend....

I planned to meet my friend Jenny to swim Sunday morning at 8, so I decided to get there early and do my run, just get 'er done before the day got away from me. At 5:30 the alarm went off and I pressed snooze, "oh I can just run later in the day". Two minutes later I thought about the 2011 Season Goal paper I'm filling out, what I want to be doing with myself (athletically and motherhood-y), and I got right out of that bed. I gave MAS the monitor and told him he's on Gabby duty, got in the car, and headed out. It felt so good! I did my run and then turned 4100yds in the pool with Jenny. It was a great morning and I found another awesome swim partner!

This coming week is going to be tricky. We have a pediatrician appointment (check-up), and I have a physical therapy apt, a dentist apt, hair apt, photography class, and probably something else that I'm forgetting. Oh yeah...a girls night out on Saturday. My goal for this week is to get in all my workouts. And to knit another hat.

Marathon Training!

2010-11-12T08:45:00.001-07:00

Marathon training is in full swing, and I'm loving it! Yesterday I ran at lunch and it was cold, dreary and wet outside...it reminded me of what it's like training for 26.2 during the Colorado winter. Usually it's really neat, there's snow on the ground but the sun is shining and it's not that cold. Today I'm in for a treat, there is snow on the ground, but the sun is out and the mountains look beautiful...a great day to be a runner!

I've realized that I actually have to plan for doing my long run, now that we have Gabby to throw into the mix. Before I would just wake up on Saturday and run long. A few weeks I tried waking up really early to start my long run around 5am so that I'd be back before she wakes up. But since I have a crazy fear of being eaten by a mountain lion, and they have been recently spotted in our 'hood, getting up at 5am is becoming less and less appealing. One Saturday I started the run at 3pm and ran to the Reservoir while Michael, Gabby and Sky-Marie drove there (MAS did the driving) and had a nice walk. That was all fine and dandy, but as my runs get longer the less I"ll be able to wait on the weekend to get them done. The past few weeks (wait...how long have I been back running?) I've been getting up with Gabby and then leaving for my run. That seems to be working.

Today I'm trying a new thing, I'm going to do my long run after work and before I pick up Gabbs. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully I won't bonk on my way over to her day care. But I love the idea of getting it done and having nothing on Saturday, well...except for the swim I didn't do earlier this week because....well...I didn't want to wake up early and miss Gabby getting up. Ack! I know, I'm a total first time mom. But she's so smiley in the morning. I just need to get over that and be OK with missing it every once in a while.

So that's that. Forward progress indeed!

Oh, and I've taken on a new project: I'm knitting a Christmas elf hat. Pictures to follow if I actually finish this thing.

Come Work With Me!

2010-11-10T11:35:00.000-07:00

Do you use TrainingPeaks.com or WKO+?

Come work with me, we are hiring a Marketing Coordinator!

Here's the scoop:
http://blog.trainingpeaks.com/2010/11/job-openings-marketing-coordinator.html

One Year

2010-11-02T21:33:00.001-06:00

What a difference a year makes! One year ago Sunday Michael and I were doing this:

Dressing up our pup, Sky-Marie (left) for Halloween (with her cousin Happy). How cute are they?! I remember this day very well, Michael and I went on a run in the morning and I felt so off, really blah and we actually ended up walking after 20 minutes. Something was wrong.

The other day I came across this picture taken on the same day:

Pretend that we don't look like crazy people, because I know and you know that we do. And yes, that cake is lop-sided. Let's face it, this is a bad picture but it made me so emotional because it's that last night of our lives when we were not parents. The very next morning, I got this:

And this Halloween, we got to do this:

...and I cannot imagine anything in the world that I would have rather been doing!

Wow.

Swim Swim Swim!

2010-10-27T21:50:00.000-06:00

Wow! This past Saturday I made the long trek down to south Denver to spend some time at SwimLabs. When you walk in the door the smell of chlorine immediately hits you, that's my kind of place! They basically stick you in an endless pool, turn on the camera, and record your underwater stroke. While you are still in the pool they play the recording back to you, show some drills and examples of what your stroke should look like, and then have you do it again...swim, record, review. It's a sweet set up!

I was wondering what the coach would say about my stroke. Turns out, I waste a lot of energy pushing my body UP before I start bending my elbow. When you think about your hand entry in the front, you glide then bend your elbow almost immediately. I don't. I pull down with a more straight arm for just a bit, THEN bend my elbow. That's a waste of energy. You can really see this in the clips that were recorded.

I haven't figured out yet how to best post the clips, so click HERE to access the fancy mediabook with my clips. You have to pick a clip from the analysis selection drop-down to view anything. They do this with a cool software called Dartfish.

Now I have something new to think about when I'm swimming!

Perfection

2010-10-22T10:20:00.000-06:00

Wow! I'm a whole new person. It's amazing what 10.5 hours of solid sleep can do for a person. Yesterday you could say I hit rock bottom on my baby-induced caffeine addiction. At 9am I had a large coffee. At 11am I had another large coffee. Then at 3pm I had a 5-hour energy drink. I was felt deliriously tired all day and shaking from all the crap I put into my body.

For the past 5 years I've slept every single night with earplugs, even while staying in serene places like camping in the National Forest, or honeymooning on the beach in Bora Bora, I could not sleep without them. Ear plugs were my binky. That all stopped when Gabby was born, no more ear plugs. But last night....I dug out a pair, put them in, and fell asleep with a smile on my face. How could I not? It was like a perfect moment. I was sleeping on my stomach (if you've ever been pregnant then breastfeeding you know what a luxury this is), had my husband on night duty, and had our daughter in the room next door sleeping like...well...a baby (which is a stupid saying because babies actually don't really sleep well at all). At where we are in life right now, i can't think of anything better.

I gave Michael a long list of instructions before I went to bed, how to make the bottle (which he knows), how to tell an "I'm awake but OK" noise from an "I want to be fed now!" noise (which he knows), instructed him on what to do in the morning (which he's done many times on his own)...I was worried it would offend him but MAS could see straight through it for what I really was doing, just being a new mom.

And like a new mom, I still woke up when she was making noises at 3am, but once Michael got up to feed her, I was back to sleep. It's funny how I can sleep through our smoke detector (bad, I know!) but the sound of Gabby cooing will wake me up.

In the morning mom was all smiles, baby was all smiles, and life at Chez Shwartz was perfection.

Update

2010-10-20T22:11:00.000-06:00

My family

Hello world, I'm still here! I'm in a funk though. Karma has kicked my rear, I must have bragged one too many times about how Gabby sleeps all night because for the past 5 days she has been up and down and up and down all night. I'm thinking it must be the 12-week growth spurt but it's just lasting longer than I expected. She went from sleeping straight 7pm-6am to now waking up two or three times during that period. Boo. It's cute though, because when I stumble into her room at 2am and get her out of the crib, she's staring back at me with her big eyes just smiling away like nothing is wrong or out of the ordinary. So sweet. I love that girl.

My training has been good and bad up to this point. I started doing TRX and holey cow it's tricky! I really like it, lots of fun, but boy does it remind me how uncoordinated I am. I'm getting better at it, slowly. Biking is good, though I cannot get my powertap to upload into my TrainingPeaks account. I know, I know! I work for TrainingPeaks...I should be able to do this. But it's a hardware problem that I need to figure out. Gerrr.

Running is...well...TBD. Since getting back running after having a baby I've had some aches here and there, but more recently my left ankle has been aching more here than there. On Saturday it hurt so much that I couldn't run at all. I also could not walk up or down our stairs without having to hold onto the railing, which really is a problem when you have an infant. I'm going tomorrow to see a PT. Wish me luck! Swimming has been good. Though I don't feel like myself in the water yet, I'm putting out faster times than I would expect (based on how I feel). On Saturday I'm going to Swimlabs where they record and analyze your stroke. I'm really looking forward to this! I wish I had a cool new suit for this outing.

OK, I'm rambling again. I need to get back (was I ever there?) to a more organized train of thought. For now, this is what I have. My brain is tired. Last night I had a mini meltdown over something happening in 2010 that I was thinking was 2011...I can't even remember what year it is. Sigh...

In Gabby news, she's a whopping 10.6lbs! WootWoot! I got her to laugh the other night in the tub while practicing floating on her back (bath time is now our pretend swimming pool time). It was a deep belly laugh, so cool! I'm trying to figure out if it's OK to lie about her age this early, there is a Mommy and Me swim class in Dec that I really want to do but she'll only be 5 months and the minimum age is 6 months. But she's advanced, did you see the size of her flippers?

3 days old, look at those big feet!

Gabby grows! At the pumpkin patch.

My 5k Race!

2010-10-05T21:51:00.000-06:00

Hello racing world, nice to see you! It's been over a year since I put on my big girl racing pants, and oh boy did I forget what it feels like! Just like my other pants right now, you don't quite fit yet but I'm ecstatic to be wearing you once again, regardless of how uncomfortable it may feel. It's good to know you didn't change at all while I was on a baby-making hiatus. Your ability to hurt the bejesus out of me did not fade during our time apart, and for that, I say thank you.

The purpose of doing the 5k was to just get out there and have fun racing again, and to reset my heart rate zones for running. Done and done.

A quick recap:
Mile 1 - ouch.
Mile 2 - Ouch.
Mile 3 - OUCH.
MIle 0.1 - *!&$

I just tried to run as fast as I could for the entire race. And I did...for where I am right now. And now I know how much more progress I have to make ahead of me.

My 5k race time was 4:00 slower than my 5k PR. But I managed to get 2nd in my Age group! I've never done that before! Thank you "Race for the Cure" and "Boulder Marathon/Half Marathon" for pulling away all the uber-fast local runners. I will salute you when I spend my $20 award from Fleet Feet. Momma needs some fun running shorts!

In non-running related news, I've been sewing like a mad lady. Gabby now has 4 different pairs of leg warmers, all made by me...thank you very much. I also took a really poor fitting Broncos onsie and tailored it to fit Gabby. The finished product:

This is Gabby's game day face. Bring it!

This and That

2010-09-24T14:01:00.000-06:00

I'm sitting here in a stage of mom/baby limbo-land. It's the spot where "I refuse to nap" meets "can't...keep...eyes...open", and heaven help me if she doesn't fall asleep soon, because mommy needs her own nap! This sums up my last 24 hours:

Oops, I just fell off the couch trying to balance a laptop, two cats, the big coffee table's sharp corner, and the laptop cord *just* beyond reach.

Where's my coffee?

As I was saying, Gabby had been sleeping 11+ hours straight through the night, until she got her 2-month shots on Tuesday and every since then she's been quite the cranky overly-tired baby. I knew I told too many people how well she was sleeping, I totally jinxed it. Michael has been out of town all week and thank goodness my mom was here for a few days to ~~help me~~ see Gabby. Last night we were on our own and G knew it, 3 hours of get out of bed, comfort the baby, get back into bed, wait 5 minutes, get out of bed, comfort baby, get back into bed......you get the picture.

Shots aside, the 2-month appointment went well. Gabby is growing. At birth she was 6lbs1oz and now she's up to 9lbs5oz. It's CRAZY to think that some people give birth to babies larger than how big Gabby is at 10 weeks. Ouch. She's still small but she's creeping up on the percentiles for weight and length. 5% weight, 25% length (yeah! up from 5% at two weeks) and 100% cuteness.

Training this week has been pretty good, though I"m having some aches and pains in my knees and left ankle. It's not that "oh something must be wrong I'm getting injured" pain, but instead more of a "ouch it's been a while since my body felt this pounding" type of feeling. Plus my body still has some pregnancy hormones in it that relax tendons and 'stuff' (whatever the medical term is for it, I'd ask Dr. Google but we had to break up a few months back). I signed up for my first race post-pregnancy and it's next weekend, a local 5k! Now, usually the word "local" indicates a low-key type of race, but alas...I live in Boulder so "local" means nothing. I'm really looking forward to it, PLUS the post-race lunch I've already decided we will be having at the local brewery. Mmmm...guacamole burgers and microbrew.

Well, this is the end of my blog update. My brain isn't working sharp enough to come up with some summary paragraph that wraps everything together in a nice, neat form.

The end.

One hot run!

2010-09-15T15:01:00.003-06:00


		The bathroom is the coolest place in our house.

I'm making some progress here, I had a half-great run yesterday. WooHoo! The first 30 minutes felt like my old self, I was waving to the other runners, smiling, enjoying the beauty of a Colorado afternoon. Then I started realizing hot how it was, how my water was running out, how heavy my legs felt and the harsh lack of shade on that trail. Wow, I was hurting those last 20 minutes, it's been so long since I did anything in major heat. This is all good stuff tough, I'm out there running! Now if I can just remember to check the temperature and add ice to my water bottle, I'll be all set.

I've started to think more about racing next summer, I've decided I am only doing Sprints and Olympic distance triathlons. I'm doing the marathon in January, a 10k swim in August, and all short stuff between the two. I'd like to do a relay for Kansas 70.3 and the Boulder 70.3 (Half Ironman distance), but only if they are with fun people. That's my criteria for relays. Oh, and I get to be the swimmer. That's my other criteria.

Maybe I can get Amy to do a relay with me. Amy...paging Amy...what do you think? :-) Haha!

Speaking of Amy (how do you like that transition?), she had her baby girl, Annie! MAS and I went down to Denver last Saturday to have our first play date. Seeing Gabby next to Annie really makes me realize how much she's grown since birth. I guess that happens, huh? Though I claim to have a happy and good baby, she wasn't very well behaved on her first play date, spending half the time crying. I hope we get invited back for a second chance. In all seriousness, it was really nice to see Amy and PT, to meet Annie, and to spend time together. It's awesome to have friends who are new parents and going through this crazy new world together at the same time.

Back at it

2010-09-09T22:34:00.001-06:00

Life is good. Gabby is growing and happy and I am working out again! This is my first real week back at "training" and it's been going OK so far. I'm swimming, biking, and running! WootWoot! Returning to running is...well...a process. I'm so slow and my HR is so high. But I know it will come back. My avg pace has already come down a bit since the first run. One big thing I need to work on is being hydrated. I tend to be slightly dehydrated anyways, but now that I'm breastfeeding and drinking probably too much coffee (sorry Gabby) I am really dehydrated, which sucks when trying to run. So my big focus starting yesterday is to stay on top of hydration.

I know, this is riviting stuff.

One thing I really have been missing is swimming! And yesterday I did something that I haven't done in about two years...I did a masters class! Boy did I die, it's very apparent that I lack any amount of endurance. But I know that will come back too, and I'm already looking forward to the next masters swim session. Hopefully I can lift my arms by then.

On the motherhood front, Gabby is almost two months old and she's starting to show her personality and be more interactive. She's really smiley in the morning and that is my favorite time of day, I love it! When she smiles at me it melts my heart.

And what would be an update without a few more Gabby pictures:

No, you can't put a fake 'stache on the baby.

Gabby practicing her future swimmer serious face during bath time.

I love bath time with the Gabbster.

Something to stare at

2010-08-18T19:48:00.000-06:00

T-minus 13 days until my doctor appointment where I will hopefully get the OK to start working out again. This has been really hard for me, despite the fact that I have a wonderful baby to nurture, and am really enjoying my new role as a mom...I just feel a little 'lost' when I don't have my good friends "Running" and "Swimming" in my life. I miss them. Sniff Sniff.

A few days ago in a fit of desperation (defined as "how did I NOT lose any weight over the past week? I'm constantly breast feeding and eating healthy? This postpartum crap is all a lie!") I called the doctor's office and tried my hardest to convince the nurse to give me the OK to at least swim again. I pleaded my case, reminding her that I'm fit and swam through the majority of my pregnancy and up until my due date. No luck. Apparently my persuasion skills are no match for the tough OB nurses and doctors. Something about germs, chlorine, and open sores. Boo Hiss. There may or may not have been a tear shed when I hung up the phone. Then I made the mistake of telling Michael about my failed attempt. The OB staff must have gotten to him first because he does not support my plan either. He's been infiltrated by the enemy. Or, maybe he's just really smart and the voice of reason in this family.

It helps to have half of the parental until thinking clearly.

I've given in and cried uncle...or something like that. But I'm still thinking. Today I escaped the house and visited Fleet Feet for some running gear. Very important stuff. New shoes, a new book, and a sports bra to help contain these mommy knockers.

Has anyone run in Saucony Ride3 shoe? My store no longer carries the Asics Landreth, which I've been running in for the past 4 years so I had to get something new. I'm nervous. I hope I like them. They are 0.5oz heavier than my old shoes...I need to get over that geeky fact. Maybe I'll find some lighter shoes for the actual marathon.

Now I'm prepared! I have something to stare at for the next 15 days. I'm not even going to take the shoes out on a walk, I'm going to wait until that first sweet run.

Dressing this mom

2010-08-10T22:26:00.000-06:00

Pardon the bad word, but I found this coffee thermos via Kate O (Kate, it was on the website from that card company) and love it! Too bad there's a minimum order of 6 or else I'd be sipping my morning cup o joe from this beauty. If I had a personal assistant right now, I'd make her go postpartum clothes shopping with me and tell me things like "no that dress does not make you look like a football player" (as in, my normally huge shoulders that seem to be emphasized by my new huge chest) over and over again. I could have used that last Sunday. All the dresses I tried on were not made for someone 5'9 or with broad shoulders (I'm a mom now, I can't be wearing dresses that barely cover my rear), all the tops I tried on were too tight, and all the jeans I tried on were, well, ugly. I'm such a jean snob, but I refuse to pay $150+ for a pair of jeans that (hopefully) will only be necessary for a few more weeks. I'm trying to get over myself, I did buy a pair of Gap jeans that look alright. Not great, just alright.

Within 10 minutes of wearing the jeans for the first time they were peed on by Ms. Gabby. I don't think she really likes them either. I take that as a sign that she was born with some amount of fashion style. I mean, she did get here genes from this pool:

Gabby is now 3 weeks old, which means I have 3 more weeks until I hopefully can start officially working out again. I'm super excited to get back in the pool, I'm going through chlorine withdraw! I'm really looking forward to marathon training, and I think after a little more healing I'll be ready to run again. Hopefully. Because if I ran right now, I think my insides would fall out and I'd pee my pants. Sad but true.
TMI? Sorry but that's the truth.

New Gear on Race Day

2010-08-06T17:40:00.000-06:00

We all know the rule: "Nothing new on race day!" It's part of being a triathlete, everything gets done in training first. So you would think this translates into other life things, right?

I've been learning a lot about being a parent and having the great responsibility of taking care of an infant. For example, it's actually not a lucky thing when Gabby wants to sleep 4 hours during the day. Why? Because that means there will be a balance to be paid of eating every hour during the night. Another one...I've learned when changing diapers in the middle of the night under minimal light, it's best to have the long hair pulled back in a pony tail. Why? Because mustard colored baby poop just doesn't look good in my hair.

A few days ago I learned a really good lesson that I can laugh about now. I learned just like the "nothing new" rule of sport, it's important to know how to use your baby gear before you go out for real. Simple right? Yeah, we'll file this under "First Time Mom Mistakes".

This was the second day of Michael being back to work so it was just the Schwartz girls all day. I HAD to go to Target and the drug store to get some very important items. Unhappy about having to take Gabby out so soon, I reluctantly headed out. All is well, Gabby falls asleep during the ride, and after a very slow, below-the-speed-limit drive through town we park at Target. Time to get the car seat out.

I press the big orange button....nothing. I press the other big orange button....still nothing. This car seat is stuck! I press every big button in sight, nothing is unlatching this baby vessel. The car seat base is covered in warnings and instructions, both in English and Spanish. How to get the car seat in, how to level the car seat, warning make sure it's secure, warning baby must be rear facing, warning put back the handle, warning warning warning...but nothing about getting the car seat OUT.

It hits me that I have no idea how to get my newborn out of the car. I call Michael, no answer. Ugh. So I do what any normal person would do...I call my own mom who lives 2000 miles away and does not own an infant car seat. She'll be able to help.

There I am, it's 90 degrees outside, I'm talking to my mom on the phone in the Target parking lot trying hard not to break down in sobs because I'm too stupid to work a basic car seat and all I want are my nipple shields so I can feed my baby without my burning lady bits from falling off my chest. I refuse to ask some random mom in the parking lot how to work the thing because I don't want anyone to know I have no idea what I'm doing. I try to call MAS again, no answer. I text him, no response (he was in a meeting I found out). I don't even want to be out in public in the first place. So I sit in my car and have a moment. A hormone-fueled, new mom, exhausted, embarrassed and frustrated moment.

Why it never occurred to me to use my iPhone to look up instructions, I have no idea.

Then I start up the car and we head back home, declaring the day a total failure at that point. When I get home I grab the laptop, look up the manual, and realize there's another big orange button on the back side of the carrier that was hidden by the sun shield. Ohhhh, now that's obvious. How did I miss THAT?

So eventually Gabby was freed, Michael was sent on a Target/drug store run after work, and I drowned my frustrations in a bag of M&Ms (yum! Purple ones too!). And now I know the golden rule once again: "Nothing new on race day"...triathlon AND baby related.

Week One Pictures

2010-07-27T18:50:00.001-06:00

What a week! The first week is in the books and Michael and I are getting a handle on taking care of a newborn. Last night we went on our first family walk, Michael, Gabby, Sky Marie and me. It was epic, 10 minutes around the block. But...the sun was setting behind the mountains creating a beautiful Colorado sunset that I love, it was a perfect temperature, and I was outside breathing in fresh air...I couldn't have asked for a better evening activity. Well, maybe sleeping but that's lame. As my stitched up area starts to heal a little more and I get over this infection I developed (fun, two separate climbs up to 102.4 deg temp), I hope to be able to walk a little longer. Here's to healthy bodies and good recoveries for all of my July baby mommas. There are a bunch of us out there, something must have been in the water 10 months ago.

My family.

And now, some pictures:

What the ?!* is that thing?

Grandpa and Gabby

Check out the view from our room!

Grandma and Gabby

Check out those flippers

Striking her modeling pose

We Had a Baby!

2010-07-21T21:56:00.000-06:00

Mom, Gabby, Dad

The Schwartzies now are a family of 3! Gabrielle (Gabby) Michelle Schwartz was born on Monday July 19th at 7:52pm. She weighed 6 lbs 1 oz and 18 1/4 oz long. I was in labor for 'only' 9.5 hours, which is pretty fast considering the fact that I had to be induced and my body was showing no sign at all of getting prepared for labor.

Gabby is doing well in her first few days and I cannot believe we get to take her home with us tomorrow! For being 10 days late, she's a touch on the small size but we were expecting that...she has skinny long legs and big feet, just like the doctor predicted (her swim flippers!). I have to stay an extra night in the hospital because my temperature spiked up to 103 during delivery, that was a little scary.

I'll have more to write and pictures to post later when my brain is working correctly. Right now I'm extremely sleep deprived, my lady bits are unbelievably sore and all stitched up, and I'm so full of love and excitement that I cannot contain myself! Michael and I celebrated our 2nd year wedding anniversary the day after Gabby's birth and that was just icing on the cake. I am one very lucky being.

Shoes with laces, and other things that excite me

2010-07-16T19:21:00.000-06:00

You know how much fun it is when you get home and have a package waiting on your front porch? I ordered these today:

Not that I need anything extra to be excited about, right? I'm going to be a stylish new mom with some sweet purple kicks. I'm also excited about them because they require to be tied, a function that I hope I remember how to do. It's been a while. Even my walking shoes are now pre-tied.

Next up on my prep-for-post-pregnancy-life ordering is a swim suit, but I'm trying to pace myself with excitement so I'm saving swim suit shopping for this weekend. I'll have nothing else to do, it's going to be 101 degrees tomorrow. We all know I won't be giving birth anytime soon.

Today I'm 7-days overdue. I'm over the anticipation of spontaneous labor happening and have now moved onto acceptance that this kid is not coming out until the doctors have to induce me. Oh well. At least I don't have to worry about my water breaking and gushing all over my new pretty purple shoes.

Thank You Pregnancy Sponsors!

2010-07-13T20:18:00.007-06:00

Before I actually go into labor and forget, I'd like to thank my wonderful sponsors who have gotten me through this pregnancy. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you!

Zantac: Thank you. THANK YOU! Before you came into my world, I was an extremely miserable pregnant lady. With you I'm now able to sleep in the horizontal position without fear of barfing up stomach acid, and I love you for that.
YMCA: Though we had a rocky start to our relationship, I was able to learn how to use the incredibly complicated TV/treadmill machines and learned to love them. I would also like to thank the management staff at the YMCA that decided to upgrade the cable package once Comcast took it away for a few weeks. Being able to watch trashy TV while walking at a painfully slow pace made this pregnancy so much more bearable. Now can you just do something about your horrible lap swimming schedule please?

Trashy Magazines: I'd like to thank "Star", "US Weekly", "OK Magazine", and "People". You have provided me with endless entertainment while sitting attached to the machines for my non-stress tests I've had every week for the past 8 weeks. Snore! I'm really looking forward to some new pictures of Brad Pitt sans crusty beard...I heard he finally shaved!!
Splish: I'd like to thank you for my awesome bikini that makes me feel less like a big whale and more like a legit-swimmer when I'm hitting the pool. I may not be fast, but at least my new and improved lady bumps are covered, contained, and rockin' in style. I look forward to continuing our relationship post-pregnancy...just in a smaller size.
Bomb Pops: Oh bomb pops, where were you my whole adult life? Thank you for not fading away like other childhood favorite summer-time snack (ahem....Jello Pudding Pops). I also want to thank you for not containing any orange flavoring in your patriotic red/white/and blue artificially flavored popsicle of yummyness.

King Sooper's Deli Mac and Cheese: I love you. Enough said.
Odwalla Limeaid: I have to admit, I have a love/hate feeling for you, but currently we are in the season of love. Why do you go away in the winter? Where do you go? I know some day in the near future the trees will start shedding their leaves, the temperatures will start to dip, and I will look in the Odwalla display case nestled next to the organic veggies and you will be gone, gone for the long, dark, cold winter months. Until then...I will continue to consume my mix of half water/half Lime-aid at an alarming rate only understandable by people afflicted by a severe craving for the good stuff.
Law & Order: Thank you for keeping me company while I was stuck on the couch, overcome by extreme nausea and/or exhaustion. I don't know what I would have watched without you. You are always on, somewhere in the vast sea of channels, I can always count on you to be there when I need it the most.

AND FINALLY, MY BIGGEST SPONSOR....
Michael: I can't put into words how much I love and appreciate you. You are going to be an amazing father...though I may have to put my foot down and instigate a "no mustaches on the baby" policy.

TGI TdF

2010-07-13T10:29:00.006-06:00

(view from the top of the Col de Madeleine)

Thank God It's Tour de France.

I love July. July brings our wedding anniversary, MAS's birthday, a fun National holiday, (eventually) a baby, and the Tour de France! If I'm going to be waddling around overdue, fat, tired, achy, during a day it's supposed to hit 100 degrees outside...I'm glad to have the Tour de France.

Today the boys climbed the Col de Madeleine, and back in 2005 I rode it too. This was the stage where I didn't make it to the top of the climb before the road was shut down for the tour, so I got to watch the cyclists descend the mountain. They were flying!!!!
(Lance leading the pack and in yellow)
(taking a tight corner!)
(proof I made it to the top...eventually)

What to do?

2010-07-11T15:02:00.004-06:00

I don't really know what to do with myself anymore. I feel bad calling people because I think the very first thing I have to do, before even "hello", is quickly blurt out a disclaimer that I'm not in labor, just calling for another purpose. I'm thinking about just being a hermit for the next week with minimal contact to the outside world, just waiting until something happens...but then I remember who I am and that would just be silly to even try. Not talk to people? Seriously, I must be losing my mind.

I kept myself busy the past two days by opening up my very own sweat shop. Michael took photographic evidence in case Walmart or Nike come calling:I made more burp cloths and a hooded towel with Jagger's name on the back, written in pretty material and sewn into the towel. I *think* that burst of motivation and maternal-being could be categorized as nesting. And I say burst because it's completely gone now, I have no desire to sew anything more or to clean. In fact, this is where I can now be found:Clearly Michael is enjoying taking pictures of me this past week.

Did you notice I'm wearing the same thing in both of these pictures? Yeah, don't be fooled, they were taken on different days, and as I write this, I wearing almost the same outfit again, on a third day. I'm such a hot mess. This is what desperation looks like. Thank goodness the Tour is on TV now, I have run out of things to watch. In a fit of insomnia I resorted to watching "Dance Your A** Off" last night.

Someone please rescue me.

Walk it out

2010-07-06T22:02:00.004-06:00

Today I had my first double-workout day in quite some time, one walk at lunch and another one after work. What's gotten into me? Some last minute burst of energy? Nope....just trying to walk it out.

As in, the baby. It's not working yet.

Michael, Sky-Marie and I went on a nice family walk after work. We're really lucky to have this trail literally on the other side of our backyard, and it goes on forever. I can't wait to be out there running on the trial again. Now, I'm not sure this technically counts as workout for me because I was not wearing a sports bra, but I am entering it into TrainingPeaks...so there.

Hanging in there!

2010-07-05T19:15:00.003-06:00

Does anyone remember this poster? It brings back warm and fuzzy feelings from elementary school.

This is it! This is the last week of pregnancy in an ideal world, week #40. I have been pregnant for 40 weeks as of Friday. Hey you in my uterus....did you hear that? You will learn that it's always polite to be a little early to events and appointments, so I'm just sayin'....

As this pregnancy has progressed the questions asked have evolved. There are three questions that I particularly enjoy answering at this point.

"Do you have a name picked out?" Real answer: yes. Yes we do. But what I'm going to tell you (total stranger in the grocery store) is no, no we don't but we have a list and will decide once she's born. Honestly, we just aren't telling people and we want to have an out incase we change our mind at the last moment. It's fun to watch people's confused expression when I tell them still haven't decided on a name. As if I'd really be able to not have that figured out yet. Hahahaha.

Another question that is fun to answer is: "When are you due?" The reason why I love this question is that I can now say "Friday". Nothing to do with weeks or months left, just one specific day of the week. "Yep, this Friday". I got a mani/pedi today and when the woman doing my nails asked me that question, I swear I saw a streak of fear pass over her face.

Some people say pedicures will kick-start your labor.

The final question I like to answer usually follows the question above, "How are you feeling?". I think people are expecting to hear one thing, that I feel horrible, fat, hot, and miserable...especially when they hear I'm due in DAYS... But in all honesty (and I do choose honesty for answering this question, unlike the name question), I feel good for being 39 weeks. Yes, it's hot but we now have AC in our house. I have heart burn but have been dealing with it for months. My cervix hurts and aches, but I usually limit the body parts I'll discuss with strangers to only the parts visible in public (but on a blog cervix-talk is OK....right?). I think I'm pretty lucky in this department.

So when I say "Hanging in there!" what I'm referring to is the mental toughness this point in pregnancy requires. Will it be tonight? Friday? In two weeks? Who knows! This is definitely the biggest practice in patience that I can recall ever experiencing.

And somehow I find myself obsessed with the thought of Ironman racing. I'm writing it off as my mind prepping me for the 'ironman' that labor is bound to be.

Bikini and Diapers

2010-07-01T22:06:00.004-06:00

This really is a short, random post. After not having internet at home for the past 1.5 days I'm finally able to get on, thanks to my super-smart tech savvy husband. If Comcast and Michael were to face off in the ring, Michael would win.

As part of packing THE bag for our soon-to-be-but-not-soon-enough hospital trip, we've put together a suitcase of all things electronic that will also be coming with us. In this collection is the camera, so I've been slacking uploading pictures.

Picture #1: Michael and I went to the local Stroke and Stride race two weeks ago to cheer for his co-worker. I'd say this weekly event is the athletic event I'm missing the most this summer, I LOVE the SnS! Swimming and running???? Yes please! Do I look like I'm participating here? For the record, that outfit is my signature "nothing fits me anymore" end-of-pregnancy GoTo attire. But even two weeks later, the shorts no longer stay up on my belly. Imagine trying to hike up the side of a very steep ice covered mountain side while wearing a pair of no-grip house slippers...that's what my waste band is now doing against my baby bump.

Picture #2: Warning: picture may be inappropriate for children under the age of 13. Yeah, that's me in a bikini at 37 weeks. And yes, I'm wearing my Splish suit and I'm aware that it barely covers my top. The first time I wore it, I spent every streamline off the wall making sure my ladies hadn't popped out. It's close, but they are safely tucked away. This was taken by Gerard when we did a swim together. And by "swim", I mean I did 800yds and called it a day. However short it was, I did flip-turn all 31 turns. I love swimming outside!

Picture #3: I'm not sure what this nesting talk is all about, because apparently it has not hit me yet. I take that to mean I'm still very far away from giving birth because if I don't get hit by a fit of cleaning and organizing madness, I'm going to feel short-changed. What I have been doing is sewing cute burp cloths! Productive, maybe. Fun, yes! And when Jaggers is spitting up all over the place, now she will be doing it in style.

The blue ones are for someone else.

That's it. That's all I got!

39 weeks and counting....tick tock tick tock.

Oh, speaking of tick tock. Did anyone catch KeSha's performance of "Tik Tok" on SNL a few weeks ago? Michael and I DVRd it and almost peed our pants laughing at the one backup dancer on the left. Imagine a person dressed up as an astronaut doing the robot dance. I used to think it would be cool to be a J-Lo backup dancer. Now I want to be the astronaut robot dancing KeSha dancer.

Here:

Oh Boulder, How you Make me Laugh

2010-06-25T09:21:00.005-06:00

Sometimes I feel like I live in a crazy town. Don't get me wrong, I love living in (actually, just outside the city limits...as in across the street) Boulder, the lifestyle is great and I'm surrounded by a ton of fit and healthy people.

However, there are some times where I just roll my eyes in annoyance. Boulder is also known for being a bit on the eccentric side. Have you seen the "South Park" episode where they turn all the KFCs into pot dispensaries ("Discipline with KFC")? That pretty much came right out of Boulder. It seems like there is a new one on every corner, oh and shocking...when the law passed making them legal our crime went up, it seemed like every day the newspaper had a report on another dispensary being robbed. This went on for about two months. I could go on and on about this topic, but I won't.

What led me to write this post, besides the fact that it's 0% about being pregnant or wanting to race, is what I saw on the Boulder newspaper website this morning. It's just funny. Here are the top three news stories, in order:

"Cannabis Ministry Seeks Boulder County Disciples". Oh Boulder....I have nothing else to say about this, I just think it's funny it's the #1 news article, and the woman who has given her full name, is photographed at her house with a few big pot plants. She's looking for people to join her new church and worship the weed.
"Tube to Work Day Triples in Size". This one is great! Keep in mind, it's story #2 in our newspaper. Here's a quote: "The third annual Tube to Work Day tripled in size this year when six people showed up at Eben G. Fine Park this morning and waded into the cold and swift-moving waters of Boulder Creek on their way to their jobs." Again...news story #2.
"CU President angry about idea to raise administration standards". OK, so this is a real news story, and the university brings a lot of money and other positives to our city. However, shouldn't it be a good thing to be raising the standard for admission? What it comes down to really, is money. Higher standards = fewer students who can get in = less money. But given CU's reputation for being a big party school, I think this would only be a good thing. (for the record, the CU students that I worked with this past year were an awesome group of young adults, they pretty much helped me re-kindle my feelings for this school).

And the best one, it was even covered in the "Colbert Report" back in April...
"Peeps trial ends with verdict for Boulder landlord". Quick summary: a woman made an Easter "decoration" with Peeps on it and stuck it to her apartment front door. Some said it was decoration, others said trash. Her landlord told her to take it down. She didn't. And in protest, stopped paying rent. Then she got evicted for not paying rent. Simple, right? So she went to court. For the past two days the newspaper has been blogging live updates from the trial...I do not kid! I'm totally serious. The trial even had a Peeps expert testify. How do you get labeled a Peeps expert, and where can I sign up? I'm not even sure why this went to court, it's simple logic, you stop paying rent, you get evicted.

So there you have it folks, a look into the crazy side of living in this "utopia" that is Boulder, Colorado. If you want to read the stories, go to the Daily Camera's website. But I'll warn you, you'll never get those minutes back...

Is it time to plan 2011 yet?

2010-06-22T21:35:00.003-06:00

Ok, I'm ahead of the game. And if you know me, you know I like to plan races and get all excited about them (Susan....you are laughing right now, I know it!). So in the name of entertainment, here's what I'm daydreaming about tonight....maybe nightdreaming is the better word, but since I keep having crazy dreams at night, I'll stick to calling it daydreaming.

Melissa's racing fun for next race season. Think of this as an a-la-cart menu, I'm not really going to do all these races, that would just be silly, I'm going to be a busy first time mom.

September 2010: Sprint Triathlon Relay....I'll swim! (this will be just a fun race, I can swim my way through a 700m hopefully 2 months after birth...I still need to find relay people, I have them in mind but they have not been made aware yet that they will be relaying with me).

January 2011: Disney Marathon. I'm already registered and think about this race every day. No joke. My thoughts range from running hard and BQing, to running it with my brother, to seeing Michael and little Jaggers out there cheering for mommy. I don't know what the race will be for me (fast or just for fun), but either way it's going to be wonderful. I love marathons! And I love being someplace other than Colorado in January. Brrr.

May 2011: BolderBoulder 10k. I missed it this year and it was on a perfect 10k racing day. This is a classic race, and I love how it brings together the city of Boulder. Last year I did it and had a bad race, so I have a bone to pick with this race!

June 2011: Boulder Sprint Triathlon. This was started as an easy race for first time triathletes. Now it's run by Ironman and is huge. But I still want to do it (I'll register for the series...see below). I love being able to ride my bike to a race start.

June -Aug 2011: Stroke and Strides. 1500s/5k run. I LOVE these races!

June 2011: Kansas 70.3. I have plans, big plans, to do this race with some local friends, to hopefully meet up with some blogging friends, and either do a relay or do the entire thing. I really liked the city of Lawrence and want to go back.

July 2011: Boulder Peak Olympic. Classic Boulder race!!! Love it! It's now owned by Ironman (like the sprint) so I hope they don't take away the specialness of this local race. It's the 2nd race of the Boulder series. One year a racer hit a bear on the bike course. No joke. She was OK but the bear got a blocking penalty. Ha ha I crack myself up!

July 2011: Vineman 70.3. Yes, I know that's a lot of racing, but this is my daydream so I'm allowed to race and travel. I think about doing this race and turning it into a longer trip and drinking lots of wine post race. Anyone...anyone??? This would be a fun one to get a group together and meet up!

Aug 2011: Boulder 70.3. Ugh, I have a bone to pick with this race. Again, it's right by my house, I could ride my bike to the race if I wanted to. 3rd race in the local series and now run by Ironman. I will conquer the run course this year. Heck, I know it like the back of my hand so there's no excuse for crapping out like I did last year. Boo Hiss. And if anyone is interested, the bike course is 'easy', nothing like what you'd expect for Colorado. And our house has an extra guest room......I'm just sayin'....

August 2011: Horsetooth 10k Open Water swim. I did this back in 2006 and want to do it again for some crazy reason. I blame Sharon, she signed up for it this year. I'm pretty sure I can swim it faster just by not having talking breaks every 30 minutes. I spent a lot of time treading water, smiling for the camera, and flirting with the hot boy in the kayak. Michael has been put on notice that his kayaking skills will be needed again next summer.

That's it, that's all I got.

Best Surprise Ever!

2010-06-21T21:51:00.004-06:00

No, no...I haven't popped yet. Check out this great link, I encourage all my pregnant friends to utilize it.

I'm talking about the most wonderful surprise I got this weekend during my shower. With the exception of the day Michael proposed to me three years ago, it's up there near the tippy-top of best surprises ever.

The shower was just beginning and I was in the middle of a conversation with my friend Liz. Michael kept telling me I had to come to the door because his present for me finally arrived. I thought something was up because he didn't even let me finish talking to Liz. Then when I got to the front door, he had the video camera ready. Hmmmm...interesting. I opened the door and saw a huge box wrapped in pink paper. I knew someone was in there!!! In the span of 10 seconds my brain ran through all the possible people that could be in that box.

Michael surprised me and had one of my very best friends, Gerard, fly in from Washington for our shower. I love G! We go way back, and he's one of the most special friends I've ever had in my life. I've mentioned him before on my blog, and the last time I saw Gerard was at Kansas 70.3 last year.

I could not believe my eyes when I opened the box!! How often do you get such a sweet surprise like that?! Not only am I lucky to have wonderful friends in my life, I have the sweetest and most thoughtful (and best secret keeping) husband. I am truly blessed.

OK, enough gushing. Check out the short video below if you want to see this pregnant lady lose it.

I made it!

2010-06-18T09:07:00.003-06:00

I made it! Yep, today I am officially considered "Full Term". That doesn't mean it's my due date, it just means I'm 37 weeks! So, if Jaggers comes today, she won't be considered premature. Yeah! I was convinced she was going to come early...now I'm convinced you'll find me two weeks over due sitting on the couch, cursing the heat while researching ways to induce labor. From one extreme to the next.

I had a doctor's appointment this week and heard the words "I love it!" from the doctor as she reviewed the non stress test and ultra sound results. Some more good news is that Jag has flipped since last Friday, so she's now head-down and in position! I swear it was the swimming with flip turns that did it! The doctor also commented on her long toes. Hmmm...interesting. I guess she's getting those from me? I like to think of them as cute little swimming flippers. I'm sure they will be perfect :-)

In other important news, after stuffing my face with lunch and a popsicle, I looked down at my belly (when I work from home, I usually can be found sitting at the desk with my shirt pulled up above my belly...because I get too tired and hot to care) and realized that it's happened:

Belly button watch: 49% innie / 51% outie.

I'm not sure pictures are necessary.

Another fun weekend is coming up! I have a shower on Saturday and Michael has to attend too, wooHoo! It's going to be a fun time. Sunday is the first triathlon of the Boulder series, the Sprint. I'm really hoping to get out there and cheer, because if I can't be racing it, I at least want to breath in the triathlon air.

And after that, little daughter of ours...feel free to make your appearance. I give you permission.

Baby Update, 35 weeks

2010-06-09T20:48:00.004-06:00

5 weeks left! Can you believe it? Me neither! Holey cow motherhood is right around the corner.

A lot has been going on in the past few weeks, we've been very busy with house stuff, doctor appointments, nesting, hanging with my mom and sister (they came out to visit!), a tea-party shower (of the culinary kind, not the political)...on and on. Here's a recap:

With the exception of the day-long 'morning sickness' I had until week 15ish, everything else has been smooth sailing until the past few weeks. And these past few weeks haven't been bad at all, just full of some extra doctor appointments and precautions.

Well, apparently my uterus is also a type-A athlete and has been doing lots of workouts getting ready for the big race of childbirth. This is done with practice contractions (called "Braxton Hics" contractions). Not many first time moms feel them, but I'm special. They aren't bad unless you get too many of them, and that's been my issue. So long story short, I was put on modified bed rest (meaning no physical activity and limited movement) on and off. I had it for a week, got better, and then had to do it again a week later, and I think it's here to stay until I pop this kid out. I saw myself swimming and walking all the way to labor, but that is not going to be the case. Priority #1 is to have a healthy baby.

I also starting seeing my new doctor two weeks ago, and despite the issues my OB practice is currently having (a different story for a different day) I like my new doctor and I feel like when she's in the room with me, she's listening and not rushing to the next patient. The first time we met she said I'm measuring 3 weeks behind and was concerned, so she sent me to get a growth ultrasound. Boo, not a good thing to hear. The ultrasound measured her as being in the 9% for her gestational age, which is very small. I did not like hearing that. However, I was born small and that has some bearing on the size of babies I will produce. But still...nobody wants to hear their baby is not where it should be. All the measurements look good (meaning, she's growing correctly), but overall she's just smaller. This resulted in the doctor telling me to try and pack on some pounds in the next two weeks, lay low, and get this baby to grow!

Michael bought me a box of Snicker's ice cream bars.

The picture to the right is me at 35 weeks (thanks for the reminder Molly...I have been slacking on pictures!).

Today I had another growth ultrasound, two weeks later. The good news is that she's grown a lot during that time. She's jumped up to the 21% size for her age. The ice cream must be helping. The bad news is that she moved to a breech position (meaning her butt is down and her head is up...like in the pike-position). Though babies sometimes change position this late in the game, it's not common. There are some natural things I'm going to try to get her to turn. One of the dads in our birthing class is a pre-natal acupuncturist...how cool is that? I'll be giving him a call soon.

So there you have it, my pregnancy update! I also want to say how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband who has been doing practically everything around the house since I'm supposed to be keeping my feet up. I truly am blessed.

UPDATE: How did I forget? Thanks Kate and Sherry for reminding me! My bellybutton is about 51% innie, 49% outie. There is a slight little flap of skin left over from the 100% innie days, and until that's gone, I'm not giving up hope.

The Great Experiment

2010-06-07T22:04:00.005-06:00

For the past four beautiful Sundays Michael and I have been spending hours learning how to birth babies. But that's old news....in addition to being certified OK to give birth now, the class also provided us an opportunity to perform a scientific study:

What happens when a bag of cheese puffs are left in a room full of very pregnant women in one of the most health conscience, fitness centric towns in America? At this specific hospital, half of the births (non C-section) are natural....in most cities it's only ~5% that are natural. That's a huge difference, and helps describe the participants in our experiment a little more.

I know, this is a common question, and Michael and I decided to find the answer. Our experiment came to us after class #3 (of 4). Couples signed up to bring snacks and juices, and as you would imagine, people that week brought a spread of organic juice, homemade salsa, fruit, granola....all healthy items that pregnant women should be eating, and it was all delicious. However, it also got our minds pondering the snacking habits of this population subset.

On the car ride home we decided it would be really funny to bring something extremely unhealthy, but that people secretly wish they could eat out in public. Some options thrown out there were pork rinds (really Michael? ick!), powdered donuts, Doritos....and finally we agreed on cheese poofs. Who doesn't love cheese poofs? And I'm not talking about Whole Foods Pirate Bootie cheese poofs, I'm talking about fluorescent orange, can't wash it off your fingers, oh so good super market cheese poofs. When was the last time you had some of these cheese puffs?? Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Michael did not want to be seen purchasing these at our grocery store, so I told him it was not a problem, I could handle that task in my state of very obvious pregnant-lady-ness. I believe I purchased them on a trip where my basket also contained one chocolate-covered donut, a thing of mac and cheese, a mango, and a snickers ice cream bar. What's one more unhealthy item going to matter? (for the record, I did not consume all those things on one day, the mango wasn't ripe enough).

We were really supposed to bring juice to class on Sunday, so we still did that, and showed up with a bottle of organic strawberry lemon-aid (yum!). We also showed up with our bag of cheese poofs. I distracted the one other couple that was there already while MAS quietly meandered to the snack station, pulled the experiment out of his man-purse, and opened the bag for most easy access. After that, it was time to wait patiently for our snack break.

1:30 later, that break came. At first people were mesmerized by the fresh pineapple and strawberries. Healthy food, good for baby, yada yada yada. When it was my turn, I took a few cheese puffs. The person behind me followed suit, then another person, and before we knew it, we could hear splinter conversations discussing the tasty snack. After the break ended, MAS and I discretely looked around the snack plates held by the other couples in our semi-circle and cracked knowing smiles at each other:

7 of the 8 couples in our class had bright orange cheese puffs on their snack plates. Yes! Mission accomplished.

Conclusion: A room full of pregnant women and nervous first-time dads will devour a bag of cheese puffs when given the opportunity. And they will love it because someone else brought the horrible food, as if that negates any responsibility for self-control.

Our experiment was a success. Michael and I like to think that on Sunday, we brought a little bit of culinary heaven to the lives of 14 people.

Role Models

2010-05-28T11:32:00.004-06:00

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." ~Rajneesh

I've been doing a lot of thinking about role models, and with my impending entry into motherhood sooner than later, about what type of role model I want to be for our daughter. When I think about role models, a random quote from Charles Barkley always pops into my head:

"I'm not a role model. Just because I dunk a basketball doesn't mean I should raise your kids."

I get where he is coming from with this quote, but I also think that you can't control who sees you as a role model. And this is the thought where I find myself today.

I'm starting to understand that I will be a role model for our daughter, possibly the largest one in her life. So, I've made some space in my closet for my role model hat, tucked in there between my mommy cape and my wife leotard (the leotard is back in style, FYI).

What type of role model do I want to be?

In addition to all the obvious things that need to get done in preparation for baby, I'm also prepping my role-model-ness. What type of things will I be teaching our daughter with the way I tackle my day to day activities, the way I interact with Michael, how I treat my coworkers and friends....the list goes on and on. Those little things are important too. Life lessons can be learned during big events, but there are also incredibly important ones that develop slowly with day to day observations and learned behaviors. And I have a feeling those are the ones that are hardest to change, so I don't want to screw it up!

D-day is getting closer and closer and the reality of being a mother and a family is becoming increasingly more in the front of my mind. I know she's not going to roll right out of the womb and immediately start doing what I do, which is a good because I'm guessing those first few weeks are filled with shower-less days, hideous outfits, and emotional breakdowns. But the parenting gods don't ever show up and say "OK, starting today your child will learn from you". Wouldn't that be nice?

Like most people, I have some parts of my life that I feel confident about, and others that I continue to work and improve. I'd like our daughter to take on the best traits of Michael and me, and improve upon those traits that aren't so great. For example, I am not the best domestic person. I've been working on keeping the house cleaner and actually using products for specific purposes and trying to get into a routine. This is something I have to work on at the age of 32. I hope our daughter will grow up knowing how to do this. I have no idea why I didn't pick it up as a kid, my mom always has a clean house...I guess I was too busy being a tomboy to want to learn. So for me, keeping up a house is something that I do but it does not come easy. It also doesn't help that I would rather head out for a 2 hour run than mop the kitchen floor...but that also comes down to time management skills.

I am excited about being a positive role model when it comes to living a healthy, active life and taking care of myself. I feel like this is something that is very important for children to learn, especially girls. There are so many negative images and role models constantly flooding the media and since we're not going to raise our daughter in a convent, some of it will be unavoidable. Hopefully we have a few years before we have to start that battle. Have I mentioned how scared I am at the idea of teenagers?

Only six more weeks! Oh, the fun worries and thoughts that I'm sure will continue to creep into my mind during this time period. And when it all comes down to it, in the end we will be parents and new parents just figure things out as the go along. Right?

Being a mother is forever. I can't wait for forever to begin!

Nursery Update

2010-05-21T14:34:00.004-06:00

We're almost finished with the nursery! Michael has been working so hard to get it done, and I am completely impressed by his Bob Villa skills. I think he will be finished with it this weekend, and then we get to build the crib and start actually putting it all together.

Before picture (actually, we didn't take before pictures, but this one was taken in what is now the nursery, so you can see what the walls looked like):

Almost there:

Late Night Thoughts

2010-05-17T17:00:00.003-06:00

There's no denying the fact, I'm having crazy pregnant lady sleep. To give you an idea of what this entails, below is a list of a few things that went through my mind during last night's "sleep":

Ohh, this addition of the back pillow is really a good thing! I'm now surrounded by a pillow cocoon. Someday I'll be a pretty butterfly, but right now I feel like a caterpillar.
WTHeck was that dream about? I was an undercover detective working with Harry Bosch (character from a series of books by Michael Connelly). We were working on a case that involved Snookie (from "Jersey Shore") and brought her on as an informant, but we were both strippers (I was undercover, remember...and not pregnant). And at the end of said dream I started running in my dress clothes and high heels, and it felt so good I kept going and turned it into a long run.
Ugh, again? I have to pee for the 4th time tonight? How bad would it REALLY be if I just peed my pants, would anyone notice? Could I pass it off as my water breaking?
There is no way I can sleep like this for 7 more weeks, I swear my hips are going to break, I've never felt such soreness in my hips than while trying to sleep. Not even the night after Ironman.
OK. Get up. Don't forget to untangle from body pillow or I'll literally fall out of bed. Ouch.
Sh*t. That's the wall.
Hick-ups? Hick-ups? Why does Jaggers get hick-ups at 4am strong enough to wake me up? Well, I guess I'll get up and pee since I'm awake.
Don't fall asleep, don't fall asleep....(while in the bathroom).
Is that the dog licking that I hear? Through my ear plugs? How can I hear that with ear plugs in, yet I can sleep through our Carbon Monoxide detector? (actually, it was the "hazardous gas" alarm, but just as loud). Please stop licking, it sounds gross. I don't do mealy noises.

Fun times, fun times. I'm averaging 2 hour intervals between needing to get up and out of bed. You know, it's just getting me ready for the baby, and I accept that. What's hard right now is how sore I am while sleeping. I never thought that would be the case. I feel the most sore first thing in the morning. My back hurts, my crotch hurts (think: hips separating and getting wider = ouch), and usually my shoulder(s) are sore from laying on my side (you have to side-sleep when pregnant).

I'm done complaining. It's all for a good thing.

Belly-button watch: 52% innie/48% flat.

Hello Single Digits!

2010-05-01T10:08:00.003-06:00

I can now count the weeks left and have some fingers left over. Meaning...I'm in the single digits! Michael has been out of town for 1.5 weeks, and it's felt like much longer. I started the trip with a few dreams about going into labor. After that followed a few nights of major kicking in my ribs by Jaggers, keeping me up. Then there was one night where she didn't kick and I convinced myself she was dead and almost called the on-call OBGYN. Ahhh...the thoughts that go through your head when you are sleeping in a big bed, alone, really pregnant, and hormonal. Lucky for everyone involved I came to my senses...and last night she was back at it, kicking furiously. Just like most athletes, she probably just needed a rest 'day'.

I had a doctors appointment this weeks and learned a few things. No surprise to me, I learned I'm really anemic. I struggle with this in my normal life, so I don't know why I didn't take a proactive approach in my pregnant life. Anyhow, I'm back on iron supplements. The Dr likes to see a minimum 38% number for iron levels while pregnant, mine is at 31%. Woopsie.

I also learned that Jag is diagonal, which is good to know because I was starting to wonder if I had an octopus in there. Her head is up by my left ribs, her feet are down by my right hip, and her arms are everywhere else. She must have my freakishly long arms because I swear it feels like she's in my entire abdominal cavity. I'm getting to the time when babies start to turn head down, and I am a little freaked about the idea of feeling her actually doing a 180 degree turn, it's going to feel so weird.

And speaking of Jag...I couldn't remember if I wrote this story or not, and I'm too lazy to go back and check...but that's just her nick name right now (thanks for your sweet comment Mer :-) ). It started as a joke but then it stuck, and I like it. Jag/Jaggers/Jaggers. If she had boy junk we'd probably name her Jagger. But...it's just not a name that can pass for a girl. So we have a list of names that we continue to noodle on. I try out the names sometimes when I'm talking to her and they all feel weird, so I go back to Jag. I hope that changes once she's born.

And now I leave you with a high-tech collage I put together, comparing week 28 to 30. Keep in mind week 28 is closer-up. In the past two weeks I have really gotten bigger! I've gained 4lbs and feel so much more pregnant. I can't wait to see if Michael can tell the difference when he gets back.

Random Observations

2010-04-25T18:36:00.004-06:00

Today I discovered that there is not enough room in my personal space to do flip turns with both a pull buoy and my belly, so the buoy has to go. Yeah, no more pulling for a while!
Last night I discovered I am too pregnant to give Sky a bath. It requires too much bending over and as I'm quickly finding out, bending over is getting more and more weird feeling. Plus reaching Sky's knee-pit area requires a tricky balance move that I am no longer confident I can pull off. Since she is supposed to get a bath every week, this is something Michael gets to take over (thanks sweetie!)
Installing AC in our house is a very exciting event, even if it does really put a dent in the pocket book. Ouch. But ooooohhhh.
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and for a few seconds, I forget I'm pregnant and think that I'm drunk. Hear me out: you know those nights where you have too much wine, then when you wake up at 2am to use the bathroom, you are still slightly tipsy? Sometimes it feels the same way being pregnant. After my 2nd or 3rd time getting up in the middle of the night, I'm usually stumbling through the room, half asleep, bumping into walls and hoping I don't fall off the toilet. Twice I even fell back asleep in the actual bathroom...just like passing out on/next to the toilet back in the good 'ol days (you know, those crazy nights of in college when you'd wake up in the bathroom?...not that I had any of them....just what I heard from some friends). Plus you throw the new center of gravity that pregnant ladies have into the mix, and watch out!
I may have found a solution to my swim suit drama. Thanks for everyone who gave me help with the Splish sizing! To summarize, I'm getting a large top and bottom. But, I must have been suffering from pregnancy brain when I placed the order because I ended up with some weird size combinations (I ordered two bikinis in different sizes), just not the one I need. So soon, I will have a new swim suit and am excited for it!
Furniture shopping for a nursery is stressful to me. Maybe not to everyone, but to me it is the one thing that has really made me sad and stressed. I have a hard time wanting to spend $300 on a dresser that is low quality but only needs to last for a few years. But I don't want to spend $600-$700 on one that is high quality because, well, it only needs to last a few years. So it basically boils down to 'having' to spend money so that our nursery matches and looks cute. I hate that this whole topic makes me feel guilty. Am I a bad mom because I'd rather save $$$ and not have our daughter's nursery look picture-perfect and all matchy? Answer = no. After a really bummer of a Saturday furniture shopping, MAS and I decided that we're going to use an extra dresser in the basement for Jagger's nursery. It's very high quality and was the furniture I had from age 5 until 30. We'll buy pretty stuff when Jag gets older. Until then, she's going to have stuff that doesn't match.
King Soopers has the best mac and cheese, and can be found at the counter where they sell the fried chicken (ick!). No joke, the guys who work the counter know me by sight and product, I don't even have to ask. I'm starting to feel like a weirdo, but not enough to give up the slice of heaven found in those slightly crusty, cheese covered elbow noodles.
I only have 10 more weeks left! Can you believe it? Not me! I am so excited to meet our daughter, this little being that is a combination of Michael and me.
Belly button watch, week #30: innie.

A lesson in anatomy

2010-04-18T19:56:00.008-06:00

Another productive weekend done and in the books. On Saturday I tricked MAS into a day full of errands, disguised as a date-day. We started with breakfast at my favorite place, the Walnut Cafe, so I could get my fill of bacon. Mmmm. After that we headed to the "Body World" exhibit at the Denver museum. Has anyone seen this exhibit? It's so very interesting! I really wanted to go because I heard they have a room full of fetuses at different stages of pregnancy (bodies and fetuses all had natural deaths and were donated to science). Count me in!

I almost started crying when I walked into that room, darn pregnancy hormones do crazy things to you! Ah, I'm going to have a baby! Anyhow...they had a fetus at 27 weeks and another at 30 weeks, so right between where Jag is now. It was so cool to have a visual reminder of the little being inside me. She's bigger than I imagine at this point. According to one of my fav iPhone aps "What to expect when you're expecting", at this point she's a long as she'll get, now it's just time to pack on the fat. In the next 11 weeks (because that's what I have left!) she should double-to-triple in weight.

Oh, did I mention that my doctor said she's measuring about a week ahead of schedule? That's my girl!

Now that we're on the topic of anatomy, I want to introduce an educational exhibit:
I took the liberty of blurring out any X-rated parts. On the left we see a normal woman's insides. On the right we see those of one with child. Now take a look at the size of the stomach. I added an arrow to help guide your eyes, for those who may not of have any formal anatomy education. Can you see the difference in size??? WTHeck? I thought being pregnant meant you get an awesome appetite and can eat loads of food in one sitting. Lies! Those are lies people tell you to trick you into getting pregnant. "No alcohol for 10 months? No problem, you get to eat tons of yummy food instead!".

Yes, it's 10 months. 9 months is another lie. Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying being pregnant.

In the past week I've started to experience the phenomenon of the shrunken stomach. Case in point: Saturday we spent all day out, even skipped lunch. But when it came time to eat dinner, I could hardly finish half a hamburger and half a plate of garlic fries (oh yes, healthy dinner). Not pregnant I could polish that off plus a beer. I was sad. Then tonight, while MAS is off watching the Avs put the hurt to the San Jose Sharks (hi Molly!), I made my favorite dinner (spicy Thai peanut noodle dish) and could only eat half a bowl. The non impregnated Melissa can usually clear 1.5-2 bowls of the stuff.

And it's not a normal person's "oh I'm uncomfortable full" feeling, it's more of a "oh my gosh get me to the couch so I can stretch out because I am beyond full", and it creeps up on you in one bite...one bite that teeters between feeling good and feeling like you will never be able to eat ever again. This must be why you hear about pregnant women waking up in the middle of the night ravenous with hunger, because they could only eat tiny amounts at one time. I'm expecting this phase to come soon, stay tuned.

I know, this is exciting stuff. But to me, at this point in my life and with what I have going on, it is :-)

In 'training' news, I managed three good swims this week and 10 miles of walking. On one of those walks I passed this girl (see photo): That's right, 3-time Iron Man World Champ Chrissie Wellington was hammering up "my hill", the one behind my house, and she was flying. Living in Boulder I don't usually get excited about seeing pros around, but this sighting caught me totally off guard, I didn't know super-fast people ran on "my trail".

And with that, I wrap up with two new belly pics, this is starting week #29. Belly button is still an innie!

I need some swim suit help

2010-04-15T09:18:00.006-06:00

A few weeks ago I ordered a grab-bag bikini from Speedo. Grab bag suit orders are always fun, you don't know what you're getting and it's almost like Christmas waiting for the package to arrive. This is how I order most of my 'normal' Melissa suits, I get the Dolphin Uglies grab bag. Don't know what those are? Check them out here. They rock.

I'm currently swimming in an old TYR two-piece and as I said about a month ago, it's too small. And over the past month things have grown even more (wowzers!) and now it's borderline not-acceptable-for-a-public-pool too small. So I ordered a Speedo grab-bag bikini, trying to save money, and I just assumed I could go up a few sizes.

The package arrived, it's a cool pattern, then I tried it on....wow...way too small. And by way too small, I mean "get this off me before I am traumatized by how bad I look in it" too small. It just wasn't a good thing. So now I have either my first bikini to fit into after baby, or I have a new suit to sell on eBay, because you cannot return grab-bag suits. I tried, they don't even cave into weepy and distraught pregnant ladies.

So all of this brings me back to my current situation, I need a new bikini again. I started thinking about getting a Splish bikini. Now, I've tried their one-pieces and they don't work for me, way too low cut up top, and high cut on the bottom, and it's just not a pretty sight (I have a long torso, which also comes in handy when you have a baby brewing, more space for her to spread out). However, I might be able to do a two-piece. It would be nice to have a fun, playful suit to wear for a while.

Does anyone have sizing advice for these? Usually I wear a 32 for TYR and Speedo, and obviously I have no idea what that would be for a 2-piece. However, that's about 13 lbs lighter and quite a few bra sizes smaller (sorry if that's TMI, but it's true). Are the tops low cut and skimpy? Or do they have pretty good support?

Here are some of the suits I really like. It would be really cool if they had one that said something like "Hi guy swimming next to me, please stop trying to race me in the pool with your pull buoy and paddles, I'm 7 months pregnant and can still beat you, and don't think I don't notice what you are doing", but that would require a very small font to fit it all in. So I'll stick to some of the ones below:

If I can get my rear in gear, I'll also head to the local swim shop to actually try on bikinis and get a better feel for sizing. But they have crazy hours (not open on Sundays, close at 5pm other days) and I have found I'm most efficient when I spend at least 47% of my Saturday afternoon napping, so our schedules just aren't matching up. I might have to put on my big girl pants and stay awake this weekend, for the sake of fellow swimmers who have to watch the pregnant lady do laps and pray her suit does not snap and fall off.

When?

2010-04-12T17:23:00.000-06:00

This is the picture that I see every time I open my browser, thanks to MAS. Right after we found out I was pregnant he got all sneaky on me and changed my home page to show this picture for one browser, while the other browser show a very close-up of a lint-filled belly button. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I do not care much for the belly-button feature we all have. But over time, this picture has grown on me, and though I am fully capable of changing the home page, I haven't done it yet. That little foot is so cute. And at times, I feel like I could have one, maybe two plus a fist, poking through my belly as well. This fetus can kick! I'm convinced she's sideways because I get most of the kicks in my lower-left area, and sometimes it comes in my lower-right area, but rarely anyplace not along that latitude. She's just all stretched out, in a fetus-lounge chair saying 'hi' every now and then. She really likes when I toss and turn all night because with every change in body positioning (from left side to right side), she gives me a few good thumps.

On Saturday I entered the world of the 3rd trimester! I can't believe I'm 2/3 of the way there (hopefully). And this leads me into the topic of today's conversation: "When?"

First, I want to throw out a blanket statement saying I'm knocking on wood while writing this entire post. OK, now that that's said...

It's very odd when you have a big event coming up, and you have no idea when it's going to happen. I know some people spend their entire pregnancy worried about everything, all the things that can go wrong, OhMyGoshIAteTurkeyMeatDidIJustKillMyBaby, that type of stuff (did you know you aren't supposed to eat canned tomatoes while pregnant? I had no idea, oops). I haven't been that way at all, I've been pretty relaxed and calm up to this point. But recently I cannot stop thinking about early babies, and I blame it on my brother. Sorry Ryan.

Right now I'm in week #28. My brother was born at week #30. Simple math = 2 two weeks away! If I were my mom, I would have a baby in two weeks! Recently a friend told me she was born 8 weeks early, that's just one month away! These things happen, babies come when they come. Every time I see the Dr. I ask her about the genetic link between women and early babies, and every time she assures me no link has been found. But between my mom and my sister, there have been 5 babies and of those 5, only one came on time (that was me, I was 2 weeks late and in a blizzard...trying to be different right off the start), all the others came early. So what does that mean for little Schwartzie in my belly? Will she be like her uncle and get impatient, or will she be like her mom and stick around way past Last Call? I have to shake this train of through because it's doing nothing but scaring me. And making me feel behind the 8-ball. I'm just continuing to take care of myself, eating well (except for the mac and cheese addiction I've picked up), and exercising to where I feel comfortable. I can't do anything else about it.

But rest assured, when I see the Dr. on Wednesday, I'll ask her again about having early babies, and she'll tell me the same thing, and I'll feel all better for another week or so. Then I'll start doing the math again, and the numbers will get smaller and more immediate and the worry will grow and grow. It's a good thing starting this week we move from seeing the Dr. every 4 weeks, to seeing her every 2 weeks.

But that's hoping she doesn't go into labor early. Oh yeah, because I just found out my Dr. is as pregnant as I am! That's exciting! Chances of her actually being the one who delivers Jag anyways are slim (unless she's born during normal office hours, I'll get which ever doctor is on call, no biggie, they all are good).

In other news, Michael and I just got back from visiting my family in sunny and hot Florida. It was a great time! My sister and her family were there, plus my brother came from Texas, so it was a full Neal-family gathering. I haven't spent that much time with my nephews ever and they are so funny, cute, and full of personality (they are 6 and 4). I learned a lot about pirates, though I'm not sure how much of it was made up (do pirates really eat chocolate covered teeth?). Seeing the different personalities that my nephews have from each other makes me day dream about what personality traits Jag will get from Michael and me. Will she talk a lot like me? (heaven help us!). Will she sit patiently and color in a book, or constantly be running around burning energy? Who knows? It sure is fun to think about.

Despite being in Florida for half of it, I managed to get in over 11 miles of walking last week. WooWee! I know it doesn't sounds like all that much, but with two travel days I think it's pretty good. This week I'm back in the pool in addition to walking. It's been over a week since I swam and my belly has definitely gotten bigger, so I'm looking forward to flip turns today after work. I'll say it again, I don't care if I have to flip with my legs completely apart, I will flip turn until the day this baby pops out. Just like I can't bring myself to do jean shorts, I cannot do open turns.

Other random thoughts:

Though it is threatening, my belly button has yet to go from innie to outie. Please please please stay that way. It's getting really close.
I love the warmer weather b/c it means no more puffy jackets, which means I actually look pregnant in public and that's been fun.
I started a baby quilt and am so excited about the owl fabric that I'm using! I will post pictures soon.
Step #3 of 5 in "Operation Nursery" has successfully been completed. This entailed painting the nursery and the color looks great! Next step: installing the wainscoting. Michael has worked really hard on this big job.
We finally did a baby registry. Holey cow that was draining. Can I put a 6-pack of beer to be delivered to the hospital somewhere on that list? (just kidding....really).

That's all for now! It's a very random post, I know, but that's how I roll.

Smells like...chlorine

2010-03-22T20:50:00.004-06:00

Maybe I should change my blog name to "Smells Like Chlorine" for a while. I have been more consistent in my swimming in the past three weeks than I have been in years. Not distance-wise, but definitely frequency. Every since Mexico something has clicked and I'm really enjoying swimming right now. Not only swimming, but....*GASP* swimming outside. In Colorado. During the winter. Between snow storms. I place full blame for that last part on time spent under the Mexican sun. If I stay mostly under the water and stare at the clear sunny sky, I can almost trick my mind into thinking it's just a cold summer day. Oh I can't wait until warmer weather!

I don't have to swim any specific workout when I get to the pool. I don't have to stay there for any specific amount of time. If I want to swim 1000yds and get out, I can. And I think it's that mind set that is making me really want to hit the pool and flip some laps. No structure, no pressure, just trying to stay fit, and maybe try to grasp onto whatever 'tan' I got on our trip.

Though I'm trying really hard to watch my spending on maternity clothes (ugh, so expensive when you have to buy a completely new wardrobe!), I broke down this weekend and ordered a new two-piece training bikini. When I realized on Sunday that my suit top no longer touches my skin where it's supposed to below my bust because my huge pregnancy knockers, I knew it was only a matter of time before a lap of backstroke turned into an accidental peep show. But, when swimming outside, you have to be sure to mix in enough backstroke in order to ensure an even tan, front and back. So I had no other choice than to buy a suit that actually fits.

Maybe I'll post a belly picture in my new 2-piece suit for next week.

In other postal news, MAS and I are expecting our crib to arrive via FedEx tomorrow! I told Michael we can't put it together until the nursery is finished, that way we'll be really motivated to get it done. This past weekend we finished Nursery Transformation Stage #1 of 4. I woke up on Saturday from my 2 hour nap to see my husband walk into the house with three new power tools and a truck full of goodies from Home Depot. When I bragged that I had multiple technology classes growing up (complete with power tools) I was informed by the father-to-be that the jig saw is not allowed anywhere near my pregnant belly. Bummer. I guess I'll go back to making my baby quilt.

Belly Picture, 24 weeks:
I'm wearing what I discovered last night to be one of only two t-shirts that still fit me.

Oh, oops. How did that picture slide in? But since it's here..Yoji and Lotus are still officially the cutest cats on earth. This is a totally un-posed picture, Michael caught them sleeping that way in our guest bed.

Chuggin' Along and Mexico!

2010-03-14T18:13:00.010-06:00

Wow, I'm more than half way to my due date! Below is my belly picture from Saturday, officially starting week #24 (of 40). The bump is coming along, and I have to say, I'm really enjoying being pregnant! Ask me in another few months and I'm sure you'll get a different answer, but this is a great time. I am past the "um, our lives are totally about to change" phase and have entered the "I am very, very excited to be parents!" stage. Part of that is because she's started to kick and move around a lot, and it makes me feel closer to her. Michael can feel some of the really good kicks too, and it's so sweet to share that with him. My belly-button has not started to stick out yet and that is good news, I'd say that is my #1 (non-serious) fear in pregnancy and it will most likely happen. I just hate belly buttons and I'm happy with mine staying hidden and out of the way, thank you very much.
Yesterday was a great day in Boulder, it was sunny, in the 60s (oh, and it's snowing right now, on Sunday) and I had a date with Amy!
And if you haven't heard, she's knocked up too. Last year at this time were were doing this (see left), getting ready to race New Orleans 70.3. Now in 2010, we're training for a whole other event. We met to do a pregnant-lady walk and then have lunch. Michael snapped our picture on Saturday:

We walked 3 miles in an hour and as crazy as it sounds, that was a workout! I've been swimming more during the week and am really enjoying my time in the water. It's hard for me to not want to swim fast and to 'let people go', that's the competitive fish in me and I don't think it will ever go away. So I just try not to think about other people in the pool and just stay in my own head. I day dream about doing Mommy-and-Me swim lessons with our daughter this winter, and teaching her how to really swim when she gets older. Sometimes after work I lap swim when the Boulder swim team is in the pool too, that's emotional dynamite for me, I totally tear up thinking about our girl someday being one of those little 8-and-unders kids in lane 1 swimming as cute as can be and trying hard to learn butterfly. They are so adorable!

When I got pregnant I thought I'd be running and riding my trainer the entire time. I see and hear about women who run the entire pregnancy, knowing that you really slow down significantly, but I was thinking "if they can do it, I can do it". Plus, I have a marathon in January and was thinking the longer I can run, the more 'ahead' I'll be with my training post-baby. But alas, I think I'm done running because it just doesn't feel good anymore. The last time I ran was in Mexico and I had a crampy/uncomfortable tugging on my lower-stomach and I just didn't like the way it felt, it's hard to explain. I love running! It is so good for the soul and the mind, and I miss it already, but I know this is a good decision for my body at this point. My mysterious left-foot arch puffyness-dead-person-lookalike-foot injury has also recurred and I'm sure it's because I'm running with more weight and with a different stride.

Below is a pic of me on probably my last run for a while, and if I'm going to have a good last run, I'd want it to be this one, in Mexico, on a warm day, with my husband and two good friends, through the jungle with the waves crashing in the background:
That's a palm tree coming out of my head.

Mexico? Yep, we went down to Mexico for a week. Actually it was supposed to be for only 5 days but we were having so much fun we changed our flight and stayed a few more days. We won't be able to do that with a kid. Michael and our friends Susan & Michael K. did a lot of surfing while I did a lot of reading and laying on the beach. I would say I"m tan but that would be entirely misleading. I turned red, and then went immediately into the white-flaky skin phase of peeling. No in between. But I did eat a lot of guacamole and tacos. In fact, if this baby does not have a love for Mexican food, it's not because I didn't try!

Baby Bump

2010-02-15T19:22:00.007-07:00

Look, a baby-bump! I haven't been good about taking bump pictures because:

I forget in the morning
At night I look 3x larger due to crazy belly-bloat (if you've been pregnant I think you probably know what I mean!)
My belly hasn't been much to look at until now.

My only worry so far in the pregnancy has been weight and size, especially since I had a hard time from weeks 6-16. When you see other people post belly pictures at the same time and they have beautiful bumps, it makes you feel way behind...like the inverse of seeing a picture of yourself in prime racing fitness, all buff and svelte, while you sit there on the couch eating a big bowl of chocolate ice cream and watching the last episode of "Jersey Shore" for the third time.

Every four weeks we see the doctor, and every 4 weeks she assures me all is OK. Really, at the end of the day I just want someone to say "Melissa, you're normal".

I've been tracking my training and weight throughout this pregnancy, below is a pretty chart I put together. To date I've gained 4lbs from pre-pregnancy weight, but 8 lbs from lowest-pregnancy weight. I have a feeling I'm going to be a pregnant lady who puts on all the lbs in the 2nd half of 40 weeks:
I'm still running and swimming with little issues. I've taken to running on the treadmill at the YMCA in only my sports bra and shorts because I can't stand the feel of shirts rubbing over my stomach. Weird, I know, but it's a texture thing. As much as I cringe with having to buy new maternity clothes, I cringe even more at the thought of spending money on larger workout clothes. Everything about having a baby is expensive, and buying clothes that you only wear for a handful of months is hard to do.

However, I have no problem buying new cute things for our trip to Mexico! If I can't spend the day drinking margaritas and eating street tacos, I at least want to look cute while sipping my sprite and eating my "this won't give me the runs, right?" approved food.

What the heck? Plane Crash.

2010-02-06T21:58:00.005-07:00

Michael and I saw two planes crash and burn to the ground today. We were driving into Boulder to run errands and saw a huge fireball and smoke explosion in the sky, above the Boulder Reservoir. Then we saw two plumes of fire and smoke crash to the ground, one went down right away but the other had a parachute easing it's fall, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was. Since we saw another plane up high I thought it was a skydiver practicing some sort of smoke trick, though I couldn't figure out what the other thing falling would have been (it was the other plane). The plane (flying higher above) that I thought was the jumper's plane turned out (I'm guessing) to be the glider that escaped the crash. It feels silly now that we didn't know what we saw right away, but you never really think you're going to look up in the sky and see a crash.

Apparently one plane was towing a glider plane, and a 3rd plane clipped the tow line between the first plane and the glider, causing the two planes to crash while the glider released it's tow and escaped in time. The parachute that we saw is part of one of the planes, it's a feature designed to slow the plane's fall to the ground in this type of tragic situation.

CLICK HERE for the news story and video from 9news.com My thoughts go out to the family of the crash victims, and also to the pilot of the glider who according to the news, flew through the fireball and was able to land safely at the Boulder Airport.

Disney Marathon 2011...and "It's a....."

2010-01-29T09:44:00.005-07:00

I did it! I signed up for another marathon, this will be my first post-baby marathon and I'm so excited to have a goal to think about that is not all baby-related.

My brother signed up first, so then of course I had to sign up too! It will be his 1st marathon and my 2nd time at Disney. Since I'm not sure what to expect 5.5 months after having a baby, I have two plans:

Plan A = racing it and going for a PR
Plan 1 = running it with my brother and just enjoying the 26.2

Either way, both plans are great!

See some of you guys there :-)

In other news, I'm now 4.5 months along and I think this may be my last week in regular-people clothes, time to take a big breath and jump into some maternity wear! Oh, and we're having A GIRL!!!

Disney Marathon Weekend?

2010-01-09T10:53:00.005-07:00

Anyone thinking about doing the Disney Half or Full Marathon next year? It's this weekend, but a year out. I'm tempted to sign up. I did this race back in 2005 with Team in Training and it was my fastest marathon ever (3:42...needed 3:40:59 for Boston!) and I'd love to do it again, but only if there are other people doing it too. It was a lot of fun! I'm also thinking about the Houston marathon, but my brother might not be living there next year so then it would just a boring trip.

Anyone....anyone? It's just a thought, let's discuss...

-Melissa

p.s. If you want to tell me running a marathon 6 months after giving birth is a unrealistic, please don't. I'd rather sign up for a race and then learn after baby comes that it's too soon, than be shut out of a race I want to do because it filled up. So there. I think I can do it anyways. ((sticks tongue out)).

Back in the Saddle

2010-01-04T19:58:00.004-07:00

I hope everyone had a great New Year, and if you celebrate Christmas, I hope it was a merry one! Like I mentioned before, Michael and I spent the week in Cincinnati visiting my family, and it couldn't have been better timed since I was in a major home-sick state of mind.

It was great to see my family and especially my two nephews. I hadn't seen them in a year and they seemed so much older! One is almost 6 and the other is 3.5 yrs old, and they are like little men. I decided after this trip that never again will I go a year between visiting my family.

I swam one time with my brother, we hit the old stomping grounds at the YMCA and put in 2000 yds in the VERY HOT main pool. Unfortunately the nice cold comp pool was closed so we had to use the pool filled with pee and extreme temps. But it was all good. Swimming with my brother is a nice treat, we can do the same time intervals. He's just getting back into it after....um...maybe 8 years out of the water? I give him another month of swimming and then I'd be having a hard time keeping up with him. Beyond that one swim outing, I did absolutely nothing athletic the entire time because I was sick. The night before we left I had a 99.9 degree temp, I had three days of ignorant bliss while taking a cold medicine before I realized it's on the NoNo pregnancy list (oops!), and after that it was back to feeling like crap. Turns out I had/have an ear infection and sinus infection.

Fast forward to this week. I'm back at work, full of antibiotics (that are OK), feeling better and working out! Yes, working out! I swam at the new fancy Boulder gym yesterday (1000 yds, but still it was a swim!) and today Michael and I hoped on the trainers and rode for 30 minutes. Michael was riding my girly TT bike. These are small workouts, but I really haven't done much in a long time, so I'm taking it in small steps. But it feels great to be feeling better!!!!! On Saturday I woke up and Just.Felt.Good. That was also my first day in the 2nd trimester...coincidence? I think not.

In baby making news, we had a 12 week ultrasound and everything looks good. The baby was moving around a lot, so much that it warranted comments from the tech. Now I'm in week 14 and have another 1.5 months to go until we know what we're having. Just before we leave for Mexico, February is going to be a great month! I'm still 2lbs down from my pre-pregnancy weight, but I do have a little belly that's starting to form. I realized today when I tried to do some arm weights that those 2lbs I lost must all be muscle. Now that my "morning" sickness is hopefully a thing of the past, I'm looking forward to gaining some lbs.

In other fun news, last night I had a crazy moment and booked a flight back to Cincinnati for the end of January to attend a really cool function...but this deserves a stand-alone post.

Happy 2010!!!

Last week training summary

2009-12-21T22:07:00.002-07:00

This will be real quick. I said I was going to post my weekly training summaries during my pregnancy, so here it is:

Dec 14-20: Swim :30 / 1500 yds.

Yes. That's it! But I am proud to say I already matched that today with another 1500yd swim. It feels so great to be back in the pool, even if I'm way slower than I should be. There's something so pure and grass roots about swimming (to me, at least). I feel like Jag (the thing growing in me) is going to do so much swimming in utero that he'll come out a fish with a natural ability to do flip turns and excellent streamlines.

My plan for this week involves one doctor appointment (yeah!), hopefully 4 solid days of swimming with my brother (double yeah!) and hopefully some really slow running with my husband (slow because of me, not him)! I also cannot wait to eat some Skyline Chili, though the only time in my entire life I want to eat a hot dog (chili dog!), I cannot have one. I may have to settle for a dogles chili dog from Skyline. Think: hot dog bun, Skyline chili, and cheese. If you've never had Skyline Chili you just won't understand. It's special.

I need to remember my tums for that meal.

OK dokey. That's my quick update! I'm starting to feel a little bit better, but sleeping a lot. On Sunday I woke up after sleeping 10.5 hours, ate breakfast, and then went back to bed for another 1.5 hours. WHO AM I?? Crazy.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all get to spend time with family and friends or just doing what you love doing.

Some Things I've Learned

2009-12-16T21:27:00.003-07:00

Though it hasn't been too long, I've already learned some things about being a pregnant athlete/person:

Even though you know it's going to happen, there still is a slight "oh uh" when you have to move your belt buckle from the 3rd hole to the 2nd hole.
Running on a treadmill doesn't seem quite as bad when it means you'll be near a bathroom.
Running on a treadmill and trying to watch TV still does not work, no matter how badly you want to watch "Birth Day" while pretending to run.
Pretending to run = running at 1mph slower than your usually really slow treadmill mph in your 'normal' world. **Sigh** I might be able to walk at that speed. I swear I know how to run! Really, I do.
It's possible to do nothing 'really' for a week and then all of a sudden tweak your knee. I have no idea how that happened but now I have an injury. Did I get hurt during my training and racing season? No. Did I *maybe* tweak my knee opening and closing the sliding glass door? Possibly. That's the only thing I can think of. It's a heavy and sticky door, in my defense.
My stomach looks way different at night (much bigger) than in the morning. I wish our company party was Friday morning and not Friday night. Darn those tight body-hugging LBDs that I have! (I'm in that "oh I just ate too many pop-tarts" stage of bumpiness).
I can't wait to swim again on Friday! I'm really determined to swim up until the end. I'm going to start posting my weekly exercise amounts on my blog. It will help me stay motivated even when I'm tired and just need to get out and move! My priorities are to swim first, then run, then ride my trainer on weekends, then walk. I also plan on lifting light weights, especially in my upper body.

That's it for tonight! Thank you everyone for your sweet comments, you too Michael :-) I'm entering this whole new world of baby stuff and motherhood and life changing, and it's pretty cool!

Knocked Up!

2009-12-09T19:13:00.003-07:00

Yep...I'm knocked up, preggers! If all things go well, Michael and I will be expecting a little Schwartzy sometime in early/mid July.

For some reason I convinced myself that it was going to take us a while to get pregnant. There is such a thing as too much reading and research for these types of things. I really wasn't expecting it to happen the month that it did because MAS was going out of town for a while, but heck, I guess I was wrong! On Nov 1st I took a test and saw a really faint line. Not wanting to bias MAS, I made him look at the test and he saw something too. Of course I was convinced but he was not. All doubts were gone when I took a digital test the next morning and it said "Pregnant"! Our lives are really about to change and I cannot wait! I'm ready. Or at least I'll be ready by July.

My plan is to stay active throughout the entire pregnancy. I was doing really well until Thanksgiving, doing 1:00 every day, and swimming quite a bit! For a while I even thought I might be one of the lucky people to not get morning sickness. And then it hit! All day Friday, Sat, and Sun after Thanksgiving I laid on the couch sick ALL DAY. I watched more TV in those three days than I care to admit. I'm just now starting to feel a little bit better. I've started running on the treadmill (because it's FREEZING right now) for :30 and then walk for :20. I'm hoping next week to get back to my swim group. I've gone from sleeping 7 hours a night to sleeping 10! It's so hard to explain, but if that's what my body needs right now, that's my #1 priority. I also just learned that I'm anemic again, so getting that under control will also help me feel much better.

So there you have it! There is my 'race plan' for 2010...pop out a healthy and happy baby.

My Scientific Study on Mr. Pitt

2009-11-17T20:21:00.013-07:00

OK, this is a little OT, but it's my blog and I just ate a big piece of chocolate cake and now I'm wired! That's what happens when you drastically reduce caffeine and alcohol consumption...I guess your system just grabs on to anything drug-related and runs with it. Perhaps I need to give up chocolate cake too.

So without further banter, I give you my most recent scientific study (men, you may choose to skip this post if you want):

Question: Is it possible for Brad Pitt to ever not be super humanly hot?
Do Background Research: Collect pictures of said subject through history and wearing different styles.
Construct a hypothesis: IF said subject stopped shaving, THEN he would still be exceptionally attractive to the female gender
Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment: Unfortunately said subject was not available to participate in my experiment, so I had to use more passive ways. Details are below:
A) Statement: BP as young, clean-cut yet bad-boy. Findings: Yes.
B) Statement: long hair, sensitive poet type. Findings: after a few seconds of hesitation, the answer is Yes, he's still extremely appealing to the eye.
C) Statement: bloody, beat up, smoking, and playing a psycho. Findings: do I even have to ask?
D) Statement: bleach-blond hair. Findings: the fact that said subject was supposedly going through relationship issues makes this dye job OK and acceptable (who hasn't had a bad post-breakup hair snafu?) .
E) Statement: slight facial hair. Findings: yes.
F) Statement: 1980s 'stache. Findings: it takes a special person to pull this off well. Yes.
G) Statement: This has to be for some role. Findings: results were inconclusive.
H) And finally, the last experiment. Statement: One bad thing cannot ruin an entire outfit. Findings: well....well...hmmm...."yes" said with some trepidation.
Analyze your data and draw a conclusion: Through extensive experimentation, it has been determined that said subject is unable to do anything to resolve super human hotness. However, if is advisable that said subject reviews attached experiments and reverts back to a more appealing state of facial hairiness.
Communicate your results: done.

Peaceful

2009-11-15T19:26:00.005-07:00

I'm in a peaceful and quiet place, life is good :-)

Recently I've felt like I don't have much to blog about. Michael and I are hoping to make babies sometime in the near-er future, so I'm only training about half of what I was doing this time last year. My race schedule for 2010 has to consist of races that can be registered for last minute. After a few weeks of random schedules, I finally have consistency back in my workout routine, which includes swimming MWF mornings with the D3 group.

Swimming with the group has me finally facing something I don't like about swimming: pulling with paddles. It's my kryptonyte. I usually lead my swimming lane, but when the paddles come out, I drop back to, oh, the end. When the other guys put them on, they go so much faster. I think it's a triathlete thing, and probably has more to do with the pull-buoy helping people who aren't great at kicking. The coach knows me too well, my swimmer-shoulder excuse is no match for him, he sees straight through the B.S. So now I'm pulling, with paddles, slowly. But I'm doing it. I've decided that I'm going to get fast at it. People love pulling, and I will too. This is my off-season swim focus.

In other news, I'm taking a sewing class on Friday. There are some girlie things about me, and my desire to be really good at sewing is one of them. Right now I can make baby blankets and super-hero capes (think 'straight lines'). I'm hoping to expand that menu to also include aprons, baby clothes and handbags. Oh, and really cute animal costumes!

P.S. Dear Brad Pitt, please shave your beard. Thank you.

Treadmill Dumbing Down

2009-10-30T19:31:00.003-06:00

(the pic is actual treadmill involved in this story)
I got a treadmill technology beat down today, and it was not pretty. Now, I consider myself an OK-smart person, one who is embracing of new technology and very math/science/numbers oriented. My highest grade in college was in my Calc III class and I was even a software engineer for a few years. So usually I can figure out how to make electronic things work.

But not today.

At lunch today I ventured to the YMCA for an easy 30 minute run on the treadmill. Ugh. But I was ready, iPod in hand and my new running visor to keep my focus straight (wearing a hat while running inside helps me be less distracted by pretty things in my side vision). As I walk towards the row of treadmills I notice a lack of obnoxious TV screens attached to the machines..yes. I hate staring at a blank TV one foot from my face. I find my treadmill but as I approach, I found out it was too good to be true...these treadmills have TV embedded in the front of them. And I notice they have gross sticky finger prints all over the screens (as in, sticky with Swine Flu germs, people sweat, and probably some snot too).

So I figure out how to turn on the treadmill. I play with the TV and nothing happens. It's a touch screen. I stand there poke...poke...poke...nothing. The menu will not engage. So frustrating. I had to ask the maintenance person, he comes right over, presses the 'button' and the menu comes up. Oh, it's Press not Poke. Ick, that means more time my fingertip has to spend on the germy screen.

So I press. And the TV gets stuck on "A Baby Story" on TLC. Really? The LAST thing I want to watch while I'm hammering hard on a treadmill. So I press some more. It gets stuck on a Soap Opera. I don't even know why I tried....eventually I figured out how to turn off the TV. Thank goodness. At this point it's still at 3 mph walking pace. Time to figure out how to run. I press the big speed-me-up handle and it jumps to 7.5 mph. Ha! Not for 30 minutes. I press again, 5.5. Not going to work. So I decided to try to use the touch screen again to do it 0.1 by 0.1 until I finally reach my desired 6.4 mph speed.

Ugh. In all this playing around, I manage to turn on the "time and miles" section. I spent 7:25 walking and trying to figure out how to use that silly silly treadmill. All I want to do it get on, get my speed, and stare at the blank yellow wall in front of my face. I don't want to watch TV...even if I wanted to I would be motion sick. Do people really run on those things and watch TV at the same time? Without falling off? I'd like to see that.

At one point I stood on the rails to switch my music. I knew to finish the last 5 minutes I would need a great motivating song. In the time it took me to find my other song, I see a message on the screen that says "no person detected" and SHUT OFF! It just plain 'ol turned off and stopped. Seething with frustration, by this time I'm an expert at controlling the speed so I just re-start the workout and go for those last 5 minutes. After 5 minutes was done, I pressed that big red "emergency shut-off" button. At least that's one thing that doesn't ever change.

It took me 40 minutes to run 30 minutes and I left that Y feeling a little stupider than when I arrived. Tomorrow I'm running outside, no questions asked.

Snow Day!

2009-10-29T09:29:00.010-06:00

Well, it's here, our first big snow storm of the year, and this one is a REAL Colorado dump. In the past 24 hours we've gotten 2 feet of snow and it should keep snowing until the evening. We usually get two of these a year, so only one more to go! I don't remember even having a storm this early though, before Trick or Treating. There are going to be a lot of really cold people on the Naked Pumpkin run this year.

For those good at logical math problems: Snow + Honda Civic + living in the middle of a hill = Melissa being house bound. Today is day 2 of working from home, and though I did it for a long time in other jobs, I don't like doing it with my current job. I enjoy being in the office, with my co-workers and no matter how hard I try, I just can't get the cats or Sky to talk to me about cycling, coaching, or my relapse back into a Famous Amos Cookies addiction. Not interested.

Have you ever worked from home and watched your animals? This is what they did ALL DAY when they weren't trying to be on my lap:
Feeling the itch to get out, I decided to shovel the driveway. Of course now it has another foot of snow on it, but I've learned it's easier to shovel 1 foot twice than 2 feet once. I tried to engage Sky, but she was not interested. I guess if I had barely any fur on me I wouldn't want to be out in the snow either. I'm starting to wonder if she needs a cute dogie sweater for the winter?

Mission accomplished.
Michael came home for work and I had to snap a shot. This is what he looks like for work in a snow storm (yummy):

This is what I look like:
Under that blanket are my flannel PJ pants, at 4pm. I even put my snow pants OVER them to shovel the driveway. Is this what people who WFH full-time do every day? I can't even imagine. It would really cut-down on wardrobe expense. See how hard I'm working? Two computers AND the phone. Someone has to bring home the bacon! ;-)

Yummy, bacon.

After work I hoped on my bike for an hour and had a good workout. I'll probably do the same again this afternoon since running and swimming are not going to happen.

Or perhpas I'll snowshoe to the grocery store, we are out of coffee and chocolate...

Girls Weekend '09

2009-10-27T22:02:00.009-06:00

"Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own places in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smiles spread across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends"

Triathlon brought the four of us together years ago, but it's our friendship and love that have kept us together through all the changes that time brings!

The fun has been had, Estes Park survived, and we had a great weekend. Our First Annual (because you know there will be more!) Girls Weekend is in the books. Below are the rated PG pics and descriptions. Oh don't you wonder?! We were very well behaved. After all, we've left our club hopping, dirty dancing, late night skinny dipping years behind us.

I think.

The weekend started on Friday with Sky getting the required de-stinking bath. Michael was out of town on business, meaning I'm on dog duty and therefore Sky gets invited to Girl's weekend. She is special, the other three ladies have female dogs and they did not get to come. I told her she had to be on her BEST behavior. And she was. Friday night we had pizza, drank wine, and stayed up until midnight...way past all of our bedtimes. We really know how to party. Like that graph? Yeah, the smoke detector was going off in the middle of the night. And not the loud "there's a fire!" but that intermittent "the battery is low" beep. I would say it's like sleeping next to someone who snores, and then you think it's going to stop, you hold your breath for a few seconds....and then it starts again. Lucky for me I had my handy ear plugs so I was the only one who missed out on all the late night fire alarm shenanigans.

On Sat morning we got up and took Sky on a walk. The cabin we rented was right downtown. On our way we ran into some locals:
Saturday was also filled with a run, brunch, and horseback riding. Saturday night was filled with more pizza, wine, a new battery for the fire alarm, and another round of late-night "the f*@king alarm is going off!" moments. Once again, I missed that entire event. What am I going to do once we have kids and I actually have to be able to hear important things? One night I even slept through our "Hazardous gasses" detector (part of our Carbon Monoxide detector, which goes off when we cook anything with curry or cumin, it's broken).

In the end, I think we all had a great time. It does not sound like a crazy weekend now that I read what I wrote, but it was just what we were looking for! No matter how busy life may get (medical school, IM training, raising kids), I have a feeling we'll be doing this years to come.

Next year: Vegas Baby! Even if I'm big and fat and 39 weeks pregnant, I'll be there.

Mom, I'm just kidding about that.

T-Minus-32 Hours

2009-10-21T19:29:00.006-06:00

Girls weekend starts in less than 32 hours. In fact, IF I make it to hear Chrissie Wellington speak at Fleet Feet tomorrow night (I know...how cool is THAT?) it'll be starting in less than 24 hours! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself.

So here's the scoop:

Friday morning Sharon (assistant coach) and I are doing a hike with the girls from the CU Triathlon team, it's like a "get to know them outside of the pool" type outing. I'm hoping they bring along their swim suits so I can still identify them in real-people clothing, maybe attach them to their hiking backpacks or walking sticks. Here's the catch, it's at 6am and is going to be freezing cold and dark. I like hiking if it's at a running pace or done while sitting atop a mountain bike, but not so much actual hiking. I call that walking slowly up steep stuff.

All that aside, I'm looking forward to the social part of Friday morning!

After that, work, but then the official Girls weekend starts! Four of us, plus one lucky pink Weimaraner dog named Sky-Marie, spend a few good days in Estes Park. We might hike...again...yeah. Or we might not. That's the thing about Girls Weekend...we get to do whatever we want. I'm personally pulling for manicures, trashy magazines, wine, and some chocolate. What we do to fill the space between will be priceless, because whatever it is, we'll be doing it together and having fun.

BREAK

Racing in 2010 has started to creep into my mind because let's face it, I'm completely lost and crabby without something on my calendar, anything. I was working on being patient and not thinking about next year's races quite so soon, but I give up...it's time to mend the problem. I love the idea of doing a Bloggers Camp reunion type race, open to non-campers as well, just a fun group of people getting together!

My Own Book Club

2009-10-15T19:51:00.000-06:00

This picture really has nothing to do with my post but I think it rocks and needs a place on my blog. So there you go.

Thank you everyone who gave me suggestions for books to read. Some of them I actually have and are in my big stack of "I WILL read these books someday" pile. You know the pile, you probably have one too.

I would like to announce the first book in my book club:
"Finding Your Zone: Ten Core Lessons for Achieving Peak Performance in Sports and Life" by Michael Lardon, M.D.

I was looking for a book on swim coaching when I found my ADD-self in a 'general sports' area and captivated by the book's bright yellow cover, big font, and # of pages. So I bought it. Has anyone read this book? Anyone? Anyone? I like this book because it not only related to athletics but also life goals.

Other books I'm reading:

A Darkness More Than Night (Harry Bosch) by Michael Connelly - I'm actually listening to this book...addicted to the Harry Bosch series.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell - I'm almost done with this one. I now know exactly what to do to pop out little hockey players that will grow up and be good enough for the NHL, or Austria's Olympic team. Hockey parents scare me though, so I'm rooting for something calm like a flock of little Schwartzy ballet dancers.
The Fertility Diet by Jorge Chavarro - Yep. I'm reading it and drinking my whole milk like a good Midwestern-girl. It's interesting and easy to read. I like learning about baby making. Who knew there was more to it than 4th grade sex-ed class? No secret here, I'm a sponge for knowledge.
Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coogan M.D.-I have a Powertap on loan so I'm both learning how to use TrainingPeaks WKO+ software as well as what all that data means.

OKdokey. That's it! My blog-approved list of books (there are more, but I have to keep some secrets to myself). I'm still on the search for a good swim coaching book. I suppose if there are people who want to read too we'll need a catchy book club name.

Hello Running, Can We Makeup?

2009-10-05T14:46:00.000-06:00

(above: end of yesterday's ride. MAS is behind me, I'm kicking his butt! ha ha)
Many things have been on my mind lately. For one, I have a little guilt complex with not running much this fall. I'm trying to bike more, and I am doing it, but everytime I run I just want to keep going and going. I miss long runs, the kind that prevent you from drinking martinis on Friday night because you know you have to get up early Sat and run, and you can't fake a 20+ mile run. Then you wake up, load the iPod, and head out to welcome the day with a long run and some nice alone time.

I know, I know...I am my own planner right now, so here's what I decided today: I'm running again. Not marathon training but also not only running 30 minutes a time. I'll find a nice balance between riding more but also being able to do my sanity-preservation longer runs. I decided this today during my 1:00 lunch run, in the freezing rain, way under dressed, and happy as a lark.

One good thing that has come from my short break from running is that I've rediscovered mountain biking and loving it! Yesterday Susan got a group together to do a longer version of the ride we did last Saturday. Fun! We're going again next weekend, probably different route...unless the awful "S" word shows up as forecasted. Then I'll be inside on my trainer pouting.

My new idea of a perfect weekend is long run on Saturday, mountain bike and maybe golf on Sunday.

Other things on my mind:

I am not buying coffee, breakfast, or lunch out for the entire month of October.
I want to get the basement area set up for some great Computrainer riding with the TV and laptop. Someday it would be awesome to have a nice finished basement with an exercise room, but until we win the lottery that won't happen. The "S" is coming soon and no matter how much I hope that we get no "S" this winter, that's just silly-talk.
Jay-Z's "Blueprint 3" is a great running album. Or I should say the first 4 songs b/c those are the ones I keep listening to over and over.
Reading-doing more of it. Anyone have some good motivational sporty books to recommend?
I am much better on my mountain bike when not wearing glasses.

That's it! Over and out!
-Melissa

Going Offroad

2009-09-30T19:42:00.000-06:00

Thanks to not marathon training this fall, I've been hitting the bike more AND my mountain bike...and I'm having a great time! This past weekend Susan and I did a shuttle ride and I had so much fun! Just in two days of riding over the weekend (MAS and I went on Sunday) I can tell that I'm getting better. Or maybe I should say that I'm getting less-wimpy because let's be honest, that's really my issue.

I feel like mountain biking is a good strength workout for my legs, something that's a limiter for me in cycling.

Susan and I were supposed to spend our Girls Day cooking meals and then freezing them. But when we saw it was supposed to be an awesome weekend, Susan suggested we do the ride that goes from Boulder to Lyons. She helped build the trail a few years ago. I was hesitant at first but once she threw in post-riding Burger and Beers I couldn't resists.

To do this ride you have to drop one car off at the end in Lyons and then drive back towards Boulder for the start, thus making it a shuttle-ride. The ride starts on a trail I've done before called Heil Ranch. It's just hard enough to scare me and make me walk some parts (but not anymore, I can do the whole thing minus ONE little section now!), but not too hard to make me swear off the sport. After Heil you ride down Picture Rock all the way to Lyons. I have a special place in my heart for that town because that is where MAS and I got married. Yeah for us!

Below are pics from our fun ride on Saturday, with captions:

Photo above: Susan and me before the ride. That's my bike in the background next to Noodles (our truck, yes named after the restaurant), my seat is crazy-high and someday it's going to snap right off. The bike doesn't really fit me.
How beautiful is this?!? Looking back towards Boulder at the beginning of the ride. I love it here!
Susan had a picture of me looking 'normal' riding my bike, but this one is funny. I talk to myself (outloud) when mountain biking over hard things (there were rocks there, even though the trail looks smooth, I swear!).
On the "Picture Rock" part of the trail, looking towards Lyons. If you look at the picture closely you can see the place where Michael and I got married! You can also see the rock background that is in most of our wedding photos. I pointed them out on the pics. Case in point: a wedding photo and the same background.

Note: when doing a point-to-point ride it is important to leave your post-riding shoe attire in the destination car. Oops. Susan carried my stinky flip-flops the entire day! There was a very short period on the road, getting back to the car.

Susan enjoying a burger and beer after the ride.

In other news, there has been talk of swine flu around our house and that led to Michael finding a pic of his twin:
Doesn't that guy look like MAS? (he's wearing a swin-flu mask). Here's a pic to compare against (yes, that is my dear husband all dressed up):

Relay Race Report

2009-09-24T19:33:00.000-06:00

This past Sunday was the Sprint Triathlon Relay and I'm proud to announce that we did very well and had fun! Our time was 2nd overall, and MAN that guy who beat is was super-super-fast! A very cool thing about this race is that the relays went off in the first wave. That was a refreshing change from the other relays I did this summer where I had to start in the very.last.wave. The race was 750M swim/12mile bike/5k run.

My swim time was 10:10, and when I did this course back in June I went 10:49. As soon as the race started I hammered to get out fast and took the lead. It was weird, I've never actually led a triathlon race in my life.ever. I can see how people like it! That was a hard 10+ minutes of swimming but I loved the feeling! Next up was Dirk, and he smoked the bike course! Wow he is super fast. When he came in we were still in 1st place (and for the record, I know 1st place as a relay is different than 1st place as a person, but as someone who will never have that experience individually, it was fun to have it as a team). Next up was Jeremy and he smoked the run too! At the finish line we came in 2nd overall, there was an extremely fast male out there who lit up the run to take the lead.

I can't remember the last time I had that much fun with some co-workers. We already figured out how we're going to shave some time for next year's race.

Other week highlights include:

A big update to TrainingPeaks.com went on Tuesday night. It's been nice reading the feedback from people on the new features we released. The programmers worked really hard to get this done
"Dexter" season 3, half way through it, and it's stressing me out, it's that fanfrickintastic
The movie FAME is coming out!!! Do you remember this show? OMGosh I loved it. The only thing that would be more exciting is if there was a CHiPs movie coming out.
I am really looking forward to a girly ride with Susan this weekend. We haven't figured it out yet exactly what we're doing but it will be fun.
I'm watching "Harold and Kumar Go To WhiteCastle". I hope I never get too mature or old ladyish to enjoy this movie.

And finally, a cute photo for the day. Lotus was in a super cuddly mode the other day, she just laid there for a long time, playing with Michael's scruffy face.

What would NPH do?

Swimming with the Buffaloes

2009-09-18T19:18:00.000-06:00

Two weeks ago I started to help coach the University of Colorado's Triathlon team's swim practices. I do two practices a week and I really really like it! Though I love my current job and the company I work for, my favorite job ever is still the 5 years I spent teaching swim lessons. I know, I know...comparing highschool/college jobs to adult jobs are like apples and oranges, but I'm not changing my view. So when I started wondering how I could do something like that again on a volunteer/free time basis, I found this great opportunity! Thanks coach Mike! And thanks Sharon for letting me tag along :-)

I cannot believe how motivated these college athletes are. But what's even harder to believe is how brave and driven the athletes are who do not have much (if any) experience swimming, though they show up every practice and put in the work to swim those laps and get better. These are the swimmers that I get to work with and I'm so excited about it! I can see improvement in them already, they are so eager to learn! At the last practice I got to kick three of them out of our lane and into the faster lane. I think they were nervous at first, but they survived and had smiles on their faces at the end.

I can't wait until I get to kick them all out of our lane, then my job will be done ;-)

Melissa's Journey

A Name is a Name is a Name

Motivation Pregnancy Style

Well Hello There!

Age Group Nationals

Happy First Birthday!

Trans Tahoe Swim Relay

The Power of 37

Bullets

Walking!

Boulder Sprint Tri Race Report

First (kind-of) Multi-Sport Race Back!

Bolder Boulder 10k race report

Deciding Not to Race

Change of Plans

Swim Meet Event Workout

If you want a reminder:

1000 free200 fly50 free200 free...400 IM100 back100 breast100 free100 fly500 free200 IM50 back50 breast200 back50 fly200 breast100 IM1650 free(5250 total)

What's with all this?

9 Months!

Another Good Swim WO

Friends

This and That

Camp! Or, Mingling with the Locals

Sunshine

Confession

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

My ABC

Weekend Wrap Up

Dear March, I Love You

My Win

What is your Super Bowl Win?

Yearbook Picture

2011 Race Schedule

Karma

Disney Marathon Race Report

Race Update Update

Packing

Christmas Trip Review

Is it January Already?

My Birthday Present

We made it!

I Won a Medal

Weekends

Marathon Training!

Come Work With Me!

One Year

Swim Swim Swim!

Perfection

Update

My 5k Race!

This and That

One hot run!

Back at it

Something to stare at

Dressing this mom

New Gear on Race Day

Week One Pictures

We Had a Baby!

Shoes with laces, and other things that excite me

Thank You Pregnancy Sponsors!

TGI TdF

What to do?

Walk it out

Hanging in there!

Bikini and Diapers

Oh Boulder, How you Make me Laugh

Is it time to plan 2011 yet?

Best Surprise Ever!

I made it!

Baby Update, 35 weeks

The Great Experiment

Role Models

Nursery Update

Late Night Thoughts

Hello Single Digits!

Random Observations

A lesson in anatomy

I need some swim suit help

When?

1000 free
200 fly
50 free
200 free
...400 IM
100 back
100 breast
100 free
100 fly
500 free
200 IM
50 back
50 breast
200 back
50 fly
200 breast
100 IM
1650 free
(5250 total)