I got the Power!

Woah, two posts within a week?  I know, I know.  Hang on to your hats.  Its been a rockin' rolling week here - I'm in the midst of power training for Musselman (I have nowhere near the bike or swim prep that I should, but hey, life happens) - a nice 3 week block that coincides PERFECTLY (note the sarcasm) with the most stress I've ever had at work (potential 75% program cuts - yikes) and trying to pull together the perfect birthday for my little dude!  So theres been alot of midnight oil burning, 4am oil burning, complete freak outs, and power days.  One way I've tried to play it smart (in a way I've seriously lacked before) is with power eating.  In the past, I've had a serious case of the restrictions, which does me no favors in terms of training, clothes fittage, or my sanity (blame the ever present chubby kid that's my inner critic).  Oddly enough, having a kiddo changed this - somehow the combo of hormones, breastfeeding and a schedule shock have fired up my metabolism to where I'm now back at racing weight (10 pounds lower than pre pregnancy weight and my happy weight-score!)  On my end, I've done my part to fill my body with at least 80% good stuff- and then enjoy my treats with the other 20% of course :-)

With limited time to cram in nutrients, I've resorted to making what I call "power bowls" at least 3-4 times a week for dinner - 4-5oz lean protein, a grain, and two or more veggies, all simmered with spices.  Easy, 20 minutes or so to cook, and delicious (Rob fully approves as well, and routinely "helps" mommy finish dinner).  My latest fave - Power Chicken Quinoa!

Power Chicken Quinoa (serves 2)

8 oz chicken breast, diced
4 cups frozen broccoli (I just toss in a full bag)
One 28 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
2 tbsp. garlic
1 small onion, diced
2/3 cup raw quinoa
1 tbsp each parsley, rosemary and pepper

Hardly a recipe....add all the ingredients to a stockpot, add in 2 cups water, heat to boil, lower to simmer and cover for 20 minutes.  Dinner.  Gourmet?  Nope.  But each serving boasts almost 40 grams protein, 4 servings of veggies, and when paired with a sprinkling of Parmesan or mozzarella, delectable goodness.

And POWER!

What are you loving for dinner lately?

Oxygen, stat

Hey hey!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  It was absolutely gorgeous here, mid seventies and sunshiny goodness all.  weekend. long.  I took it as a sign.

Lately, I've been super struggling, gonna be honest.  Between work ( major funding issues, supervisory struggles, and meetings up the you know what), my geriatric cat (that I love to bits but is a crap ton of work right now (pun intended), a teething kiddo, certain family struggles, and a first birthday to plan on top of Half Iron training (which is my release, but still rough when the only space for your 12 miler is 4am!)...I'm toast.  I'm usually pretty good at juggling life, but lately I just wish someone would scoop up my kiddo for the day, serve me a grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch, and tuck me in for a nice nap.  Yep, my fantasy life is rich, I know.

So....this weekend I decided to just eff it and take care of me.  I got a bunch of necessary stuff done, but before I lost it, I put on the proverbial oxygen mask and did "me".  On Friday, instead of going by our normal schedule, the boys and I grabbed all of our stuff after work and hit Kershaw for some beach walking and open water swimming.  Greg and I each got in a mile loop while the other hung out with kiddo, then we did some family beach time.  Awesome.  On Saturday, I got in a beautiful 12 mile run in the sunshine - I usually hit the treadmill at some ridiculous hour, but it was such a picture perfect day that Greg took over so I could enjoy the fresh air.  My godfather game over for dinner and some kiddo swim time ("fathers day" late because he had to work last weekend).  Today, we got in our chores, of course, but started the day with a great pancake breakfast (even Rob!) and ended the day with dessert before dinner with the 'bears first ice cream cone and hanging out at the petting zoo!

Gotta drive your own car!

Simple?  You bet.  And even though both nights were rough (nother tooth cutting), the days were picture perfecto.  And I did exactly what I needed to do, exactly when I needed to (within reason).

Which is a good thing - the next two weeks are gonna be ridicul-a-mous between party planning/prep, house cleaning, gettin the birthday stuff together, and the two major HIM training weeks- life until July 6th is going to be one hot mess.  But it's the hot mess that I've chosen for my life, and I'm anxious to get into it!!

I'll share some of the party planning soon- right now I've got all of the ideas rolling around my head and a ridiculous to do list from everything to food, decorations, favors, and house prep/to buy/to borrow.  Type A?  Yeah....well, otherwise how would everything get done :-)  (OH!  One little quick tip on the cake - since we are going to have about 30 people over, I've 99% decided that I'm going to buy the cake -for you locals, Tops provides a free "smash" cake or up to 10.99 off a half or full sheet cake, you just need to bring your child's birth certificate to the service desk.  Awesome.

I hope everyone has a fabulous week- do something for you- it might sound selfish, but it really does go a long way :-)

Pittsford Tri 2014 - Ready set go 2014!

It's getting a bit ridiculous how badly I've been neglecting the ole bloggy.  I'm sorry, folks.  I actually thought I did a race report, but nope nope nope.  Mommy brain is a truly terrible thing- not meaning to make excuses, but tis the truth!  Kiddo has been such a busy guy lately and honestly, I would rather enjoy that to the fullest and miss out a bit on other things...I'm sure you all understand.  We've been working on birthday planning as well (will post on that this week.  Promise).  For now, the delinquent Pittsford Tri race report - first tri of the season!!

Pre Race - Going into this race, I had low expectations.  I've been running long and slow for months, so to go into a Sprint tri, where speed is tantamount....well, a PR was obviously not my goal.  I knew the distance was obviously do able, but I decided to ease into the whole race as just a nice race to see where I could push and what I needed to work on for my 70.3 in July.  Race morning, we woke at 4:30 (which is NOT early anymore, lol), got Meester Rob ready, grabbed some pancakes to go.  Morning was cool (ok, freaking cold!) but with a pool swim, it was no issue.  We got our gear into transition with Rob's help -everyone loves out lil triathlete! and Grandpa Wayne and GG showed up with my mom to assist with da baby so we could wander along to the pool top get a warm up in!

Swim - This was an interesting tri in the fact that it was a pool swim- a 300 yard swim in the high school pool.  Pre race, you submitted your best guess at the time it would take to swim 300 yards, and then were assigned a start to commensurate with it- so someone started every 15 seconds.  With a submission of 5:40 (I have just not been swimming, this is kinda slow for me), I started the 7am race at 7:15.  It was kinda cool watching everyone take off, even if it was disheartening to see the leader exit 10 minutes before I started!  (This would be interesting later- you really had no clue where you "stood" in the race!)  Anyways.  The swim was uneventful.  I was passed by one guy that clearly underestimated his 300yd time, and exited the water at 5:38.  I ran into T1, grabbed my bike, smooched kiddo (in Grandpa's arms, obviously), and headed out to the 15 mile bike.

Bike - This was a new race for me, so I really didn't know what to expect.  I knew part of the course from a duathlon that I do each year, which is hilly, so I started out conservatively.  Not much to say here.  My bike handled well, it seemed easy, and I passed a bunch of people.  I averaged 18, which is lower than I hoped, but it tells me - I need to bike more (am doing this now) and I did not push it.  I had a few nutrition issues - I need to eat a bigger breakfast I think, as my stomach started to grumble in the first half of the bike.  It's funny- my body has changed post baby actually for the better, but it's food requirements are actually much higher - probably due to BF-ing.  Something to take away.  Anyways, through the rest of the bike I cruised, passed about 10 people, and headed out on the run feeling good.

Run - There was a guy that pulled off the bike about 30 seconds ahead of me, so I set my sights on him.  I started out at about an 8:45 clip, and pretty much stayed there for the whole run.  I stretched briefly at mile 2, and felt pretty good the whole time.  I was HUNGRY (see bike) but other than that, no issues.  I do know that I'm missing that higher gear, so I will do some speed work before I do another sprint.  (BTW, I passed said rabbit at mile 1.5, lol).  I turned on the speed in the last stretch and finished the race in 1:28:52 (29:15 for 3.5 miles).

Post Race - As I said above, the race was weird in the fact that you didn't know where you stood for much of it because of the staggered start.  I hung out in 4th place OA for awhile, then eventually settled into 6th, good for 3rd in my AG (yes, place 4 and 5 were both in the 30-39 AG!).  Overall, I was really pleased with the time and placement - my bike needs alot of work, but my run felt good, which means that that Ultra really helped my base.  Kiddo helped me get my award (and tried to eat it then) and with that, the first tri of the season was done!

Next up - musselman 70.3 on July 13th.  Ive been going about a somewhat truncated training schedule, and really trying to spend most of my allowable hours (with job stuff, kiddo stuff, family issues and 1st bday planning- 4am is my training time!) on that bike.  We'll see how it goes.

11 months - my big boy is sooooo big!!!

Aww, man.  Where did the time go?  One more month...and my little bubby...won't be a bubby anymore!!  Seriously.  It's enough to make you wanna think about the sequel....just kidding!  (Kinda).  While Greg and I won't be contemplating Glaser, Edition 2 for a little bit longer, it still floors me that the newborn stage is gone and for the most part, so is the baby stage!  Almost a year ago, I was feeding 12x a day to a little 6 pound squirt who never slept.  11 months later....its a almost quadruple sized kiddo that zooms around like woah....still eats a zillion times a day (REAL food, none of that baby crap)...and still hates to sleep.  Ahhh, parenthood.  I love it, my 40 winks....does not.  But this show isn't about me, is it?  It's about my little rockstar.....at 11 months!

Size - 22ishish pounds.  Too squiggly to stay still for the scale...I sense a theme, here, buddy!  For real, though, you are right where you should be.  You are square in size 12 months (which, by the way, looked enormous a few months ago...yikes!  On a tangent...little boy clothes are so damn adorable, I just can't stand how stinkin cute you are in your threads!!!

Likes: The swimming pool, the downstairs part of the house (such adventures!), crawling and cruising like a madman, your walker (you love taking it for a spin) and mommys bike - they fly wheel on the trainer amuses you for a solid twenty minutes at a time, which is a priceless gift for mommy!  (I think we have a tri kiddo in training, I tell ya!)  Now that it's nicer out, you adore walks in your stroller, and we try to go outside every day. 

Now whip it, whip it good :P

Dislikes: The grass!  It's too funny, my little dude.  You love being on a blanket in the great outdoors and playing with your toys, but if we put you on the grass, you cry like...a baby.  LOL.  Daddy and I have nicknamed it the "lava" to you, and joke about playing True American a la New Girl style.  You do not find it amusing in the least.

Sleep: Awww, its been a rough month.  You're cutting those nasty back teeth, which are so tough on you.  Some nights, you're up at 3am and there is no going back to sleep.  Mommy and Daddy are pretty much zombies and wish we could go to daycare and nap to, bud.  Life ain't fair, though, and we know it will get better soon!  One good thing - when you're out, you are OUT.  Must be all that zooming around and explorations around the house!!

Eating: All of the things.  You eat them ALL.  This months faves - pasta with tomato sauce (hah, so much fun!), cheese, pumpkin pancakes, sausage, eggs, peaches, and peas n carrots with mac n cheese.  You adore all food, most of all the stuff you can feed yourself.  You will make an exception for yogurt though -it's your hands down fave.

Milestones/Firsts:

Cruising- You haul around the living room on two legs like it ain't no thing.
Standing Unassisted- for about 10 seconds.  IT COUNTS
Brushing your teeth- You loved it!
Kiddie Pool swim- The bestest.  I see lots of splashing in your future this summer!

Best Moment: Our snugs.  I cant believe the first year is almost over, but at the same time, I know I have made the very most of it....so grateful to have had that time with you, buddy.  Every time I am feeding you (we are still kickin with BFing- yay!), or carrying you, or snuggling with you, I just remember that it won't last like this.  And how important it is to take in all the good parts and to have a sense of humor with the rough ones.  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BUDDY.  

Looking Forward to: Firecracker 5 miler (a family run!), Father's Day, and planning your first birthday (which is going to be so. much fun.....a teddy bear picnic!!!)