Seattle Ironwoman

In my mind, doing a full Ironman 15 months after having a baby sounded completely doable. This might sound stupid - but I didn't realize how FULL TIME being a mom is and how difficult the postpartum baby journey could be. It hadn't occurred to me that Isaac and I couldn't train at the same time unless we had someone over watching Chloe. I know that might seem like such an obvious thing to think about, but when I deferred my 2021 Ironman CDA entry (I was 7 months pregnant), it seemed totally doable AND seemed like Isaac should also race with me! After I had Chloe, I had postpartum anxiety. I'm a pretty relaxed person normally who doesn't worry about much. Most things don't phase me - I'm going to end up where I'm supposed to be, if I'm supposed to be there! Motherhood felt like it flipped my world upside down. It was constant stress and I literally felt like I was losing it. I didn't know who I was anymore... I know hormonally things are all over ...

TLDR: Ironman PR by 17 min! Cold swim, BUMPY but fast bike, and got the run done! :)  9th AG.  Kona Slot! Swim - we got super lucky on race day with the outside air temp above 50 and the water around 60! It had been even colder in prior mornings, so this felt like a major win race morning! People were super worried about the cold swim but after swimming in colder water at CDA earlier this year, I figured I’d be ok. Sometimes fake confidence is enough! The start of the race went according to plan - lined up with Isaac and got lucky to start with Justin too!!! We poured water in our wetsuits 5min before to help us warm up before the cold water - and I think it helped a ton. I wanted to take the day mile by mile and the swim was the first 2 ish! Three beeps and then it was my turn to start! Ran in and hit the water - BRRRRR!!!! I knew I would warm up (and if I didn’t I just needed to try harder! ) so just took big breaths and swam towards the first buoys. This course seemed ...

I gave birth at the end of August 2021. I had been running 3-4 times a week up until the week I delivered. I was SURE that I would get back to training 6 weeks after I had Chloe.... I had NO idea what birth would do to my body and how much pregnancy had changed it. I had obviously seen the gradual changes that happened, but wouldn't those just all go away? Wasn't my body prepared for this? Wasn't that what the last 9 months of growing her was about?  My delivery was fairly straight forward. I pushed for two hours which felt SO long but I'm thankful that generally the process was smooth. A few days after being home Isaac and I started taking Chloe on walks down our street - the weather was still SO nice since it was still summer. I walked one block down my street in my adult diaper and could hardly handle the walk back. My pelvic floor was SO weak and even my abs felt so weak. My back hurt from just that little walk. But CERTAINLY I'd be running soon, right? Those 6...

WOW. So much has changed since I last posted in here. About two months after that last post I found out I was pregnant!  I spent 2021 in various phases of life: First trimester I was super sick and actually unable to even get much movement in! I don't think I've ever worked out that little in my life! Every day just felt like a struggle to survive. Second and third trimesters I was able to swim, bike, run and lift. I was able to run up until a couple days before I gave birth! I mostly ran and lifted - I hated biking pregnant and wanted to limit my covid exposure so I didn't go to the pool super consistently until the very end of my pregnancy. I spent the rest of 2021 fumbling my way through learning how to be a mom and take care of a baby! It was months of living in a haze of no sleep, hormones and tears BUT with all of that in the rear view, it was an amazing time of growth and learning so much. I had 4 IM branded deferred races from 2020 that rolled to 2021, then to 2022....