Bikes, Bellies and Beyond

Dominos

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So six weeks after having a baby... typing from my phone, multitasking as usual...

Got outside for the first ride yesterday. The real credit for that miracle goes to @Delish who held down the fort while I spent an hour working the inertia out of my legs.

Workout plan the last few weeks has mostly involved yoga several days a week. Oddly I think the yoga has helped me maintain a certain amount of supplesse on the bike. Hasn't helped the legs or cardio at all, though obviously.

I've also been making it out for the occasional run. First few felt awful, but it's been getting easier. 2017 might be the year of running for me.

The first few weeks after having a baby, it hasn't been too bad finding time to run or do yoga. The baby sleeps a lot and I just bring up a yoga video for an hour. I'm usually already wearing my yoga pants anyway ;)

Yoga has also been great with helping me regain pelvic stability, something essential for running and riding once the weather is warmer.

Basically I have been trying to let my body heal, while still staying active... not rushing the running or riding for the time being.
 
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2Julianas

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@Dominos I saw your picture and you looked very happy! Kudos to you for getting back on a bike so fast. I waited 4 years haha. I think yoga is amazing for so many reasons, been trying it and man are my hips tight! One of the coaches that I met in BC is a yogi and she swears that it makes you a better athlete. You will have your body healed in no time!
 

Dominos

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Still here!

Having three kids has been as work as you can imagine, sadly the blog has fallen by the wayside!

Still running, only riding 1x or 2x week. It's just the way it is.

Weight wise, at 11 weeks postpartum, I'm probably still about where I was the day I came home from the hospital. On the one hand, I'm embarrassed about this but on the other hand, I know I'm exercising at every chance I get. Where I maybe have some room for improvement is on the food intake side. But there's a long story behind why I'm not restricting my calorie intake (for now).

With #1, at about 6-8 weeks postpartum, I started ramping up training intensity and trying to shed weight to race CX. Dumb. What I didn't realize was that my body basically stopped making milk and the poor kid starved. No exaggeration but between 4 and 8 week weigh-ins at the doctor, he gained exactly no weight. I can't say that the training was what did my milk in, but I'd rather not go through that again to find out.

In other news, I'm back at work. This might seem sorta nuts but I have the baby here with me.
I had been tossing the idea around in my head, then I read this article and it sealed the deal for me.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/opinion/sunday/take-your-baby-to-work.html?_r=0

We are in day 6 right now and it's been working out great. I'm definitely not as productive as I'd be without a baby, but it sure beats pumping.

The baby seems to be enjoying all the social interaction, but she does, however, HATE the dot matrix printers we use in the office. Come to think of it, I do too.
 

The Kalmyk

Well-Known Member
At 1:27pm today my wife text me she almost fell asleep pumping. She is up at 5am and running by 520-530 am, five days a week. It's our third child as well. You're very fortunate to have a position that enables you to have your baby at work with you!
 

Dominos

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
At 1:27pm today my wife text me she almost fell asleep pumping. She is up at 5am and running by 520-530 am, five days a week. It's our third child as well. You're very fortunate to have a position that enables you to have your baby at work with you!
How old is your third? I feel like your wife and I are living parallel lives.
 

Dominos

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
As we are entering Mother's Day weekend, I'm meditating on a few things....

The concept of "matrescence" - similar to adolescence - but the process of becoming a mother.
Not so much the physical or hormonal changes, but the psychological changes.

First baby, there is this intense, deep amazement/fear as you're driving home from the hospital - "holy crap I'm responsible for another human being".
I think both parents experience this...

But there are other things...
* Even now as an experienced mom, I still find myself both craving closeness with my kids, and also wanting them to leave me alone. Mother's Day is in some ways the epitome of this conflict. Maybe I want a cozy breakfast at home and to be showered with gifts, and at the same time I also want to be given the day "off" from my children...
* Guilt/Shame at not becoming the picture perfect ideal mom who does things like making homemade edible fingerpaints and instagrams the whole process...
* Confusion about what exactly IS my parenting style? Is it laissez-faire let-my-kid-lick-shopping-cart? Is it control-freak-hyper-organic-mom?
* Who am I, now as a mom? We used to do some pretty epic things, pre-kids. Am I still that person, or is there a new "me" to define? Should I be worried or angry that my kids just think of me as a "plain mom" (their words, not mine).

Two articles from NYTimes that really speak to me this week:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/well/family/the-birth-of-a-mother.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/opinion/our-mothers-as-we-never-saw-them.html
 

Dominos

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Babe approaches 1 year old... no better time to restart the blog!

I probably haven't been keeping up with this thing because for the last 6 months been having very little motivation to ride on the road. It maybe started with the head-on collision with a car at 30mph. Thankfully, I rode away from it - bike and body were unharmed. But there's nothing like having your life flash in front of you to make you reconsider your choices.

So I reconsidered winter road riding : I promised myself that this winter if I didn't enjoy it, I wasn't going to do it. Winter routine would include occasional trail runs, frequent yoga, and weekend rides on the trails.
The reality is that the trails have been too wet for riding on weekends, so yoga has been a big part of my fitness this winter. I'm enjoying it a lot, doing things I could never do, definitely gaining strength. Although I'll probably have a reality check when I start riding more in the spring.

I'm heading to the Netherlands for work on Saturday, arriving Sunday morning. @Delish pointed out that CX Worlds is in the Netherlands on Sunday after my flight gets in! I'm gonna try to make it happen, even though it'll leave me dead tired for meetings on Monday. STOKE!
 

Stef

❤ Brownie Biatch ❤
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I probably haven't been keeping up with this thing because for the last 6 months been having very little motivation to ride on the road. It maybe started with the head-on collision with a car at 30mph. Thankfully, I rode away from it - bike and body were unharmed. But there's nothing like having your life flash in front of you to make you reconsider your choices.

YOU OK?
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Aren't meetings generally meant to inhale coffee to prep you for the rest of the day after the meetings?

You should post pics of this World you speak of.
 

Robin

Well-Known Member
good to "hear" (rather see) from you and updates. Like you, I've decided if it's a good day to ride, I'll go out...otherwise venturing into new things. Sometimes change is good.

Hoping your schedule works out to catch CX!!!!!!
 

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
My motivation to ride on the road definitely comes and goes. It goes down after every incident with a car. If I were you, and had a head on, I'd probably sell my road bike.
Have fun at world's. Sounds awesome.
 

Dominos

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Yeah OK so worlds maybe is not realistic. From what I can tell, it will take 3.5 hrs on the train to get there. Which means 3.5 hrs back.
Also.... it's only the men who race on Sunday. I'd be more inclined to make the effort to see the women race.

What do you think, should I go?
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
What do you think, should I go?
lMpL1.gif

this is where #YOLO comes into play.
 

Magic

Formerly 1sh0t1b33r
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Do it. You should totally race too. On an Amsterdam citibike. Sprinkles overseas!
 

Delish

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
The W's races are far more exciting than the M's races these days. A bit tiresome watching MVdP solo off the front every race. You should go so you can party with KfC wearing her new rainbow jersey.
 
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