The Early Riser = Me!

I've always hated getting up really early, especially since I've been getting up with one kid or another during the night for the past 8 1/2 years. Believe it or not, but I hardly ever got up early to workout even when I was training for Ironman.

How is that possible you ask? Well, I'm lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom and my husband was able to work from home most days, or at least long enough for me to squeeze a run in before he left. I also did a lot of runs and swims at a gym that has childcare so I would take Elle in there a lot - every day some weeks! I was so lucky to have all these things, otherwise I don' t know if I could have done it! (See entries from Jan-June 2009 to see my Ironman training)

Enter baby #4.

I thought my sleeping would be much worse with a new baby, and it was at first. But actually, a wonderful thing happened. We moved Elle downstairs. Up until George was born, she was still waking up at least once or twice every night. Man, I was so tired and sleep deprived when I was pregnant! Now she hardly ever wakes up in the night anymore, or if she does, I don't know about it! On top of the 4-year-old sleeping all night, my 2-month-old is also usually sleeping all night! (knock on wood)

He seriously is the best baby, I say that everyday, and I'm so so so thankful for that! He goes to bed at the same time as the other kids - 8:30 or so. Then he sleeps until 5:30 which is the time I want to get up anyway to get to the gym by 6. I'll feed him and put him back to bed, and he'll sleep until at lest 7:30 or 8, by which time I'm home from the gym and getting the kids ready for school. Can I get any luckier than that? No, I can not! I'm seriously loving this schedule!

I'm not trying to brag, I'm really not. I'm so sorry for those of you who are getting up several times in the night with your kids. I've been there, I know how it feels. Don't worry, it will pass. Who knows how long my good luck will stick around, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts!

Anyway, my point is that I can't believe how good I feel now that I'm getting sleep at night, and I'm actually loving my early mornings at the gym! I love that by 7:30 I'm home, done with my workout and ready to start the day. Or ready for workout #2! Oh yeah!

Tuesday morning I got to go to a free Master's Swim clinic at my pool, and that was really cook because there was only 2 of us so it was almost a personal lesson. After getting the kids to school, and George down for his nap, I went downstairs with Elle, turned on Spirit of the Marathon on Netflix and got an hour ride done on the trainer!

Wednesday I got to sleep in, but I actually had a harder time getting up at 7:00 to get the kids ready then I do getting up at 5:30 with George. Weird hu? During George's nap time I went for my 3-mile tempo run, and Elle came with me on her bike for 2.4 of it! She's such an awesome little biker! I probably didn't go as fast as I should have with her with me, and I felt like I was just getting going when it was time to stop. I'll take that as a good thing, though.

Today I did another swim and trainer ride morning. For my swim I did my homework from the clinic on Tuesday and timed my 1000 yards. I did it in 21:02. Then I came home and watched Emma (Love that movie! And I actually only watched half of it so I get to finish it next time.) while I did four 5:00 intervals during an hour ride on the trainer. It was a nice hard ride and I was sweating pretty good.

One of my favorite things about having such short hair now is that I don't worry about taking 2 showers a day. I used to hate to do that, and it would make me not want to do a second workout sometimes. "But I already showered!" Now my hair is so easy and quick to wash and dry that I don't worry about it too much.

Two more things.

1. I decided not to sign up for another Ironman until I'm faster. I've already done one just to finish so it seems a little crazy to spend so much money to just finish again. We'll see how I feel at the end of this season. Doing halfs might keep me busy enough.

2. I just signed up for the Dirty Girl Run at Wheeler Farm on July 2. It's a 4 mile loop around the farm and I guess you get all muddy. Maybe there's an obstacle course too? I don't really know much about it. I just signed up for it because they couldn't give me my money back for BAM since I actually signed up for it in 2010, but they could give me a free entry to one of their other races. I'm sad they didn't have another tri I could do, but this one should be fun. Anyone want to do it with me?