Ironman Texas DNF

It has been a while since my last post, but after Ironman Texas 2015, I feel I should elaborate on my experience.

After a great 2014 season, I started 2015 with a decent endurance base and I felt even stronger than the previous year.

With only a few races leading up to my most important race this season (Ironman Texas) I was pretty confident I would do well. However, I should have treated IM Texas with a bit more respect and not just take it like another race in my scheduled season.

The following is where I think I went wrong in my preparation leading up to IM Texas:
Two weeks prior to the race after all the training has been done, I perhaps made one of the biggest mistakes you can make before an Ironman, 1) I didn't eat properly, 2) I didn't get the right amount of sleep. Even with a decrease in intensity and volume in my training, I arrived at the start tired, with little to no energy.

The first sign that something went wrong right from the first leg, I was feeling hungry not even half way through the swim. While on the bike it didn't matter how much of my nutrition I took in, my body was not absorbing anything as evidenced by my stomach feeling full, but getting no response nor energy at all from my muscles.

My main goal for this race was an increase in points towards IM World Championships, which meant I had to finish in top six, so by mile 70 I made a hard but practical decision to finish the race early. My watts were low, I wasn't catching anybody and I was barely moving like I usually do on the bike. As I said above, It wasn't easy to stop my race, since this was my first DNF (except Kona, where I raced injured) at an Ironman event. For me just to keep moving and to finish another Ironman with the way I felt that day didn't make any sense. Sorry if I disappointed some of my friends and followers, I will recharge my batteries and you will see me at the start and the finish line of Ironman Coeur D'Alene at the end of June.

MANAGING A NEW SCHEDULE

I am back to blogging about the sport, not race reports yet, but not just another post about my baby. Even though I would love to share the news about my little angel.
The first hard weeks after our boy was born are behind and it's getting much more easier every day to manage my time. As I am not planning to race this year, I decided to take it slow and first of all build up a good base for the 2014 season.
I started to run and do gym workouts just a few weeks after Brandon was born. The very first strength workout I did at home, I was shocked how weak I had become, after a few pushups my arms were trembling and I thought: it's going to be a loooong way :-), but it turns out every next workout I was feeling stronger. I went to the pool for the first time around week 5 and felt great, since I was swimming through the whole pregnancy. Getting back on the bike, is what has taken me some time. I only started to ride the bike on the trainer this week after Brandon had turned 3 months old and I realized how much I miss it. Tomorrow is going to be my first short ride outdoor.
To manage my schedule is a bit challenging right now, it rotates around feeding times and naps, but that is how I would like to see it (doesn't happened exact, because my little "boss" can bring changes into it):
I usually train in the early morning after feeding, it can be 5.30, 6, 6.30, but not later than 7a.m., since I want to have our time together and breakfast with my husband around 8a.m. If that doesn't happened then I am taking Brandon after the next feeding to the gym and he quietly watches me run on the treadmill, sometimes it's only 30 min but sometimes it can be an hour before the cutie pie gets boarded :-). I am fit in another training in the evening when I can leave Brandon with his dad before he closes the shop. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays are a bit easier because I can leave the baby with his grandma, as well as Sunday. So here you go:
Monday: swim
Tuesday: short run, gym, spin
Wednesday: swim, run
Thursday: gym, spin
Friday: swim, run
Saturday: bike, swim
Sunday: run
Each workout for now is 40-70 min long which gives me something like 7-12 hours of training per week. I know it's not much, but I am slowly building a base for the next year and I do not want to take too much time away from my baby when he's so little and needs me the most. 

The arrival of our little angel

Our little angel just turned his first "mini Birthday" :-), Brandon is 1 month old today and I know now for sure that it is very much possible to love two man at the same time with all your heart :-). Those two men are my husband and our little son.

I'll go back in time and will tell a little bit about the arrival of my little angel and his first days in this world:

I was almost 39 weeks pregnant and since my midwife was trying to set my mind on the overdue (just to make it easier mentally for me) I was very calm and only on Monday June 10th started to get into the impatient mode, complaining that I can't get any bigger and the baby is running out of room and that last 10 days or so are going to be tough, I even replied to the lady in the supermarket "I feel miserable" to her friendly: "How are you?" :-) But I also felt like that because it was Monday, the hard day. I usually plan way too many things on this day of the week, that it is too much even for a non pregnant woman :-). I also had a few things planned for Tuesday. I had an appointment with my midwife, Terri, then a friend of mine asked me to take care of his pets the same morning. I started to feel some pain the night before, but I didn't want to bother the midwife with the fall calls and just waited for our appointment time. By the time she came I was already having contractions 10 min apart, but I still couldn't believe that it's going to happen today. Terri left and told me to call her back if contractions got closer and they did. They were 7 minutes apart and stronger when I was driving to the friend's house to take care of the pets. An hour later I asked Roman to come home and told him that it might be THE DAY. I don't think he believed me since I had to text him later again: come home NOW!!! I did a home-birth in the water, but I won't go into details describing the labor. I just wanted to say a few things:
1. It was painful and much harder than Ironman, since you don't really know when you going to get to the finish (mine took me 17 hours) and you can't really train and get ready for the labor, but the reward is epic, no Trophies or Prize money can get even close to it.
2. I had the best crew with me: my midwife Terri, doula Alejandra and of course my husband, who really helped me to get to the finish line :-).
3. Brandon was born June 11th, on my mom's Birthday, which is absolutely amazing.
4. Brandon's weight was 6.15 lb. and 20.5 inches in length and he was my love from the first sight.

Today our "Bubochka" (a little seed in Ukrainian) is getting a little more sleep and a little less poop :-). He is giving us more rest at night and less diaper changing. His mom :-) is getting better with her routine, she stopped panicking and thinking that she is doing something wrong. I guess most of first time moms think like that.

I am recovering fast and thinking about training, but only thinking, I am not planning to race this year anyway. For now I am just walking every day for 40-60 min and the little one here is taking care of the rest of my day, making sure I stay entertained and busy :-)

He is giving me some time to finish the post.

Looks like Brandon is not like me and he actually likes water: