And we're back in action...

Argh! Contestant #2 here. We must apologize for yet another lag in posting. Yes, it's true, we haven't posted an entry in over 2 months, perhaps that's because we have been extremely busy with our newborn son! We welcomed him to the world on April 28 at 8:46 pm, weighing a proud 8 lbs, 7 oz. That is certainly much larger than anyone, including our doctors, expected. And he keeps growing - 95th percentile for both height and weight as we speak!

In any event, now that he's coming up on the 8 week mark, we're all getting back into gear. Contestant #1, aka new dad, has already had a busy month and has participated in two races. Overall he is pleased with his performances given the fact that he had limited training in the first few weeks of kiddo's life. But now he's got a good rhythm going as he prepares for a race over July 4th weekend near Buffalo, NY (contestant #2's hometown).

Contestant #2, aka new mom, got the all clear to resume all physical activity about 2 weeks ago. Although I was feeling okay, I limited myself to walking, ab work, and resistance bands until my doctor said I was good to go. I know a lot of women resume exercise much sooner, but I was too exhausted and too cautious to do so. Luckily we've got a lot of hills around us so the walks were of high quality.

I've started my comeback focusing on cardio. Given that our son is probably about 14 pounds already, I feel as though I'm getting a decent upper body workout every day and I know my strength will return once I start lifting weights again on a regular basis. But I really want to regain some endurance first. Even though I worked out literally until the day before the baby was born, which helped immensely during labor I must add, I feel like I've lost a lot of endurance from my pre-preggo days. Of course part of the issue is that I'm still getting used to not being pregnant and exercising without the 30 extra pounds on my body. I must say that I do feel quite light! Thus far in these first two weeks, I've run a few times (my legs do not have a memory of running hills), ridden the bike, used the arc machine, and gone swimming. The swimming is definitely the easiest, probably because I swam throughout my pregnancy and I stopped running about halfway through when the pressure and weight of my belly became too much.

Okay, that's probably enough for now. Any comments/suggestions about how to continue my comeback are much appreciated. Contestant #1 will publish his post-race reactions in the near future.

As always, thanks for reading.