Support

My full crew

Wow, what an overwhelming response Amy and I received from our family and friends after last week's post. As hard as it was the first few days, we are completely at peace about Juliet's diagnosis. We cannot wait to raise her with love and even more with the right tools for her to have a great life. DS has had some breakthroughs and Glen Doman has had a lot to do with it. We are quickly becoming a student and will provide our baby girl with the best environment to succeed.

I think she is already on the same page. About 50% of DS babies have heart conditions at birth, she doesn't. Almost all have trouble eating, she doesn't. Most DS newborns feel limp and lack strength, she's already lifting her head up and is strong. I can already tell she is a fighter and having her around the past two weeks has already changed Amy and I for the better. So much LOVE!

The support has also been amazing. Our church and mom's club have been so good to us, providing us with meals the past 2 weeks, offering to take the older kids and so much words of encouragement and love poured out. That's what a community is all about and a big reason why we moved back to Temecula; which by the way, has so many special needs programs - we are truly blessed.

Switching gears now -besides our baby girl, I also changed jobs about 3 months ago which has allowed me to work from home. This has improved my quality of life tenfold. The 2-3 hours of commuting everyday really had an affect on me both personally and athletically. I've basically been very inconsistent and gained a good 10-15 pounds over the past 2 years of no racing. Motivation would come and go and the job/driving demands played a big part of that.

Now that I'm working from home, I've been able to get back to my love of endurance sports. I've lost 7 pounds and am up to running 40 miles/week. Through all of the running - I've also discovered the love that I had for it in my hs/college/post college days. With 4 kids now, I've also noticed how much of a time saver it is to run as opposed to adding swimming and cycling to the mix.

So for 2017 I will focus solely on running. I may jump into a few triathlons but my main focus will be the marathon. I've never run an open marathon (in shape). Qualifying for Boston is definitely a bucket list but I also have some lofty goals with running that I will share as fitness progresses.

Right now it's all about a lot of short double runs to increase mileage safely minimizing injury and I could still lose another 10 pounds to get in marathon "race weight." So when you see me in about 6 months, I am not doing drugs -rather, a running addiction!

I added a Strava widget to the blog, feel free to follow along my fitness progression! Next week I'll share my race schedule. As always, thanks for reading :)