Anything is Possible....

photo by werner paddles

North Carolina delivered....

When I was pregnant and thinking about 2016 and what it would be like with Tav in our lives, there were many unknowns and it was difficult to predict anything. A lot depended on his health, my health, our situation at home, our motivations, and our needs. Despite the unknowns, I figured it was important to set some goals in order to stay sane, fit, and motivated. Rather early on in my pregnancy I thought setting a goal of trying to race Carolina Cup 2016 would be fun:) Setting this goal, I knew we needed to see what kind of baby tav would be, what my recovery would look like, and how that would affect my time to get out and start the recovery process and eventually "training".

I started with slow walks, longer walks, hillier walks, then body weight exercises, cross country skiing, weights, crossfit, SUP, running, mountain biking. I started with slow and steady and gradually moved into more intense interval work.

I had about a month where I could start working hard in my interval workouts but it is clearly not as simple as that,.. I had a whole new small being to look after, feed, change, play with, and teach. Creativity and good partnership with my hubby is the key. I realized I could do my runs with Tav, bring him to the gym, and as a family cross country skiing was our favorite thing to do as we could pull Tav in his kinder shuttle

To begin with I realize that just making it to the race and completing the Graveyard (13miles) at 3.5months post birth is success and not many moms can accomplish that but I am me and I am a competitive beast with high standards for myself. Not only did I want to complete the race I wanted to know that I could be not far off my old competitive self.

photo by Andrew Dye

Photo by Andrew Dye

What I noticed throughout the race
Mentally:
I struggled and wavered between competitive racer lina and new mom lina. I would get frustrated at the position I was at and my pace and then I would be excited that I was in the position I was at at this stage of motherhood and had lovely thoughts of Tav flow through my mind...
When I crossed the line I was upset for the first 30 seconds or so, as competitive Lina was overwhelming my brain and then I saw Tav and that all disappeared and feelings of love rushed through my brainwaves... it was amazing:)
Physically:
I am not yet as strong as I was pre pregnancy.. I could feel the lack of power in each stroke. Slowly I can feel my strength returning but it will take some time for sure:)

It was so great to see so many people from the community, sharing a house with Team SIC, spending some time with team Werner, seeing UB Super, Onit Pro, other racers and industry friends.

photo by andrew dye

photo by andrew dye

I enjoyed getting the opportunity to teach a women's clinic, being a part of the autograph signing with a bunch of the other pros, and racing:)

photo by andrew dye

Thanks to all that helped me get there, be there, and have loads of fun while there:)

photo by werner paddles

live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina