I embarked on the dream of being an Iron Woman. Discovered a coach or two, established a group of people to support my dream, began my training, and found out I was pregnant. At first, what felt like the loss of a dream stopped me in my tracks and made me question everything I had worked so hard for. In searching for reassurance to continue on with my dream I came across a lot of people who said, “you can’t, that’s impossible, you shouldn’t, how could you”.... but even more impressive I unearthed a handful of people who said, “believe, re-work your dream, keep going, this IS going to come true.”
Woman. Wife. Mother. Professional. Triathlete. IronMan in training...and now Mother again. It is tough enough to battle a warm bed, and a busy schedule for time to train, but now I am battling nausea too. Ugh. All I could think was, ‘This wasn’t in my five year plan;’ and in response one of my coaches said, “We are going to see you, an ironman, with your medal and your baby. How cool is that?” With those words the training vision of me navigating the finish was re-born, being handed my Ironman medal, and my baby. That is a cool dream. What if I could do this, what if I could train the right way, use this time to build my endurance. Not a road block; but a great stepping stone to seeing myself cross that finish line. Push myself to go slower, more often; force myself to listen to my body every second, feed myself and my baby with the best fuels, use these three trimesters to peak my performance.
With the blessing and guidance of my doctor, the endorsement of my family, and the cheers of my coaches; my five year plan has changed, my dream reworked, my training revamped. Not only can I be a triathlete, but I can be a great mother, and in fact those two worlds go gracefully together. I am setting out to prove to myself that this can be done, and that I can be a stronger, healthier, and a more committed mother and athlete than ever before. This blog is a way to offer that out to the rest of the tri-world, encouraging other women and moms, and the people in our crazy triathlete lives to keep believing, keep encouraging, and keep training especially during pregnancy. Adventures await... swim, bike, or run towards them.
Jerirose
triathlete and mom
