If you follow me on social media, this will be no surprise to you... My wife and I are expecting our first baby! I am having trouble containing my excitement these days, especially after I had to hide it for so long in the first few months. I figured I would take a moment to talk about what has been happening for the past five months as we go through this crazy exciting time in our lives.

Without going into too much detail, my wife and I decided that we would "not, not try" to get pregnant after our wedding this past summer. I bring this up as a small tangent because I hope it's a mentality that more people take in their hopes of getting pregnant. I don't mean to sound elitist when saying that but I unfortunately see so many people putting so much pressure on themselves to get pregnant. The more and more I have learned through this crazy pursuit of fitness and health, stress is stress... no matter how you frame it. The body deals with stress in a very one dimensional linear fashion (dramatic over simplification), be it emotional or physical or even diet related. This causes an increase in your sympathetic autonomic nervous system, which you have probably heard in terms of the fight-or-flight stress system. Getting a nice communication between your sympathetic and your parasympathetic nervous system (your feed-and-breed system) is much more conducive to recovery and pregnancy. With that being said, Tiffany and I dramatically reduced our training volume after Ironman Austria and geared up for the wedding. We finally started meeting the actual "recommended" levels of exercise. We then spent some time in Africa on a beautiful honeymoon and were relaxed to say the least. Before you know it, here we are! None of this is to discredit the difficulties couples have in conceiving but taking some of the stress off the situation won't hurt, have fun with it!

Over the past few months I've decided that I am going to continue to try and compete in Ironman 70.3, St. George but am putting the rest of my race calendar on a tentative hold. That is not to say that I will not continue to train (maybe more of a maintenance phase) but I want to devote everything I can to my beautiful wife and daughter until we find a comfortable routine (if that's even possible) in which I can comfortably reintegrate training. After that I will focus on shorter faster races, maybe sprint and olympic distances, before getting back into half distance and full distance Ironman races. I think that I'm also going to use some of my free time after Utah to get some certifications to be an "official" endurance coach, or at least continue my learning in exercise physiology. My molecular and cellular biology background has allowed me to do a deep dive into the science of training and I have absolutely fallen in love. So my blog posts may turn to whats happening in the scientific literature of endurance training (I will try to keep it interesting) and steer away from me testing this literature on myself.

Now for the fun stuff! I feel a little strange admitting this but for the first few weeks it was hard to wrap my head around the fact that Tiffany was pregnant. I would even go as far to say, this feeling lasted a few months. What I don't think is talked about often from the male perspective is the fact that the husband/baby daddy doesn't have any hormonal changes occurring in the first few months. Don't laugh at this comment because they can have changes to hormone levels later in the pregnancy due to sympathy. Adding to this, because your wife obviously isn't showing yet, you keep having these "Eureka!" moments when you remember your are going to be a father. The first time it really truly hit home for me was the first time we went to the doctors office, not seeing that little plus symbol. Waiting in the waiting room felt similar to what I have done countless times before but the rest seemed to happen so fast. After waiting for almost an hour we were transferred to the doctor's office for another, more minimal wait. Almost immediately after the doctor entered, and introductions were made, we were listening to our babies heartbeat. Strong and fast. That's when it really set in. I am not going to lie and say that I started to cry or my life has never been the same after, but it definitely was a defining moment in my life... Until the next ultrasound. Tiffany seemed to have an excellent first trimester with minimal nausea and food aversions. There were days where she was exhausted but she still rocked work, like usual, while keeping up with a solid exercise schedule. To say I am impressed is a dramatic understatement.

The second trimester brought a more in depth ultrasound where we got to see our baby in detail. Little arms, little legs and a little butt. At this point we still had no idea that she was a "she" but this ultrasound hit me 10 times harder. She was tumbling and twirling and even "waved" hello to us as though she knew we were watching. I don't think I stopped smiling for a month after this. Tiff's energy levels improved and we headed for our much anticipated "babymoon". We spent a few days in Seoul, South Korea before heading to El Nido, Phillipines.  Long story cut short,  I loved South Korea... Fantastic food, great public transit, great people and obviously delicious food and coffee. The Phillipines were out of this world... Quite literally, the scenery looks like a different planet. Take a look at social media in order to see what I mean, nothing else needs to be said about this... Just stunning.

As of this week we are officially half-way there! Tiff is doing incredibly well and working with a personal trainer from Boulder, CO who specializes in prenatal exercise. She is also continuing her badass running career (albeit at a reduced pregnancy appropriate volume) with two upcoming races. Can't wait to see her out there with her growing baby bump showing people that you don't have to be sedentary, as long as you listen to your body and are smart about what you're doing! I would always recommend working with a professional and listening to your doctors advice if you are in a similar situation. We are over the moon with excitement and I can't wait to provide updates in upcoming posts!

I also can't wait to see the two of them cheering me on in St. George in 5 weeks time! If you have any questions, feel free to post them below! Until next time... Keep those legs turning over!