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For Cecily Tynan, Being a New Mom is an Easy Jog
By Matt Stringer

Jogging through fields of grass, up hills in parks and around bends with her baby in the jogging stroller, Cecily Tynan hasn’t missed a step from her recent life as a marathon runner. She might not be competing in duathlons right now, but you can tell from the beaming smile on her face that she loves her new life as a mom as she coos to her son, Luke, who’ll will be 1 years old on Jan. 20.

The outdoors and sports have always been important to Cecily, and she’s found out that just because she’s a mom doesn’t mean she has to choose between her passions and quality time with Luke: she’ll jog, she’ll take classes, she’ll hike—all with Luke.

“I joined one of those classes at the Little Gym and you sit around and sing songs and you tumble. I came back after the first class and he was exhausted. He slept for about two hours afterwards. I’ve become a mommy nerd, and I love it,” Tynan said.

Before Tynan was a self-described mommy nerd, she was an avid runner and competed in multiple sub-3 hour marathons and she even finished in third place at the 2001 Walt Disney World Marathon. But she switched to duathalons, which involve running and biking and was named as one of the elite rookie duathletes of the year in 2003 by the USA Triathlon, which governs duathalons in the United States.

“I was doing multiple sports before he was born: swimming, biking and running, and now it’s just running. We have a gym and I’ll do some mat Pilates usually with him crawling all over me. Right now it’s honestly just trying to stay in shape and I love the bonding when I take him out in the baby jogger with me. He loves it,” Tynan said.

In October, Cecily went to Pumpkin Day at the Tyler Arboretum and instead of hopping in the car for the five mile drive, she and her husband Greg hiked.

“We put him in the baby backpack and hiked over there and it’s about a five mile hike there. We run some races occasionally, usually races where they allow baby joggers. And I don’t even care about being fast anymore: I just want to be healthy,” Tynan said.

Tynan also has to balance her new demands of raising a child with her duties as a meteorologist for ABC. “If I didn’t love my job, I could definitely see myself as a stay-at-home mom and that’s something I never thought I would ever think,” she said.

And she loves her job for good reason: ABC gives her the flexibility of bringing Luke to work on occasion like at the 2006 Flower Show and Thanksgiving Parade and her schedule allows her to be with Luke during the day.

Plus, her pregnancy was a very public affair since the region tunes in daily to make sure their commutes aren’t going to be stymied by snow.

“I think being pregnant while on TV was interesting, because I’d always been very self-conscious about keeping myself very healthy. When I was pregnant, I just had to sit down and make sure I was eating right, making sure I was gaining enough weight for the baby. The doctor said that I should put on a good amount of weight so when people were saying, whoa, you’re looking pretty big I had to brush it off by saying I was growing a healthy baby,” she said.

Now Cecily is helping Luke grow into a healthy boy with one of her favorite appliances: a food processor. She makes Luke his own meals from scratch with all kinds of foods. “I’m making him squashes I didn’t even know existed,” she said. Once she blends the recipes, whatever he doesn’t eat she just freezes.

But Cecily has a lot of help in raising Luke since Greg is a hands-on dad. “Before he was kidding around, saying he wasn’t going to change diapers and he changed the first diaper,” Tynan said. “Then they have what he calls ‘dude time’ where Greg will take him out in the back to do yard work or something and he doesn’t tell me what they do because it’s dude time.”

Though Cecily is staying on the air she does realize that she might miss out on a little bit and right now she’s just enjoying her time as first-time mom. “I’m just looking forward to watching him grow up, but at the same time this age is just so much fun that part of me would like to just keep him like this. When he goes to school it’s gonna stink, because he’ll be in school while I’m home, so right now it’s just great,”  Tynan said.

After the Baby’s Born, Make an Investment

Cecily loves her baby jogger and encourages every mom to get one. “Definitely get a good baby jogger. I got one from a baby shower. Don’t be afraid to take them out in it. We got an infant car seat attachment and he was less than a week old and we were walking with him in the car seat all bundled up and about a week later I started running, just jogging, and I wasn’t trying to stay on a schedule, I was just listening to my body.”

You might also want to consider joining a Little Gym or another fitness center that caters to moms and babies. There’s no shortage of supply of great centers and both libraries and hospitals have fitness classes designed for new moms and moms-to-be.

During Pregnancy, Don’t Be Afraid To Stay Fit

Cecily worked out up until two nights before Luke’s birth and recommends it highly. “I ran pretty much through my whole pregnancy, though towards the end I was swimming, too,” Tynan said. “I remember there was an older person at work who said ‘you can’t be running when you’re pregnant. You’re gonna be jostling the baby around and what about your next pregnancy, it’s just gonna mess you up.’ My doctor said it’s fine, just listen to your body. Wear heart rate monitors, so your heart rate doesn’t get too high. I felt like when it was time to push, I was glad that I had worked out because that’s like a marathon in itself. I was sore in parts of my body I didn’t know existed after that.”

Matt Stringer is the editor of Curious Parents.