Monday, May 26, 2008

I'm realizing that everyone I know who's pregnant is having a girl, and so I'll probably have a boy. We won't know for another 2 months probably. That's a little bit annoying...

Went on a nice 19 mile bike ride with Eric and Fred yesterday, and a 5.5 mile run today with Fred. Feel good. Beautiful weather, can't wait for the next 9 days of school to be OVER WITH so summer can begin!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Unbalanced

So this has apparently changed from an RA and fitness blog to a pregnancy and fitness blog. Obviously because I'm pregnant, but not so obviously because the RA has been fine lately. I guess it's not uncommon for it to clear up during pregnancy, and I hadn't been thinking too much about it (other than a little anxiety about going off the prednisone, which was uneventful) but everything's been fine.

So at 9 1/2 weeks, I haven't gained any weight yet, my boobs haven't gotten bigger (thank god) yet, but I am feeling fat in the belly (not showing, way too early for that, just fat). And slow. My heart rate while running doesn't seem much higher most days (sometimes it seems to, sometimes not) but the perceived effort is greater. And that makes me wonder if I'm just being a wimp and not pushing enough (but I"m too lazy to really care). Today I wanted to do 6 miles, but it's been cold (60s is cold at the end of May) and so I went to the Y immediately after school (if I'd gone home I would have napped and never gotten up). I just never got into it. I kind of got into it when I ran a little faster (I think that was a 9 minute pace...that used to be my warm up pace), so I did a couple longer intervals (even a half mile a an 8 min pace, woo-hoo) but walked after all of them. I'm sure I'll have good days again...I'm sure once it warms up and I start running outside again (I still can't believe I trained for that marathon outside in February and March when it was 20 degrees, now I won't run outside when it's 60 degrees) I'll have more fun. Maybe I'm just a little burned out. I've been trying to focus more on lifting and core work, which is fun. But then I worry that I'm not doing enough cardio. I need to mentally get in balance here.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Mothers' Day 10k

Ran the Norwalk Mothers' Day 10k this morning, the 3rd year in a row. And the slowest! But still held an 8:59 pace, I hope...I don't like seeing 9's any more (never mind the 10 for the marathon).

Ankle acting up a bit as I taper off the prednisone for the kid, but shouldn't get too bad. Also went to boot camp yesterday for the first time in a while, and survived but boy am I sore today. I don't even know how certain body parts (my upper back for instance) get sore, as I can't remember doing anything other than cardio and squats, but that's why I love the class: it just works everything.

I often wear a heartrate monitor now when I work out, but I don't actually know why. It's not like I slow down or stop if it the number gets too high, I slow down or stop if I feel like I need to. Which makes more sense to me than an arbitrary number, especially as there doesn't exist a magic number everyone is supposed to stay below. My body naturally is slowing down...the 8:59 pace today was hard, whereas last year an 8:08 pace was hard. My heartrate, or at least my perceived exertion, was fairly similar. It just doesn't make sense to me to slow down on purpose simply because I'm pregnant. If it feels good, it IS good.

One weird, weird thing I've noticed in these last 3 weeks since I found out...my weight has been eerily constant. Usually it fluctuates by a few pounds one way or another on any given day. The last 3 weeks, every day, I have been within 0.8 pounds of every other day. And it's a lower number than it's been recently, too. Despite my constant hunger and my giving in to said hunger. Kinda cool, though most people don't gain in the first trimester anyway. Obviously I'll gain once the kid starts to grow for real (we're still around 1.5 cm, raspberry-like, according to last Thursday's ultrasound, with a heartrate of 146 bpm), but maybe this means it'll be mostly the kid gaining, not me. The doctor said given my height and weight and activity level I should shoot for 30-35 pounds. I'm shooting for 20-25. All baby and fluids, no extra fat (as much as that's possible).

Very weird. Because a lot of the time I still don't FEEL pregnant.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Heartbeat!

4:33. Not under 4, but I don't think that would've happened even without the kid tagging along. The first half was 2:02, just a bit over pace, and the weather couldn't have been more ideal, BUT, I knew under 4 wasn't going to happen at that point so I settled for under 4:44, making this still my 2nd fastest marathon. Close enough. I'm happy I ran it, I'm happy I am showing myself that pregnancy doesn't have to end this part of my life, I'm happy I'm setting a good example for myself.

Went to the doctor last Wednesday, he did an ultrasound and I saw a heartbeat! Super cool. It's just a little blob right now, but I go back Thursday with Fred and it might be slightly more visible.