Hmmm...the dates and times seem to be off on my last few posts. The last one was written Wednesday but it says Monday. Oh well.

So after my 4.5 mile "run" Wednesday morning, I went out for a 4.5 mile walk with 2 friends. 9 miles for the day...walking or running, it's still 9 miles, which is the longest I've gone since the half at the end of June! I was pretty exhausted though (but managed to get through the day with no naps, unlike Tuesday which was a 2-nap day!). Today I did a leisurely 17 miles ride with Eric, and despite thinking my legs would be shot, I did ok. Guess biking and running use the muscles differently.

Haven't really lifted this week, except for the core class Tuesday. I could go to Bea's class tonight (she's subbing for someone and promised a boot-camp-like experience), but I think I don't want to. I'd never miss a Saturday boot camp, but...well, it's Thursday. The poor people who do show up though are in for a rude awakening...her classes are 10 times tougher than the person's she subbing for. Anyway, I did more cardio this week than I have been, so I guess I can slack on the weights a little. As long as there's balance...

And the kid was a maniac last night, her kicks are getting really strong!! I'm 20 weeks Sunday...half way there!

Words of Wisdom

Just got the book "Running and Pregnancy" off of Amazon. Recommended, if for nothing else than the little things that make you feel good. For instance, in a list of highs and lows of pregnancy, one of the highs is "Knowing you'll never again have to work so hard to run so slowly." Amen. I just read this after returning from another 4.5 mile effort, hillier than the one I ran successfully on Monday. So that little thought means a lot right now!

I DID run the whole thing!

...Minus a quick pee stop (this despite drinking nothing in the morning and peeing a few times before leaving...) Averaged about 9:45 min/mile. Felt good. Then I lifted (back and biceps and abs), and later tonight took a spin class. I feel back in the groove...a slow groove admittedly. But I'm hopeful for Sunday's 5k...maybe 9 minute miles!

I will run the whole thing...I hope...

It took the other two bridesmaids to help, but I did manage to get the dress on and zipped. I felt like a sausage, but luckily the tight part was just around the ribcage so I didn't LOOK like a sausage. And my belly was nice and loose underneath a bunch of pleats. If I wasn't pregnant and pudgy-looking there, I would have disliked the dress a lot more...so NOT my style, but worked out ok considering, as a "skinny" dress would have just made me look and feel worse.

I managed to run a little (20 minutes maybe) on Friday morning, nice and slow and it felt really good. I walked another 25 minutes and called it a good day. My friend (the bride) had some 12 pound weights at her house so Saturday I did a mini total body workout.

Today I will get back in the swing...run in the morning, spin in the evening. I am actually about to head out for the run, I think. 4.5 miles. I feel (sitting here on the couch) that I can totally do this, run the whole distance, nice and slow, without problems. My optimism is very motivating. However, the last few times I've thought this, as soon as I started I realized I was mistaken. Maybe today if I start REALLY slow, I'll have a chance? I just want to be able to RUN! Not that I mind walking, but it's ONLY 4.5 MILES. I will update later...

Bridesmaid dress at 19 weeks

Tomorrow I'm off to Philadelphia for a wedding...I'm a bridesmaid, and I'm pretty sure the dress I bought the week I found out I was pregnant still fits. I tried it on a week or so ago, and the only thing that was tight was in the ribcage area, weird. When I bought it I was torn between the size that fit (though it was to big in the boob area) and the next one bigger, and got the one that fit, counting on my boobs growing by 19 weeks. Well, they didn't (for which I am eternally grateful, I seem to be the only woman I know who does NOT want big boobs, EVER). So I'm glad I didn't get the bigger dress. Or rather, I will be glad, assuming someone is able to zip up the side for me.

I KNEW IT!!!

The little squirmer that's been punching and kicking is a GIRL!!! We didn't get a good picture as she was all balled up and wouldn't move (my fault for scheduling the ultrasound when I'm usually at the gym, which tends to be nap time for the fetus), despite my getting up and jumping around. So I have to go back in 2 weeks so they can get a few more measurements. BUT, everything looks good! And the best part is now I don't have to return the super cute Christmas and Easter dresses I already bought for her...

Finally worked out HARD

I think I haven't run in a few days. Forget long runs, that's been weeks...but even just "going out for a run." Partly I blame the 90+ degree heat and accompanying humidity. Well, maybe "thank" is a better work than blame. But I do hope my attitude changes once the weather does, because in the abstract I miss the hour and 2 hour jaunts around town. Though logistically now that would be a nightmare...suburbanites around here probably wouldn't take kindly to me peeing on their manicured lawns. At any rate, I still do weekly speedwork on the treadmill which I mostly enjoy. Strangely the weird uterus-ligament-overuse-soreness I had for a few weeks hasn't been back. Ok, maybe it's because I'm not running as much. But...I still do boot camp and all that jumping and even that doesn't produce the waddling. So, maybe the ligaments have just gotten stronger and are done with that silliness.

So in place of running I've gotten back into spinning. I was thinking about this at a red light on the way to the gym this morning...although I always do both, I really do have seasonal patterns to my workouts. I think every summer I back off of the running and do more spinning (and cycling). I think it's because of the heat. So I shouldn't blame the pregnancy for everything. Today was the first day I actually remembered that I LIKE spinning. It's one of those things that is very instructor-specific for me. There are a few instructors I like, but it's too easy to take it easy in their classes. Today Bea subbed for someone and it was a whole different world. I actually WORKED. Bea doesn't believe in breaks longer than about 30 seconds, so though there's time to get my heartrate back down, there's no time to negotiate with myself about whether or not I should take it back up again or not. It felt great.

Tomorrow...the big ultrasound. I'm assuming the kid is healthy, so I'm basically waiting to find out if it's a boy or a girl. Weird weird weird weird weird...

Social Ride...

So I rode with Eric today. I haven't been looking forward to our weekly rides as much lately, probably because 3 weeks ago or so he finally got fast enough and fit enough to start to pass me on hills. A little background...he's 51, was one of the first people I rode with when I got my bike 2 years ago, taught me a LOT, was very patient (though I got fast quickly and could keep up pretty soon after we started), we used to go out on 40+ mile rides 2 summers ago that were so much fun. He had cancer (melanoma) the winter after that, and when he did start riding again our rides were slow and short. I liked them anyway, even though it wasn't much of a workout. So, now that he finally is faster than I am, I had a few weeks of pouting. Today I said look, this is a social ride, no more than 20 miles, and be prepared to go slow! He was totally ok with that of course, and we did 15 miles (he went on to do another 5 or so after we got back to the cars) and it was fun again.

Still, I have ridden twice this week with people who are still slower than I, and I will admit that I had a LOT of fun on those rides. No pressure to go fast, and also (more importantly?) no pressure or guilt from myself that I didn't WANT to go fast. So, now I think I'll keep riding longer than the end of July I'd sort of mentally set as my limit when it was getting less fun. They may not be long or fast rides, but I'll be on my bike having fun. I do give myself permission to quit, guilt free, when it's no longer fun at all. But I also have to remember that different things can be fun now. It's all about change, and rolling with that change, and accepting it. Which hasn't been nearly as hard as I'd feared. Especially since I can feel the little bugger inside me kicking and stuff now...!!

In good company

It's good to read about other athletes' experiences with pregnancy. As much as I told myself, "I'll run until the end, I'll keep working out, etc." the truth is I just have to take it all as it comes. Yes, I'm still running, but boy is it slow (still don't understand why, my heartrate is similar but my legs and body just feel like lead). And filled with walk breaks. Truth is, walking is more FUN these days. I will still do a little speed work on the treadmill, but it's shorter and a little slower than before. I can't do anything about it, I just got SLOW. So why fight it, why stress out? I just do what I can, figuring as long as I'm getting in my workout (or two) a day I'm dong well.

My weight gain has been minimal so far (4-5 pounds at 17 weeks...I will ask the doctor WHY he thinks I should gain 30-35 pounds, I admit to not understanding trying to gain excess fat when I had plenty of excess to begin with); my weight lifting (arguably the most important thing to me right now, I love my muscles) has been the same and more frequent than before when I was focusing more on running (yay!); and I still feel like I'm doing a lot.

So, as inspiring as it is to read about the fabulous experiences other pregnant athletes are having, it's equally fabulous to read that others have slowed down more than I. Here are two examples I've found so far:

An elite cyclist.

An Ironman.

Stupid ankle again

Ran today with the girls...and it was great. I've run with them a few times, but before I was just a lot faster, and it's hard to run at an unnatural pace, whether too fast or too slow. Now, more or less, we're the same. What gave me trouble today was my ankle. It really hurt. Of course I ran anyway (luckily we all wanted to walk on the way back...hot, sunny, thirsty, lazy) but it's just having a bad day. I tried to take
a picture of my ankles, hard to get a good angle with a webcam. Still, you can see on my left ankle that it's swollen. On the outside it seems to crease more but on the inside is where most of the swelling is. Not awful, I guess feels just like a twisted or sprained ankle would (don't think I've ever had one of those though). And it'll probably feel fine tomorrow. Though the swelling is constant.

In other news, I think I felt a couple kicks yesterday. Not sure...but likely.

I am unoriginal....and that's so fabulous.

Not even going to bother posting my own stuff tonight...found this blog and this post (the end part) pretty much says it all.

Something I could never "get over" was the idea that if I wasn't working REALLY HARD, I wasn't gaining any fitness. All the books say to do long runs EASY. Well, I never really could. I had one pace, maybe 2: comfortably hard. So now that 10 minute miles qualify as that, I'm actually looking forward to the little experiment. I just cannot push myself much anymore (somehow I still rock at boot camp, but I think little bursts like that are different from a sustained effort). There's no such thing as a tempo run or even a long run anymore. Of course I still love working out, it's just that what those workouts look like has changed somewhat. So the experiment is that from now on much of my cardio will be at a heart rate of around 70-75%. Maybe a few bursts of more, but in general, I'm happy with slow like I wasn't before. And if when all's said and done my fitness doesn't suffer, lesson learned.

So I went to spinning today, an instructor I like but haven't seen in year probably. She knew I was pregnant, and talked to me for a while at the end of class. She was so encouraging...I love that kind of support from women who've been there (she was pretty active her last pregnancy, a few years ago). And her commenting on the fact that I don't look pregnant (phew...4 months down, so only 5 then of officially "being pregnant") and it's so good that I'm still active and stuff made me feel good. Really good. And another woman who knew I was pregnant asked, "So you're like 10 weeks now?" I said, "Ummm, more like 4 months." And while shopping today with my friend who's almost 8 months, she tried to steer a conversation with a random mom away from herself by saying about me, "She's pregnant too, four months," and the other woman was surprised.

And so while I think I look fat, and definitely not pregnant, at least most people don't notice either. Can't complain. But still, while I'm fine each day, I'm afraid of the unknown. Especially since the doctor told me to gain more weight?? I don't see the need to TRY to do that, really.