Running Pregnant: Week 22

Baby Germain is the size of a Spaghetti Squash


This week's craving: Give me ALL the Easter Candy! ALL of it!  
This weeks' aversion: Well I had a negative reaction to eggs... My stomach has been pretty sensitive for this whole pregnancy, even if it's not an "aversion" many things just aren't sitting right...



MONDAY- Easy 3 mile run and 75 minutes of yoga: It's basically the first real nice day, so even though I opt out of Monday most of the time, this week I just had to get out! I could never have foreseen the way the week would end, but really happy I got this run in! Yoga was great! I felt much better than the previous week. We did lots of heart opening things, and some twists I couldn't do, but I modified easily
Bathroom Breaks: 1 per activity
​

TUESDAY- 7.1 in 1:00. Best run of the week! I was so relieved because we had the baby's ultrasound and one kidney has already gone back down to the normal range, and the other kidney only grew 0.5mm, they were looking to make sure it didn't double in size (which would have been 5.0mm of growth). I also got some more specific stats on the Down Syndrome soft marker, and it's a .6% chance of Down Syndrome... so, to me that's nothing. You take a risk like this every time you're having a baby. It is what it is, and I'll adjust to whatever I need to adjust to... SO, in light of the good news (and the personal day I took) I felt AMAZING on my run! Wow! It's INCREDIBLE how much better my body feels when I haven't spent the day managing a fairly difficult group of 1st-2nd grade students with Autism. Also, I ran at the beach, and that ALWAYS rejuvenates me! 
 Bathroom Breaks: 2



WEDNESDAY- 4 humid miles with Caroline. I used CC's watch so I never got stats and screwed them up anyway, but we just went super easy, probably 9:30-10:00/mi pace... which is felt hard after yesterday...
Bathroom Breaks: 0, no where to go! 


THURSDAY- 0, sick baby. I came home to get Raea after work and planned to head to sneakerama... but she had just started throwing up. I spent the night catching vomit in bowls and cleaning it up. She threw up NINE times!!!!! (poor kid!) My husband was at the Marathon Expo for work. He works close to 12 hour days for the Marathon Expo, so SOLO PARENTING with a sick toddler. Great start to my Vacation!


FRIDAY- 0, Still sick baby, solo parenting! I ALMOST got out and ran today. I made plans to run with my friend Chrissy, at the end of the day. Raea had showed no signs of being sick other than just general moodiness and extreme hunger since she wasn't able to eat the day before... We played in the yard and she had a mostly great day! But as the end of the day (and my run time) approached she lost steam quite a bit. She was clearly still recovering and I didn't want to take her out in the stroller if she was just going to scream the whole time. It's LIKELY she would have just fallen to sleep, but no way to know for sure. I fed her eggs (her favorite!) for dinner... and put her too bed. Not too long after I was running to the bathroom myself... and not for the usual pregnancy potty break reason, so the treadmill after bed was out, too. 


SATURDAY- 0: SO I thought I was sick, BUT it later seemed food related as I previously mentioned. I had a rough morning... Raea was full of energy and back to her normal self... but I, on the other hand, was still having stomach issues. As the day went on I was expecting to get worse, but nothing escalated! I was able to eat lunch and then felt better... I headed to the expo to see my husband and when I got home I was going to run again but was way too hungry, it was cold and rainy, and I walked a lot at the expo, my back hurt. This whole week is messed up now so, what can ya do. #bigbaby

SUNDAY- 1 mile run, 1 mile walk of shame home 30 minutes total: Something just didn't feel right. It was the hottest day so far and since most of the runs I've done have been in the freezing cold, this warm weather seemed dramatic! I felt terrible... I was running with my sister and at this point I was barely running 12 minute miles because I felt so terrible. I didn't want to ruin her whole run so sent her on her way. I felt like a wuss, but after she passed out from dehydration at mass (true story), I realized I made the right call. 
Bathroom Breaks: 0



**TOTAL MILES: 13.1 <---- another total coincidence! Next week I might do a 5k (ugh)
So I'm obviously not pleased with this week. I really saw it going much better than this when I was able to get two runs in early in the week. I got off to a great start, and finished so poorly! I'm just at this point where I just don't care too much about the "running while pregnant" thing. I care about a healthy baby, and I care about myself being healthy, and I care about running well after this phase is over, but I'm not one of these people that goes crazy if I miss a run. I go crazy if I race poorly. I care about one thing and one thing only in this sport- race day performance... not necessarily a PR, because often things are out of our control, but performing well, executing well, and training smart to do those things. I don't care about my day to day pace (the "easy" pace I train at is so much easier than most people dare to run), I am a huge stickler for hitting designated splits and paces for workouts, but if that doesn't happen, I'm pretty adaptable mentally... Hiccups in training don't get me down... I just move on to what I can do next and adjust where I have to. I don't have a race for another year (pretty much exactly a year)... so I'm not looking for gains right now when the next 5 months are nothing but losses... What I"m looking for is to not speed up losses. What speeds up my losses? Injury. There are some pretty significant injuries a pregnant woman can get. There's a lot of stress on the hips and I"m a pretty firm believer that most running related injuries stem from the hips... So, I'm not going to F this up! A few extra days off wont hurt me, but a few stubborn days on could. I'm planning to make a transition to some cross training to keep up cardio. I'm not a fan of cross training because I like to be outside... but these end of second beginning of third trimester weeks will start to look different.  


Additional Training: 
-carrying around a sick toddler
-squats to clean up baby vomit


Lessons Learned:
1 I really really want to run Boston well next year. 
2. It is possible (not probable) to LEGALLY park within a half mile of the Marathon Expo without paying for parking
3. I'm really good at parallel parking. 

Looking Forward To: MOUNTAINS! Tuesday Morning!

Gender Prediction: SO this is totally unexpected, but I'm now thinking maybe girl?! I know I said it would be impossible to change my mind last week, but the Ultrasound technician got really excited when my baby started basically running in my belly and she said "Look, Look She's... The baby is running" and then later seemed to put a "He" in there to throw me off....? Or she could just see so many babies that she just says a random gender sometimes. Either way, I'm like 50/50 on boy or girl, but this is the most strongly I felt maybe a girl is possible! I've been Team Blue from the beginning and I"m kinda excited that there's still a chance for a girl! I think Raea would love a sister! (But I'd totally take either! SO long as it's one healthy kid! .... Well behaved like Raea would be a really REALLY welcomed bonus!)