Running Pregnant: Week 29

Baby Germain is the size of a "large bottle of water"... I'm very confused.  
This week's craving: I've been drinking (probably too much) of those carbonated juices. The Izze drinks? I started drinking them when I had heartburn, and now I just drink them... just because... I gotta cut back. 
This week's aversion: I like food. 



MONDAY- Day off-  We did so much work at home putting together the baby's nursery and switching Raea into a toddler bed... Moving the office back into the oversized closet we have (which has it's own closet). Still working on some of it butmost of the important stuff was completed. My big concern was Raea's sleep. After last Thursday where she tormented me until 2am, and then the hotel room situation over the weekend, I thought now was the best time to switch everything up since she's already in need for me to hit reset on the bedtime routine. I worried about this, but she's been great (It's now Sunday)




TUESDAY- 2.65 on the treadmill: I was going to skip again today because I missed Raea all day and she was so good all weekend that I thought when we got back from Day Care I'd just let her play outside in the yard... but she fell asleep in the car (so weird!) so I carried her (still in carseat!) into the house and ran to the treadmill. I was running 11 minute pace... (I felt crappy after the long weekend and car ride)... Crying came from the monitor at 2.65 miles in... If I ran faster I would have had a full 3... I also dilly dallied getting officially started so I could have a video for my instagram... Wont do that again either. Lesson Learned!





WEDNESDAY 4.1: I left work a little early to get to City Hall to witness my friends getting their Marriage Certificate, then I headed to an early dinner with them. Immediately after Matt and I picked up Raea and went to the rail trail where I met Chrissy. Raea had just fallen asleep as I arrived at the trail and woke up when I transferred her into the stroller (ughhh)... she screamed the whole time, I kept thinking she'd fall asleep because she rarely cries in the stroller and it was clear she was just tired... but at some point it became clear she wasn't going down without a fight. She's been doing this new thing where she starts to poke her eyes when she catches herself falling asleep... So I think the crying had more to do with her fighting a nap than anything, but I got in 4.1. Chrissy helped me push the stroller which was nice because running immediately after a ton of food was already enough weight... plus my two babies... at least Chrissy could help with one of them! Another run cut short from baby screams. I'm getting nervous about my future. 



I'm also a photographer. 






THURSDAY- 5 Fun Run Miles. Another stroller run! Normally Lisa is able to watch Raea for fun runs, but she let me know in advance she couldn't. After yesterday I busted out the big guns: Cookies! Yes, cookies. #motheroftheyear. I brought some for the run with me to give to Raea in desperate times. She was mostly quiet but she LOVES being at sneakerama with Lisa I think she was also confused. I ran with Rachel who is one of our top race walkers in the country. I'm surprised she didn't walk... because that's about how fast I'm going (no, that's insulting to her... she walks way faster than I can run right now!)

She did not understand why the office was closed!




FRIDAY- 5.5 with Caroline and my Mom . I somehow managed to shuffle through this after work. Caroline and I ran under 9 minute pace for 2 miles then my mom and I ran about 11 minute pace looping fields and staying on soft terrain for the rest. Matt had Raea with him until late so I got to go out to a nice dinner with my sisters and mom (and Joe) without having to entertain a toddler. It was way too nice! 







SATURDAY- 4 of the hardest miles to date at Caroline's track meet.  These were easily the trickiest miles of the week. I could barely move. I did a bad job hydrating throughout the day and it showed. I ran after Carolines race at around 6:30pm. I had non-stop Braxton Hicks contractions during this run. I had to go SO slow (11:00/mi) and literally convince myself to keep going every step. I stopped and walked often because the contractions at times were making it difficult to lift my legs and honestly... I was practically walking anyway... Caroline ran her last High School race, and it's the last race any Clark kid ran. She ran a 1 second PR in the mile finishing in 5:11. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome! Raea just had the best time being at the track with my mom and my two sisters. 




SUNDAY- 5.43   0% of me wanted to do this run ZERO INTEREST IN RUNNING TODAY yesterday really discouraged me and I didn't feel much better today. I have been having serious "nesting" issues on weekends so I get caught up in a project and then want to only do that. BUT I worked so hard all week to alleviate the mileage I'd have to do during the weekend to hit my goal of 26.2 miles in a week... so I felt like that was all wasted if I didn't just get out there. I got out there and when my watch told me I ran a 6:23 mile I knew the watch wasn't working... so I ran 25 minutes out and 25 minutes back assuming 10:00/mi and measured with mapmyrun later. I pushed harder than I have been afraid that I wasn't even running 10:00 pace, but at some point I knew my watch had regulated and the miles were ticking off around 9:30's... so I figured I comfortably covered 5 miles in 50 minutes. I would have been REALLY pissed if I "finished" a run and discovered I was 26.1 miles for the week or something! My Garmin screwed up  a lot this week, maybe it's trying to tell me something. 







**TOTAL MILES: 26.8**
Another weekly marathon in the books!
This just keeps getting harder. I write that every week, don't I?
It's like trying to scale a wall and every single day (regardless of if I run or not) the wall gets higher.... and every single day the wall is the highest wall I've ever climbed and I want to see how high I can go. I worry that if I don't at least attempt to climb it each day I'll never know... because what if two days from now I try to climb and it's just an inch out of my reach? I'll always wonder if I could have gotten over it the day before had I just tried. My 30 week pregnant self laughs at my 15 week or 20 week (even though I hit 50 miles at 20 weeks and for me that's pretty high) and my 25 week self for thinking it was so hard then. HAHA! Overall I'm still feeling good, and I think my 40 week self will be laughing at my current state... saying "remember that time you thought running at 30 weeks was hard?" ... It's only going to get harder. But don't be fooled... right now? It's hard. It's very hard. I'm huge. I'm tired. I work full time (for 12 more days). I'm solo parenting many nights. I'm pushing a stroller to keep this going. I have lots of other responsibilities hanging over my head... But 10 more weeks plus the recovery from labor? I've worked too hard to have to stop now. Overall my joints and ligaments are much happier with the 26.2 miles a week rather than before when I'd try to do more and end up having high weeks and then low weeks. I have really no reason to stop other than the fact that it's hard and I'm fat and I'm tired. Buckle up, Caitlyn... Training for the Olympic Trials Qualifying time is going to be hard... and I'm going to be tired and I wont be fat but I'll have TWO babies to push in the stroller so I'll be feeling heavy at times... So if that's my only reason for saying "I don't want to run today"... I will run. If at any point a doctor advises me to stop or my body is saying something other than "I'm tired and fat" I'll stop. I just have no reason to believe that day is coming. I'm holding up really well. Even at my worst, my body feels... fine... just heavy and tired... I can work with that.




Looking Forward To: The Worcester Firefighters "6k". ONE WEEK! Debating how to approach it... To race, or not to race... Maybe progression? who knows. I worry that something faster could put an end to the long term goal of making it 40 weeks because of the added stress from higher intensity... So I guess I'll have to feel it out. 




Gender Prediction: At one point this week I called the baby a "she"... but I feel like it's a boy more and more. I really have no idea. I'm really going to be so surprised! It's exciting! 


LOOK OUT FOR:
If you missed it, Last week I posted about training postpartum as a response to being at the Vermont City Marathon. Check it out here: Training for a Marathon PR Postpartum

INSTAGRAM: 
You can follow me here: c_mom_run_fast 
My goal is to:
a. inspire, empower, and share my story with others since there is VERY LITTLE on running and competing pregnant out there 
b. Just to get my fat ass out the door each day and the more followers I have the more I feel like I have an obligation to go! Whatever works! Those of you following and commenting are helping me more than you know! 


Thanks again for your support! ​