Status Quo

My goal now is to just avoid excuses and not lose steam as I barrel toward this baby's birthday.
While I generally feel fantastic, I'll be honest and run through my short list of complaints. Right now I struggle with staying properly hydrated in this heat. I hate having to pee every 15minutes, especially if I'm not just hanging out at home. But I get lots of pressure and braxton hicks in the evening if I don't stay on top of it. And if I don't, it takes a couple days of being well hydrated for the nightly braxton hicks performance to leave town.
The pelvic pain has started to be there every morning no matter what. This is about when it started in my previous pregnancy too. It makes it suck to sit up in bed or try to put on regular underwear, let alone jimmy up the shaper to get out for a run. During runs lately, I have a lot of lactic acid build up in my calves. I don't know if there's something in-discernibly different about my form or what, but in burns. And then I get charlie horses in the middle of the night, disturbing my unusually-great-for-9mo-pregnant sleep. Keeping hydrated and couple bananas keeps the charlie horses at bay, but I don't know what is up with the burn while I run.
And sometimes I'm just so tired. But a couple weeks ago, due to circumstances beyond my control, I had two days in a row where I didn't get in a real workout, just some walking and pool time with my daughter. I didn't feel more energized. I was still tired, but then also feeling crappy about having not worked out. So, suck it up and get it done. According to James Clapp's book, to get the full benefits of exercising through a pregnancy, I have to keep it up at 75%+ of my pre-pregnancy routine, all the way to the end. And if I were to quit, the uber-placenta I've grown with all the exercise would fatten up the baby with the calories I had been burning. I'm not so much worried about a fat baby, since fat is squishy, but if the head is going to get bigger, that's not so cool. Anyway, between chiropractic care and the exercise, this baby better just slide right out!

Here are my latest pics, one of me geared up to run, and another regular one, just to compare how much the shaper sucks that belly in tight. I wonder if the baby will be affected by my pregnancy habits. Like will the running mean the baby has to be bounced to sleep. And will my use of the shaper mean the baby likes to be tightly swaddled... We'll see!

I have arrived!

Yesterday marked 36wks. And I ran 2.5mi this morning. So if I quit now, I can still say I ran into my 9th month of pregnancy :P I'm not stopping though. Aside from residual mild pelvic discomfort that causes a little waddling for the rest of the day, my runs still feel great.

GREAT Morning

It was cloudy yesterday so I was pretty sure it would be a cool morning. I got out there at 5:45, and it was perfectly cool and breezy. In fact, as I started my second mile, I thought, I'm going to run 4 miles! But I always think that, after I get over the initial "Why am I doing this to myself," as I settle into a good rhythm with my breathing and pace. And then I as finish up my requisite 3rd mile, I'll change my mind. Today though, I felt great. I went for it. I ran 4 miles in just over 42min, which is the most I've ran at once since completing the half marathon. Then, as I walked home, I passed a tall, lean middle-aged man who was getting ready to run and he said "Congratulations, keep it up!"
Here I am, once I got home this morning, in all my trappings that keep me running as I close in on 9mo's of pregnancy:



You're thinking, "Certainly, once this get-up no longer does the trick, she'll stop running until the baby's born." You're wrong. There's still duct tape ;)

ETA: While I thought I previously used mapmyrun to determine my usual route to be 3mi, I just did it again and found out that it's only 2.5! And what I thought was 4mi today, was only 3.4. Buzzkill!

*Crazy* Pregnancy Strength

This morning I added 5lbs to the chest press machine. For a total of 5lbs. That's right, the weight of the equipment alone was all I could manage to get through 3 sets of 10. So watch out, I can now hurl a small cat across a field should it have the gall to piss me off LOL
I'm learning to ignore my "all or nothing" mentality. I find now that my heart rate barely gets up before I feel out of breath. I'm not sure why, since as recently confirmed, this baby is low in my pelvis. But somehow my lung capacity has been affected. Maybe it's hormonal. Anyway, part of me wants to either try to push past that or just quit because if I can't go harder than that "it's not worth it." So, I'm still on the bike, step mill and elliptical, going slower than I want to, accepting that the activity is still "worth it."

30 weeks and 3 days

I had an appointment with my midwife today. Everything is great, even my blood pressure, which had started to creep up around now in my pregnancy with my daughter. The baby already has his/her head engaged in my pelvis. Hmmm, might that be why I can't run more than one day at a time? LOL! Baby noggin bruising up my insides...

Karma...

...or something... was looking favorably upon me today! It was a BEAUTIFUL day to run. Cornflower-blue skies dotted with cotton-candy clouds, high in the 60s and a breeze that wasn't too windy. Just in time to keep me motivated. If I didn't know that my ligaments and pubic bone would scream at me tomorrow, I would've thrown in an extra mile...

Ego boost!

I mostly find my confidence from within but it's definitely still nice to hear something complimentary! The clerk at the front desk of my gym told me that I was 'so beautiful' and marveled that I was still up on the machines going strong. Then a little bit later at Costco, I was at will-call picking up my jamba juice gift cards ($50 worth for just $39.99!), and a female employee came up to me and told me that I was "doing something right" because my body is "bangin'" and told me to shut up when I told her I was 7mo along.
So either prenatal exercise is doing my body right, or those purple yoga shorts are magical! LOL

AND! I did look up more info on water workouts a while ago and wanted to post a link for anyone who was looking for ideas:
http://www.theharrier.com/marcbloomrunning/trn/waterworkouts.php

Nighty-Night!

While I didn't find any extra energy before the clock ran out on my second trimester, I have discovered another plus to exercising. Sweet, delicious sleep. I fall asleep practically as soon as my head hits the pillow and I only wake up if my daughter is calling for me. When I was pregnant with her, it seemed like I woke up on the hour, either to pee or because I was tired of laying on a particular side. Now, every once in a while, I do get plagued with insomnia, usually when I've been awakened after midnight. But definitely an improvement still over my last pregnancy. I can only hope it lasts!