Scaling back

I have come to a few realizations this week about running during this pregnancy… 

The first being that it is officially time to stop running in my lighter weight shoes.  Every time I do, my feet, ankles, and calves/shins really are uncomfortable.  It’s like the whole lower half of my leg is rebelling against the extra weight.  Even on a 3 mile run it doesn’t feel good.  I’m still surprised though that it’s not my knees causing me problems…

So, it’s time to only run in my pair of more supportive cushioned shoes.  When I wear my Nike Pegasus, only my lower abdomen and lower back are uncomfortable.  This is considerably better. 

The second is it might be time to scale back on the distance of my long run.  I had in my head that I wanted to keep up a 10 mile long run as long as possible.  Why you might ask?  Well I have no idea.  It’s just what I got in my head.  However, the last 2 miles of my 8 mile run this week felt considerably worse than the first 6 miles.  Perhaps it is time to give up on that 10 mile goal.  I might try another 8 mile run next week to see how it feels, but it might be time to not run more than 6 miles.  It’s so hard to tell because any given run can feel very different than the next run.  With my body constantly changing, my comfort levels are definitely not stagnant. 

I’ve settled on a more realistic goal.  For as long as possible, I’d like to run at least 20 miles a week. I can get to 20 miles a week with so many combinations of run distances with nothing needing to be over 6 miles.  If 6 miles starts to feel bad, as long as I can run 4 miles I can still easily get to 20.  I don’t realistically see myself running more than 5 days a week so if I can’t run 4 miles then it’s time to give up on mileage goals and just try and run walk.  I’ll just hope I don’t get to that point though…

Pregnancy goods and bads...

First, I will confess to not getting my run in today.  It’s sad to finish a really good active week by skipping my run, but this was more a necessity than laziness as yesterday’s painting prep errands took longer than expected making there be more cleaning/painting prep for this morning.  The main goal of the weekend was getting the baby room painted, which we did thanks to help from Erinn and Mike!  But now, for a less running oriented post…

Each week in prenatal yoga we go around the room and do introductions: our name; how far along in pregnancy we are; and where we are giving birth.  There’s also some sort of question we all answer to share with each other.  Yesterday’s question was what is the best and worst thing about this pregnancy so far?  The whole way around the room, I was pondering different options.  I could think of lots of good things and lots of bad things, but deciding on the best and worst was really hard for me. 

Some of the thoughts I had for the worst things were…

I am already ready to have my body back to myself.  I know my intention to breastfeed means that pregnancy won’t be the end of sharing my body with this baby, and the thought of that extra chest encumbrance during marathon training worries me (currently struggling to find new sports bras).  Even so, I’m still ready to have my body move like it is supposed to.  I’m ready to have a glass of wine, and at least less of a concern about caffeine intake.  I’m ready to go for a good long run without extra weight.  I’m ready to sleep on my stomach and my back if I want to. 

Another bad/annoying thing is people’s reactions to comments about changes in my body shape.  Lately, every time I say anything about feeling big or some pregnancy change getting in the way of normal movement, I hear something along the lines of “you aren’t big yet” and “if you think you feel big now” and just “your’s still small.”  All of which are annoying because  what  I am referring to has more to do with body awareness and the spatial orientation of my body to the things around me.  Since I can’t see everything around me, my own sense of body and spatial orientation is much more important to me than to the average person.  Years of running have focused that body awareness in additional ways.  My coworkers, especially, like to react as though I’m complaining about aesthetics. 

Some of the good things I thought about…

Well I’m now 6 months along which means about 2/3 of the way through!!!  I enjoy (most of the time) feeling little squiggle baby move around in there, although its level of energy concerns me somewhat for when it’s in the real world.  I think the most fun thing is actually Bennett’s reactions to everything…from feeling squiggle baby move to things we learn in our childbirth class to hearing the heart beat at each midwife appointment.  All those things are great to experience myself, but somehow it’s more fun to see Bennett react to them. J

Return from laziness

This has been a really good running/being active week for me.  In my last post I was feeling very lazy, and that laziness definitely continued.  In about a week and a half covering Thanksgiving and the weekend before and after, I managed all of one 6 mile run and one yoga class.  Being at my Grandma’s in PA for Thanksgiving definitely was a large part of that, so maybe saying it was pure laziness isn’t exactly right. 

I knew I wouldn’t run while I was in PA, but I had hopes of getting back early enough Saturday for a run and running on Sunday.  This definitely did not happen.  Maybe its laziness or maybe it’s being pregnant.  I was exhausted when we got back late Saturday afternoon.  I hadn’t slept as well while we were gone, and I had no energy.  Really I don’t sleep all that well most nights these days, which everyone likes to tell me is normal when you are pregnant, but I had been sleeping extra not good.  

I woke up Sunday morning hoping to feel ready to do something active…productive…but neither happened.  My body was definitely telling me to take the day and relax which I did :).  By the end of the day, however, I was feeling rested and like a completely useless lazy fatty!  

So, I am happy to say that I’ve had a very successful week…

Monday: ran 3 miles in the evening

Tuesday:  Lifted in the morning

Wednesday: ran 5 miles in the evening

Thursday: lifted in the morning

Friday: 6 miles in the evening

And Yoga planned for tomorrow and hopefully 8-10 miles on Sunday!

Laziness…

*written Friday evening

Since I wrote my last post, I have been doing really well on running and mileage.  This is somewhat surprising because the past two weeks my work schedule has been all over the place with a three day grants training last week and a two day meeting this week, both of which made me lose my Wednesday telework day.  But today I simply do not feel like running.  I’m not tired and I feel fine.  I just absolutely do not feel like running.  I guess if I can’t sneak in a skip because I’m lazy day in here and there when I’m pregnant, when can I?  But at the same time I feel guilty.  Part of me is saying get your lazy butt up and run, and the other part is saying its ok to not just don’t make it a habit…

Reflections on pregnant running

Every runner has good and bad running days. There are those runs where you feel there’s nothing better than that moment running, and those that make you wonder why in the world you are continuing to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Sometimes it’s entirely a difference of mental perspective, and sometimes it’s very much about your body’s physical responses that day…sometimes both. Running while pregnant adds in a whole new set of complications to this mix of factors determining a good or bad running day.

I can never discount my mental state in a run. It alters my energy level and how I feel about that minor twinge in my muscle or the impact of my feet hitting the ground. Now that this little active parasite (and yes that’s what I’ve jokingly called babies for years) has taken over my body, there’s this whole new set of physical discomforts during good and bad runs to remind me that a pregnant runners body is not her own. My mental state might help me ignore them, but they are still there.

After the first trimester exhaustion, the second trimester brought its own changes to my body. First, I started noticing changes with my ankles. The combination of that wonderful pregnancy hormone Relaxin loosening my joints and a bit of extra weight started making the impact of each stride felt more, but oddly I felt this extra impact first in my ankles (I thought it would be my knees). After-all I’ve never had ankle problems and have had knee problems with running.

Then there’s my right hip, which has always turned in more than most peoples (and the cause of my post MCM knee issues). What has always been a slight tendency to turn in while I was running (and walking), one I couldn’t previously notice without focusing on it, has become an obvious inward turn of my right leg from the hip. I can feel my leg just keep rotating that way when I’m not paying attention. I blame Relaxin again for loosening my pelvic bones. You’d think the body could hold off on some of this ligament loosening to closer to delivery…

Then there’s the round ligament discomfort/pressure in my lower abdomen. Ever since my uterus has actually been pushing against my abs, I’ve had some discomfort from the impact of each stride. How much has depended on the run. Lately I’ve started noticing this pull on my lower back as well. Oddly, this sensation will come and go throughout a run several times.

I’ve also noticed an increased need for water and food surrounding my runs. Anyone who has run with me a few times would know that my body is much more sensitive to hydration and fueling than most runners. If I get dehydrated or need sugar, then I need it right away. There’s no waiting till the next water stop in a race for me if I want my body to keep functioning. This immediate need for extra fluids and calories has become even more important since the beginning.

It has definitely become obvious to me that my pregnant body is not the runner’s body I’ve learned to work with and master over the years.

Two very uncomfortable runs earlier in the week had me questioning how long I would be able, or want, to keep running. I have no reason not to push through the bad runs right now, and none of my discomforts signal an actual incompatibility between this pregnancy and running. Plus, 4+ months without running? I’d go crazy! But I miss the freedom of running in my own body and knowing how it will respond.

However, my downward dejected running slump was broken with a fabulous feeling 5.3 mile run on Wednesday followed by another awesome feeling 6.9 mile run Friday! So apparently there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs for me with running over the next months.

One Year Ago...

One year ago I ran my first marathon. That thought was mocking me as I struggled through my run this afternoon. I felt every extra pregnancy pound and the shift in weight in my stomach with each step. It just wasn’t a good running day for me. This was extra annoying because all around me, in DC and on Facebook, was MCM!

So, rather than spending any more time wishing I could have been running MCM today, or, wishing that I was not running MCM because I was training for another marathon, I have decided to focus on all that I have accomplished since I decided to run MCM January of 2011.

I’ve learned if I’m brave and reach out that I can find new friends to run with me.

I’ve trained for and run two marathons, improving drastically from the first to the second.

I’ve managed to run a good amount through the first half of this pregnancy.

I’ve learned the mental grit and will power to hold myself accountable to a good training schedule, and this mental training is something that can help far beyond running.

I’ve learned to listen to my body even more than before.

I’ve found that I really love the marathon distance, and the goal setting and discipline of training.

And most of all, I know that this time next year I will be preparing to run a fall marathon!

A return to the blog...

I have been meaning to pay attention to my blog again for weeks now, but obviously haven’t managed to do so.  Last week in prenatal yoga the instructor was talking about journaling through her pregnancies, and it made me realize that I miss the reflecting that comes from writing my blog entry.  It doesn’t matter how many people read my entries.  They have helped me through 2 marathons…why not through a pregnancy and beyond…

I just checked and my last blog post was in mid-June.  Well I didn’t have much to write about because I wasn’t training for something, and I was mostly in a holding pattern.  I hadn’t signed up for another marathon because it was that time in life to change goals from training to baby.  So, I didn’t feel like I could blog much during my first trimester because only a very few people knew I was pregnant until 12 weeks.  After that the laziness and tiredness just kept me from picking back up the habit. 

So now at almost 20 weeks it’s time for a running recap of the first half of pregnancy…

I managed to run fairly regularly throughout my first trimester.  I had 2-3 weeks that were truly miserable with nausea and fatigue, but I managed to run enough to not seriously lose fitness.  My goal had been to keep up a weekly mileage of 25-30 miles as long as possible, but that didn’t seem to happen.  20-25 is what I managed for the most part, although the few really bad weeks resulted in more like 10 mile weeks. 

I was a little disappointed in decreasing my mileage below what I had planned.  I love training schedules, and deviations here and there are ok, but consistent under performance is not easy.  I struggled so much with exhaustion, however, that some days only 2-3 miles into a run I would feel my running form start to completely break down, and I did not have the energy to correct it.  So that meant time to listen to my body and stop.  For me, it really was the exhaustion that limited my running more so than nausea.  They say running keeps energy up, but there’s definitely a point where true fatigue means running is a bad idea. 

 

Towards the end of the first trimester, I was feeling less exhausted and less nauseous.  This definitely helped me get more consistent on my 20-25 miles per week, but I still haven’t managed to get above 25 miles.  My big problem is that I am not sleeping well, making it difficult to drag myself out of bed before work to run.  Luckily I work from home Wednesdays and Fridays.  So, I have no excuse, and successfully, get in runs on those days and a weekend run.  Its mornings I have to commute to work what I am more often than not, failing to run.  By the time I get home from work, I have even less of a chance of making myself run.  Some of this is still being more tired, due to restless sleeping, than normal, and I think some is lack of a training goal.  Having a race to train for really helps keep me accountable. 

I guess running 3-4 times a week, lifting, and doing prenatal yoga once a week is still a pretty good place to be in half way through pregnancy.

Random running updates

*Written Friday…

Today is one of those Fridays where productivity is a struggle.  However, my need to putter at work left me with the brilliant idea to catch up on my blog reading during lunch.  This way I was being productive…really ;)

So first of all, I want to share this blog entry from a fellow marathon runner who I went to college with on stupid comments said to runners because I get many of these same comments and even more interesting ones given that people do not understand how someone who is blind could possibly do things like run marathons…  Really I should start a list of things people say to me and whoever I’m running with on a run when they notice the running tether…it’s funny

Secondly I realized that I have been neglecting the blog.  In the sense that not much interesting has been going on, and definitely not much I think others would be particularly interested in, this is not a problem except that writing my posts feels like part of running and training at this point. 

Life has continued to be very busy, but I have luckily gotten myself back into a good running pattern.  I was fortunate enough last Saturday (6/2) to get to run with Megan, and therefore the treat of 15 miles rather than the 10 Bennett will run with me.  If I ever doubted that endurance running is for me, the amazing feeling of running 15 miles on a beautiful Saturday morning, with no race training dictating I do so, would clear that up…not that I really had any doubts J

Since Bennett has been forced to work really long hours at work, I’ve been spending a lot of time on the treadmill.  This is sad since it’s a nice temperature out and mostly light in the mornings to run before work, but I am at least glad I have the ability to still run. 

Life is busy…

The last few weeks have been crazy busy!  Going back to about the time of my last blog post my schedule went something like this:

The first weekend in May, friends from Germany were in DC early for Erinn’s and Mike’s wedding.  I did manage a 6ish mile run that Saturday with Bennett though, and it felt good.

Then, that first full week in May, Wednesday evening through Sunday we were in Raleigh for Erinn’s and Mike’s wedding.  I fit in two 3 mile runs in earlier in the week in DC, and I totally meant to run in Raleigh, but I was too tired and we were too busy.

Last week my schedule was all messed up by a grantee meeting for work Wednesday through Friday.  I lost my work from home day Wednesday, but got home early Friday making an ok trade off.  I managed to run three times, including 10 miles on the treadmill Friday afternoon after the conference ended.  My Monday run of that week, 4 miles, left my left leg feeling odd; so I took Tuesday as a rest day.  It felt ok though during 6 miles Wednesday evening so who knows what was going on…

This past weekend we were back in NC, this time in Highpoint/Greensboro, for another wedding.  No running which made the opportunity for that 10 miles on the treadmill so much more exciting than running 10 miles on the treadmill ever actually is.

This is the first week I’m hoping to get in a normal amount of running, which for me, currently without a specific race to train for, means 5 days a week of running (plus lifting yuck) totaling around 28 miles give or take a few.  So far I’m on track with a 4 mile run Tuesday, 6 miles yesterday, and another 4 miles today.  I think my current holding pattern of running will be something like three 4 mile runs, a 6 mile run, and a 10 mile run, with some of those runs easy and some tempo or hills.

                 

First post marathon run!

After work this evening I got in a short, easy, 2 mile run.  It felt great!  I can tell my legs aren’t 100% yet, but nothing really hurt.  I was very tempted to keep going, but I opted to follow Hal Higdon’s plan for the week after the marathon and stick to a 2 mile run.  It was hard though; it felt really good to run, even if only on the treadmill!

Marathon recovery

*Written yesterday morning…

Three days after the marathon and my legs are feeling a lot better.  I am still somewhat sore though.  This morning I managed a lot of stretching and some quality time with the foam roller which definitely helped.  I also did some upper body strength training and some crunches.  My legs can definitely wait a bit longer before doing any resistance training. 

Monday my legs were very sore and stiff, but oddly, I think they were in a bit better shape than the day after my first marathon.  Even Bennett mentioned that I seemed to be doing better.  I find this really strange since running Gettysburg was sooo much harder than running MCM.  I had a fabulous massage at Spa on the Hill Monday night, and that was a huge help in loosening up my legs!

I have a few spots that are still sorer than the rest of my legs, including my outer left foot, outer left calf, and outer right quad.  I’m thinking these are just places that got extra overused for whatever reason.  Hopefully by tomorrow everything will be feeling better, and I can try a short easy run. 

Gettysburg race stats!

I’m pretty proud of these stats so I am going to share them all together J

Finishing time: 4:05:07 (improvement of 24:46 from MCM)

Average pace: 9:21 (although our splits ranged from 8:30 ish to 9:40 ish)

Finishing place:

Overall with male and females included 174/ 455 people
With just females 34/149
For my age group 5/20 people

Gettysburg North-South Marathon recap

This might be a long post so I hope everyone can hang in with me to the end…

Saturday we drove up to Gettysburg with Max and Megan for the Gettysburg North-South Marathon.  We were all staying with friends of mine and Bennett’s, Nikki and Brandon.  They live about 15 minutes from the start of the marathon, and very nicely let all four of us invade their house. 

The race adventure started out well with no traffic on our drive, and the smoothest packet pick up I personally have gone through.  At packet pickup we met one of the race volunteers who is a puppy raiser for Guiding Eyes (where I got my guide dog from).  We chatted with him for a bit; it’s always nice to talk with puppy raisers.

We arrived at Nikki’s and Brandon’s ahead of schedule and had time to relax some before going to dinner.  Of course dinner was pasta!  The food was good, but our poor waiter was clearly stretched very thin for whatever reason so dinner was a bit of an adventure.  We hung out for a bit after dinner before going to bed to get up at 5am. 

I was nervous about all the small logistics surrounding getting ready for a marathon away from my own home, but luckily being at Nikki’s was almost as easy as being home.  I got up, ate a breakfast of oatmeal, cooked with milk, with a spoonful of peanut butter and dark chocolate chips mixed in along with a mug of coffee.  This is seriously my new favorite pre hard long run breakfast!  I don’t normally have coffee before a race so it was a bit of a gamble, but I really needed something warm and caffeinated to get me going. 

Megan and I had both packed a lot of running clothes for various temperatures and spent a bit of time the night before, and that morning, trying to decide the best combination of clothing.  Eventually I settled on my knee length compression shorts and a long sleeved light weight Nike shirt with a jacket to wear at the start.  This was a good choice for the majority of the race; it only got a little hot towards the end.  Had I worn short sleeves, I would have been too cold for most of the time. 

Max, Nikki, and Bennett head out to drop Megan and me off at the start line and park to walk over and watch us start.  I handed off my jacket to them right before we started so I didn’t even lose it by tossing it during the race.  Megan and I were busy talking to the guys behind us when the starting shot went off, and it really caught me by surprise.  This was a small race, somewhere around 500 people, but it was definitely crowded at the beginning.  Having little patience for trying to negotiate, Megan pulled us over a median so we could run quickly along for a bit before merging back with the crowd.   People started to spread out bit by bit, and we ended up running near several of the same people throughout a lot of the race. 

One of our worries about Gettysburg, as many of you have read in previous posts, was how hilly the course would actually be.  Well there were lots of rolling hills and maybe a handful of hills that were more challenging.  The very good thing was each up hill was followed by a downhill.  That at least gave some nice running time that you could recover and also pick up a little speed at the same time. 

There were more people out along the course cheering than I had expected for such a small race.  Nikki Max and Bennett had picked a few spots they were going to watch from, and it was great to see them several times along the course cheering us on!  Just before mile 6, and the first spot Max, Nikki, and Bennett were going to be, there were horses in a field right by the road.  One of them cantered along the fence very close to us.  So, of course the first thing I said when we passed them was “there are horses back there!”

The course was really a nice one through farm country.  Most of the roads weren’t closed, but there wasn’t much traffic, and they did a great job controlling it.  I was really impressed with all the volunteers out on the course; the bikers and people at the water stops were awesome!  This was my first experience with a really small race, and they did a great job!

So Megan and I were running, hill by hill, ahead of our planned pace, but feeling good.  The first half of the race held almost all of the harder hills.  It was heartening to see other people out of breath and struggling along with me on some of the more difficult hills.  Our pace felt great, but having never run a long run with almost constant rolling hills, I really didn’t know how much they would slowly wear down my legs. 

At the half marathon point Megan looked at her watch and said if we kept up our pace we could come in around 4:00.  I told her I didn’t think it was possible, but we’d see.  Hill by hill my legs got more tired.  After a longer hill we’d slow down a bit to let my wheezing lungs recover.  It was my calves that started to hate the hills first.  I expected this as they are always the muscles that start to tire first on longer hill climbs.  I don’t remember exactly where in the race my calves started to tire, but it was earlier than I would have liked. 

By mile 18 my calves hurt, and I was positive I couldn’t run and eat at my next fuelling time.  So at mile 19 we walked for 30 seconds for me to try and eat some shot blocks.  I managed 2, decided that the other 2 I had planned to eat would make me sick, and started running again.  At mile 20 there was a water stop and I forced myself to get a cup of Gatorade, which I hate, and walk another 30 seconds to drink it.  I needed the sugar and only liquid was going to work at that point. 

We had planned to have Bennett meet us at around mile 20, just in case something was going wrong with Megan.  Sort of as an extra security to make sure I had a backup person to finish with me.  So Bennett jumped in at mile 20.5 and ran the rest of the race with us.  Megan was doing awesome; I was feeling like crap!

That last 10K was the hardest thing I have ever run!  I never really hit my wall in MCM.  I was tired, but because I had to walk in that last 10K, I recovered just enough to stay on the better side of exhaustion.  Not so at Gettysburg.  “Hitting the wall” sounds like a sudden thing, but it was not for me.  Gradually my legs felt less like legs and more like led weights. 

Megan, with Bennett helping her, kept me going.  Megan pushed me forward and really talked me through the last few miles.  You couldn’t have made me run that last mile faster had my life been at stake.  It was all mental grit that kept me moving…grit and Megan and Bennett telling me to keep going.  I remember one of the people cheering in the last mile (or maybe a volunteer?) telling us we were at 4:02 with only a few tenths of a mile left to go.  I almost started crying then.  I didn’t even hear them announce my name when we crossed the finish line; all I was listening for was Megan to tell me I could stop running.  I had never been so relieved, so happy, and so sick feeling all at once. 

The order of things I cared about post-race…time: Megan’s watch said 4:05 and something or another.  We checked our official time a bit later and it was 4:05:07...amazing!  Then shade.  Then chocolate milk.  Then Jacket because I had started to shiver.  We waited impatiently for the awards to see which team, north or south, one, and had a great surprise that Megan had won in her age group!  The north also won so we got engraved beer mugs!

This post is getting way too long so I’ll sum it up with we had yummy food back with Nikki and Brandon.  Nikki had gotten mini cupcakes for me as a treat and they were really delicious.  We got back to DC and headed straight for sushi!  So all and all an exhausting and awesome race experience!  More thoughts on the race and recovery in a later post. :)