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.