Dubbed "Bizarro Runner" by Husband

Hmmm, Bizarro doesn't seem very eloquent. I do like being compared to a "super creature" though. You'd probably like some sort of explanation as to why I've been dubbed "Bizarro runner." Here goes...

I run for the love of it. Nick also runs. He doesn't love running though. He runs to maintain his general fitness. We often have debates that center around running, which occur simply because I love to talk to about running and training (and I enjoy goading him a bit too). Mostly Nick thinks I'm crazy, which I take as a compliment. During one our running discussions he dubbed me "Bizarro runner," which by his definition is a "backwards runner."

It's rare that Nick and I have the opportunity to run together, but we do enjoy it whenever we get the chance. About once a week, if we're lucky, we'll get to go out for a run together. We run completely differently though. I start slow, and get faster, and faster. He feels better running faster at the beginning and slowing down later. He finds it incredibly perplexing that I can continually speed up over the distances I run and not die. Thus, my new nick name of Bizarro was born.

Now at almost 32 weeks pregnant, I think my Bizarro runner status is going to be revoked. The last week or so I've started slowing down, and instead of continually getting faster as the run progresses I generally maintain the same pace. Sniff. Sniff.

Speaking of running pregnant...it's definitely getting harder. My legs just feel dead. Sometimes my calves feel extra tight. My heels feel a bit sore too. My breathing is fine, my back isn't sore, and the baby belly doesn't bounce. But my legs feel dead. Stupid legs. To my amazement, my weight gain is still hovering around 16 pounds. When Kaylee got sick I actually lost a couple pounds. I wound up taking three days off from running and ate all kinds of yucky food like Burger King. And I lost weight? Now that's bizarre. Not only is Burger King sort of gross, but it's loaded with salt. Not at all good for the pregnancy bloat factor. Anyway, moving along...

All my prenatal doctor's appointments are going well, and I'm still measuring perfect. But running is getting harder. Not that I'm complaining. I'm so happy to be running! It keeps me sane. I don't worry about gaining weight and I feel like it keeps the crazy hormones at bay. It just means that I might be slowing down more in the coming weeks, and that's okay.

Oh on a completely random note, have any of you ever heard the old wives tale that if the baby's heart rate is under 140, then it's probably a boy? This baby's heart rate is almost always 135. Always. Now, during our ultrasound they said the baby was a girl, but I'm having doubts. What you think?

Training Journal 6/21 - 6/27
Total Miles Run: 46
Total Time Running: 6:50
Average Pace: 8:55

7 months pregnant, huge, and still running

I've been on a two week hiatus from blog country. Mostly due to being tired. I'm a fairly busy person, but truth be told I could find time to blog in the evening hours. The issue right now is that when eight o'clock rolls around, I'm a zombie. I blame my zombie state on being 30 weeks pregnant. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Anyway, I do have a number of random tidbits to share with all my blogging buddies.

The New Doctor
I met my new OB last week. She's gets the Katie seal of awesomeness approval. It felt a little odd going to see her just to meet and talk, but it was important to me to have a new doctor that shares my general philosophy towards birth. You see, last time around I had an emergency C-section. I'm the 1% that actually needed to have general anesthesia, and I didn't give birth at a backwards hospital. It was Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which is consistently named one of the top 50 hospitals in the country for OB. This time around I'm trying for a VBAC (still at Beth Israel). Not all doctors are thrilled to have patients that want to try a VBAC. Hence my desire to meet the doctor before simply changing over. Our philosophies align quite nicely, so I'm pleased. It also seems that she has a number of patients of who run during their pregnancies. She even indicated she thought running might increase my chances of a successful natural birth. Good stuff all around.

Nike Free Update
Last week I was able to start running in my Nike Frees again. I had to wait a few weeks for that blister on my arch to heal. I don't know how you guys get blisters to heal, but I have the darnedest time. I can't get band-aids to stay on. I even bought a box of band-aids that claimed to be like "duct-tape." And the sticky parts really did look like duct-tape, but even those wouldn't stay put. Basically I wound up wearing the (very large) band-aids at night and going band-aid less during the day, which was fine but it took two weeks before I felt comfortable trying out my Frees again. I've probably run 40-50 miles in the Nike Frees now including an 11 miler, and I'm happy with them. I'm not having anymore blister issues and overall they feel great! I'm not really a Nike shoe fan when it comes to running, so I'm surprised that I like them as much as I do.

New Running Skirt
A week or so ago I received a late birthday present in the mail. A ridiculously cool maternity running skirt! Truth be told, I've had my eye on this skirt for a few months, but after reading this post over on Marathon Mama I was too chicken to buy one. Running cloths have been giving me some major issues during this pregnancy. I get chaffed and cut constantly. It might sound crazy, but the discomfort from my running cloths has been the most difficult aspect of running for me during this pregnancy. Every time I get into the shower it's a shock. And yes, I'm using glide. I've used more glide in the last 6 months than over my entire running career. My regular size running shorts are cutting into my hips, but larger shorts cause even worse chaffing. It probably has something to do with the fact that I run 8-11 miles at a time. If I was just going 4, then I don't think it would be an issue. Anyway, the skirt is amazing! It's a few inches longer than most running skirts, doesn't ride up, and doesn't chafe or cut me. I try to wash it every day. It's my new favorite...

Running Pregnancy Paces
Over on the left, you can see a graph of my weekly average running paces throughout my pregnancy. If you click on the graph you'll be able to actually read it. It's funny, the first trimester is all over the map. The second trimester consistently hovers around the 8:38 per mile line. I'm only a few weeks into the third trimester, but it's clear that my paces are getting slower. From here on in, I expect my pace to drop off dramatically. During my last pregnancy, I was averaging 10:20 pace in my 7th month. I'm expecting that over the next few weeks I'll slow down to somewhere around there.

My Poor Buttercup
At the end of last week Kaylee came down with a nasty stomach bug. Kaylee is almost never sick. Seriously. She's never had an ear infection and never needed antibiotics. Of course, she's had colds, but her only symptom is a runny nose that clears up in a few days. This is the sickest she's ever been. It was absolutely awful. She threw up for 27 hours and wasn't able to eat solid food for almost three days. We thought we were going to have to take her to the ER, but her pediatrician assessed her dehydration status on Saturday and had us stay in the office for a few hours to try and see if we could get her to keep down some juice and Pedialyte in hopes to avoid an ER visit. Luckily we didn't have to go to the ER and she is finally back to her usual self. On the downside, I had three days of almost no sleep and wound up sick (not vomiting though). I seem to just have a cold, which has unfortunately triggered my asthma. The last 3.5 months I haven't needed my inhalers, but now I'm back on them. I'm hoping that within a couple weeks I'll be able to stop using them again. We'll see. On a more happy note, we bought Kaylee her first real pair of sneakers. Now she only wants to wear sneakers and she keeps telling us that "these are my first pair of running shoes!" Yesterday she picked out some crazy polka-dotted shorts to wear and told me that "these are my running shorts for when we first go running together." Nick has plainly stated that I'm creating a monster, but I don't think so. She's so cute!

Training Journal 6/7 - 6/13
Total Miles Run: 56
Total Time Running: 8:19
Average Running Pace: 8:54

Training Journal 6/14 - 6/20
Total Miles Run: 36 (Kaylee's sickness limited my mileage)
Total Time Running: 5:23
Average Pace: 8:55

28 weeks pregnant with a race report

Two weeks ago, I had a shock with my doctor abandoning me. Sniff, sniff. And just to make things even better I received a few irritating pregnant comments. Last week, however, was much better. I'm fairly certain I found a new doctor. I have an appointment to meet her; hopefully I'll like her.

Also, there was a workplace fun run last week! It was advertised as a 5K, but the fitness center fellow who measured out the course informed us at the start that it is was actually a 3.2 miler. Then he said, "well, if you want to be technical it's closer to 3.3 miles." Ahhh, non runners are so funny, aren't they? If it's closer to 3.3 miles it can hardly be called a 5K, but that's okay. It was a race to get people out and moving. There were 40 people who ran, mostly men (a number of others walked). It was a lot of fun! I've been looking forward to the fun run because I miss racing and I knew this would be low key. I wound up running 23:37 and being conservative and assuming that the course 3.2 (rather than 3.3) that's 7:22 pace. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't really race or run super hard, so I'm pleased with the pace. Plus, I'm packing on an extra 16 pounds now...ugh. Oh, also, I was the first female finisher and came in 6th overall.

Being as pregnant as I am, I did receive a lot of attention before, during, and after the race. To my relief, though, it was all good. Only the company nurse seemed concerned, but she's older and not a runner (so I'm not counting her). Everyone else had fun cheering me on. A guy I passed even shouted out "great job, my wife ran until a week before our baby was born and it was great." I was surprised because like I told Nick "who wants to get passed by a pregnant lady? I wouldn't..." People were surprisingly gracious. Below you can a picture of me running the race at 27 weeks and 4 days pregnant. The guy in blue, who ran with me most of the way, had a 3:20 marathon debut. He finished a good 30 seconds ahead of me, and apparently complained to all the running guys that I pushed him to run faster than he wanted to. (I only know this because Nick was in the locker room and later divulged the information to me.) I don't believe him though. He looked just fine to me.

You see that baby belly peaking from the bottom of my shirt?

Overall, running is still going well. I am slowing down though. My average pace from week 14 - 25 was between 8:33 and 8:43, but the last few weeks the average pace has slowed to 8:46 - 8:48. I would expect that at some point soon there will be another slow down. I'm surprised I haven't slowed more given the extra 16 pounds I'm lugging around. I guess I'm adapting well to being HUGE. Anyway, below you can see my stats. Oh, I almost forgot, I had my gestational diabetes test and I'm not diabetic. YAY! They also tested my iron levels and I'm not anemic either, so double yay!

Training Journal 5/24 - 5/30
Total Miles Run: 50.35
Total Time Running: 7:22
Average Running Pace: 8:46

Training Journal 5/31 - 6/6
Total Miles Run: 46
Total Time Running: 6:45
Average Pace: 8:48