20:27 5K

13 weeks post baby and I ran my first 5K since last Thanksgiving today. My time was 20:27, and my mom's garmin clocked the course as 3.2 miles. I've run the course a number of times and it was slightly longer today...

My mom ran too with a time of 25:02. So close to breaking 25:00! Oh and let's not forget my dad. He ran too. He's been injured for a number of months and just started running again.

Thanks hubby for getting up at 6:00 and watching the kiddos while I ran! And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Not pregnant and so ready to run...

Baby Emily, 7 lbs 4 oz, 19.5 inches

Yeah, it's been a while...baby Emily was born the last week in August. She's healthy and pretty typical as far as newborns go. You know, eats a lot, poops a lot, doesn't sleep much at night, likes to cry, and is super cute.

The birth was okay. Depending on your point of view, I was either really lucky or not so lucky. I think probably lucky. In case you don't know, my first baby came into this world via an emergency c-section due to fetal distress. I had general anestesia. It was not such a great experience. This time around I planned to attempt a VBAC, but the VBAC success rate is less than 40% at the hospital I was delivering at. The odds weren't in my favor, and I can't even begin to express how much anxiety I had about the possibility of having another c-section. So when my water broke before any contractions had started, I thought I was done for. Doctors expect the baby to be out within 24 hours of your water breaking. Twelve hours after my water broke, I still wasn't having strong contractions and I was only 2 cm dilated. At which point my doctor gave me 3 options; stay the path and hope in 12 hours I could dilate another 8 cm and get that baby out (unlikely), let them give me pitocin and try to jump start labor, or get prepped for a c-section.

I really wanted to avoid pitocin, but I wanted to avoid a c-section more, so pitocin it was. I was going natural, so once the pitocin was given things got a lot harder. I had to be continuously monitored, so I couldn't walk around and the contractions got really intense. I went from 2 cm to 6 cm in an hour, from 6 cm to 10 cm in another hour, and 30 minutes after that Emily was born. It was absolutely the hardest, most intense, and let's not leave out graphic experience of my life. I did manage to successfully VBAC a healthy baby without an epidural though, so yay me. Towards the end of the labor Emily started showing signs of fetal distress. It turned out that she had a knot in her umbilical cord. Like a real knot. They said she must have swam through the cord at some point during the first trimester. Those umbilical cords are nothing but trouble!

The birth was pretty tough, and I wound up with a few tears. As a result, I was told no running for 4 weeks. The first two weeks I had no desire to run at all, but I was ready to go by week 3. I managed to wait 3.5 weeks and then I jumped on the treadmill and ran 3.1 miles. I averaged 7:30 pace, so the next day I was sore. My comeback is slow going. Only averaging 2-5 hours of sleep a day means I can't go back to running crazy miles, but it seems my speed is doing ok. The other day I ran 6.2 miles in 47:20, with the first 3.1 in 22:00. I can live with that...for now.

That's my story. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the day Emily was born I ran 7 miles at 10:59 pace. At the hospital, the nurses kept telling me that walking might help jump start labor, and I just kept thinking if a 7 mile run didn't jump start labor then shuffling around the halls certainly wasn't going to do it...

38 Weeks Pregnant, Oh My!

Yeah, I'm still here and running and pregnant. My running has greatly slowed down, but that's fine. Below you can see a chart of my paces and a chart of my overall miles run per week during this pregnancy. My weekly mileage hasn't decreased too much, but my pace (over the last three weeks) has slowed by about two minutes per mile. Admittedly, the slow down primarily has to due with walking breaks. My actual running pace is still around 10 minute pace, but I'm also walking, which slows the overall pace. The pregnancy is progressing well. I've gained 21 pounds and with only 1.5 weeks left I don't expect to gain much more. The doctor is pleased with my overall health. So we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that about a week from now we'll have an uncomplicated delivery.

Running has definitely gotten more difficult over the last three weeks. I'm hypothesizing that the baby is sitting on my bladder, and every time I run I feel like I could pee my pants at any second. I haven't though, so that's a plus. I imagine that peeing my pants would make a mess of my beautiful treadmill. Other than my bladder being in a constant state of wanting to release, I don't have any complaints. My back doesn't hurt, my knees and hips are holding up nicely, and I'm breathing easy.

In fact, I received the nicest compliment from Nick last week. We finally had a week where the stars aligned and we were able to go for a four mile run together. It was about 80 degrees and ridiculously humid, but still great to actually get outside. When we started I could tell he was taking half strides, and it looked like he was trying hard to run as slow as I needed to run. After a mile, I was in my running groove and feeling good. We finished the four miler at 9:50 pace. Not even close to my pre-pregnant self, but I was still quite pleased. As we finished Nick turned to me and said, "I wouldn't even pretend to be in the same league as you as far as running is concerned, but it's a bit demoralizing running with you when you're almost 9 months pregnant. You're freaking amazing!" Isn't that sweetest thing you ever heard?

People also keep saying things "you probably can't wait to get that baby out." Truth is though, this pregnancy really hasn't been bad. I don't have too much trouble sleeping. My biggest issue is needing get up to pee a lot. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping because I feel some anxiety. Last time around the birth didn't go as smoothly as we would have liked, but everything that went wrong was just bad luck and completely out of our control. Which is partly why I feel anxiety. It's not like I have any lessons learned to make this birth better. There's really nothing we could have done to change things.

Oh, I do sometimes get swollen feet at night time. I've found wearing compression socks at night does wonders for swollen tootsies! I wake up in the morning and there's no swelling at all! So if any of you are pregnant out there, compression socks are awesome!

Click to view a larger more readable version.

Click to view a larger more readable version.

34.5 weeks pregnant

I've been on a blogging hiatus, but I appreciate all the comments on my last post. Because I never got around to addressing the comments, I wanted to mention a few things here. First, it seems a few other pregnant runners have the same calf tightness issue as me. I wonder if that's a common problem among pregnant runners and what might actually cause it? Maybe the big belly and the shift in center of gravity? There was also a question regarding if Nick and I run the same pace. And the answer is sort of. He really only runs easy, but his easy pace is what my easy is suppose to be. (If I run by myself I have a tendency to run faster than my paces dictate I should). As result, we make good running partners. Lastly, Michelle kindly offered to read my ultrasound (for the boy/girl debate) if I had the prized picture, but alas I don't. I did have another ultrasound last week though and the technician said "looks like a girl." I tried to look for the hamburger or turtle, but I don't know...I think I saw a hamburger (girl). I guess we'll know for certain in about 5 weeks.

Above you can see a picture of me at 34 weeks pregnant. Wow, I'm 8 months pregnant! That's just so crazy to me. Last time around, I had to stop running around 8 months because I was having asthma issues, but I don't seem to be having any breathing problems this time around. So yay, me!

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I've still been running. The last couple weeks (instead of blogging) I've been in full on nesting mode, where I've been getting everything ready for the baby. Being the engineer that I am, I made a thorough baby to-do list that had 50-60 items on it. Everything but 3 - 4 items has been completed. Yes, we're now ready for the baby, I think. I partly wanted to get things done early because Kaylee's birthday is at the beginning of August and I want to be able to focus on that rather than baby stuff.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you about my running now. I'm getting slower. You can see my progressively slower paces in the chart below. Yes, I make charts of this stuff. People like me do that. Anyway, I'm still super fast compared to my last pregnancy. At this point last time around, I had to stop running, and the month prior to that I was averaging 10:20 pace. Needless to say, I'm pretty pleased with myself. To be honest though, running is actually easy when compared to chasing around a toddler while pregnant. I go to a parent/child Little Gym class with Kaylee and that's harder than running. They want me to hop around, gallop, and touch my toes. I can't even see my toes. How am I suppose to touch them?

Anyway, that's where I'm at...still running, getting ready for the final stretch of being pregnant, and planning Kaylee's birthday. Good stuff.


Training Journal 6/28 - 7/04
Total Miles Run: 50
Total Time Running: 7:40
Average Running Pace: 9:12

Training Journal 7/5 - 7/11
Total Miles Run: 40
Total Time Running: 6:07
Average Pace: 9:10
Total Miles Walked: 7
Average Pace: 16:00

Training Journal 7/12 - 7/18
Total Miles Run: 40
Total Time Running: 6:12
Average Pace: 9:18
Total Miles Walked: 9
Average Pace: 16:00