12/31 and year end

4.4 outside; progression run and some nice woods miles! Had a total running zen moment at the top of one hill where I just stood still (after turning off my Garmin, haha!) and closed my eyes and stretched my arms out in the wind. Very dorky but fun nonetheless. :-) Avg pace 8:50/mile and felt so easy compared to TM miles!

Week: 41.7, month 179.7, streak 220, year 1357. Pretty darn happy with those miles for a year that included stress fracture rehab and pregnancy/delivery!

12/30

6.3 easy for me today (prepping to end the year on an even number!). Was planning to go outside but I did something to my back and wasn't sure how far I'd be able to run and didn't want to get stranded. Go figure that running was fine although just walking through the grocery store this morning hurt like the devil.

12/29

6.5 aerobic

12/28

6.5 today, 7 yesterday. Tibia bothering me a little where I had the stress fx last year.

12/26

10 on the TM after kids were in bed; ended at 10:30 PM. In other news, today was our 14-yr wedding anniversary!

12/24

Christmas Eve!

4.2 outside; progression run

Mile 1: 9:08
Mile 2: 8:55
Mile 3: 8:22
Mile 4: 7:52

Weekly miles: 41.2, monthly: 138, streak miles:178.3

12/23

6 easy on the TM that felt anything but easy--finished at 10 PM after a day at the Children's Museum (so basically I walked all over creation, didn't drink enough water, ate french fries, and barely made it through my run without throwing up).

6.5 outside yesterday pushing Matthew in the jogging stroller

6.5 Wed on the TM--very blah run with intervals

12/20

7 on TM; easy with HMP 1-minute intervals every half-mile. Pretty low energy thanks to a baby who wanted to party all night.

12/19

10 miles at 9:42 today; 1 mile walking yesterday for streak purposes.

12/17

6.5 on the dang TM--can't even get to the mailbox over this ice! 36 for the week and still tired even with the cutback. Next week should be less busy though, thank heavens!!

36 for the week; 96.8 for the month.

12/16

Kids have been throwing up and we're trying to sleep-train the baby, so I'm tired. 6.3 yesterday, 6.2 today.

Catching up!

12/14:

Streak day 20--Whew! Quick 3.2 on the TM...would've loved to go longer, but I didn't start until almost 10:30, and I promised Neil I'd stop when our very gourmet dinner of frozen pizza was ready. ;-) But I baked 34 loaves of cranberry-orange bread today and spent 2 hours with all 6 of my kids but without Neil (he was working late) caroling to friends while we dropped them off, so I think I got some XT in there too. This is going to be my cutback week, apparently!

12/13:
4.5 easy and yoga; back and hip flexors have really been hurting so hopefully this will help!

12/12:
Late late night 8.3

12/11
1 mile walking to keep streak going (Sunday, so no run)

12/10
6.4 outside with Neil AND Matthew--his first run!! (Top photo) Beautiful beautiful day for a run and so nice to get outside...looks like I'm averaging 1 outdoor run per month post-baby. Yikes. Ended the week at 42 which I was really happy about--good thing bc I think this week is going to be a big cutback just because it's so busy. 

12/9

8.3 miles at 9:57/mile.

12/8

Squeezed in 6 at 9:37/mile. I'm surprised this run felt so good after the 7 times I was up last night with the baby!

12/7 and 12/6

Wed: 4.5 easy on TM

Tues: 7.3 aerobicish

12/5

Streak day 12; 8.3 at 10:17/mile. Stopped at 11:10 PM bc I was just too darn tired to go any further. Definitely going to be a cutback week; kids are booked solid every single day after school and if I see another "Five Days of Secret Santa" letter come home from the school I'm going to implode.

12/4

Streak day 11: 1.2 walking through the first snow! Completely soaked by the time I got back in (very heavy and wet) but oh so beautiful!

12/3

8 very late pretty crappy miles after doing all kinds of Christmas stuff downtown with the kids after a baby shower this morning that completely knocked out my chance for an outside run. Plus the pinkeye I was battling last week came back with a vengeance today when I finally wore contacts again. Stopped at 6 to feed the baby, then realized I was .8 from 40 for the week so I started again and ran 2 more. And now it's midnight.

41.2* for the week; 18.8 for December.

*After a ridiculous amount of inner debate, I decided to count the walking miles on Sundays (1.2 from this week) that I'm doing specifically for the streak in my weekly totals, although I don't count all the other walking miles that I normally do post-run to cool down. But this also bugged me enough that I ran that extra 2 tonight rather than just the .8 so that I could hit the 40 with running miles. Seriously--I have spent WAY too much time thinking about this.

12/2

Streak day 9:
7.2 intervals on TM; progressively ratcheted up speed/interval length every mile to make it a little more interesting.

12/1

streak day 8: 3.6 easy before Matthew started howling.

11/30

5 tempo--started at 11:30 to warm up, up to 8:30, then hung out at 9:12. Super glad to have my run out of the way and not waiting for me at 9 PM!

145.3 for November; 1178.3 for the year.

11/29

6.2 easy that felt really hard. THought about pushing on to 7 but decided my body probably needed to spend the extra time doing yoga...and yikes was I stiff. Lack of baby sleep is really catching up with me today, plus my eye started feeling scratchy during dinner and then was just gushing oozy gross stuff during my run. Ugh...I'm going to go try some of the leftover drops from when the kids had pinkeye last month. (Do those expire?!)

11/28

10 on the TM--this is becoming my standard late-night Monday run. Aerobic pace as per Pfitz (about 1:20 faster than easy and 40 seconds slower than MP); pretty tired today after a rough night with the baby.

11/26

Another TM 8; first 7 progression from easy to HMP; last mile easy for cool-down.

36.1 for the week; 124.1 for the month.

11/25

8 easy on the TM today after family left--too dark to go outside. I was so beat from all the holiday stuff that it was actually super nice to just zone out on the TM with Netflix.

5k

Well, once again treadmill miles are much slower than road miles! 5k this morning--23:51 which is 7:40/mile. I definitely was pushing it and felt like I was going to throw up any second, but didn't! I did, however, yell at the volunteer who told me to stop so a car could go through an intersection that I was NOT stopping bc I was on pace for a PR, and he better stop the car instead of me.

11/22

7 easy; one of those runs where I told myself I could quit after a mile if I needed to...but I don't think I would have kept going if it wasn't easy miles! Five times up with the baby last night + Thanksgiving prep is totally wearing me out. I fully intend to spend at least one day this weekend on my couch doing exactly nothing. Somehow.

11/21

10 on the TM; 3-minute "speed" intervals with 2 minutes recovery. I'm just not very fast these days (although the late-night run doesn't help!). Noticing a lot of niggles that I need to work out with the foam roller thanks to all the changes in my form the last year--gotta get all my muscle groups firing again.

11/19

3:31pm Nov 19 6 on TM...was really hoping to get outside today but DH went to work. At least I wedged in 6 which was kind of a feat with an uber-cranky baby. 34 for the week and 88 for the month.

11/18

6.5 on TM; pushing pace again trying to get back to a normalish pace. 9:54 for first 3.6; 9:32 for last 2.9; 9:44 overall. First run in some new Mizunos and they felt a little clunky for the first quarter-mile but good after that. It's been about 4 years since I've run in Mizunos but they were $30 cheaper than my favorite Ravennas on RW so I thought I'd give them a try. :-)

11/16

4.5 easy. Legs actually felt surprisingly good at the late miles last night. Blisters and chafing, not so much...I don't know what it was yesterday but my skin is raw today!!

11/15

10 late-night ones on the TM (finished at 10:42 PM). 10:02/mile; 2:30 intervals, 2:30 recovery...repeat 20 times.

11/14

7 with a 40-minute baby break at 4 miles (first 4 @10/mile, last 3 at 9:44/mile). In other news, I'm seriously thinking about doing the local marathon on April 1 that does the loop course 26 times...it's close enough that it would remove a lot of the baby-logistics-concerns stuff. If I do I would probably pick a lower-mileage plan and not do more than 40ish a week while really focusing on weight loss and strength...can I reasonably train on that? If I get in to Chicago that's going to be my big goal race next year, so this would be more about gradually building my mileage base before Chicago training.

11/12

6 on TM; avg. 9:55. Intervals with easy recovery for first 2.5 miles, then turned into sort of progression run at HMP finishing at 10k pace. Always easier to run faster when there is a baby who is getting increasingly insistent! Would have liked to get more today, but 32 for the week is 2 more than I've managed the last few months of steady 30 mpw. Hopefully I can build back up to at least 35-40 as baby's schedule gets more predictable, but 2 extra is a good start!

32 for the week; 54 for the month.

11/11

Easier 4 @ 10:37 with some intervals thrown in (total 9 min. at HMP). Legs felt pretty heavy since I was up until midnight scraping glue off the concrete subfloor in my kitchen--trying to get floors done before I host Thanksgiving.

11/10

Took a rest day yesterday bc I was coughing so much and just aching everywhere.

6 TM today at 9:46. Feeling much better, although this was at the pushing-it end of my lung capacity today. Foam rolling afterwards to help that aching IT band.

11/8

8 on TM. This election is really stressing me out.

11/7

8 on TM at 10:20/mile. Woke up feeling like death so this run actually went much better than I thought...I was seriously considering not running at all today, but I was so stressed that I told myself to just do a mile and then I could quit if I still felt awful.

11/5

5 easy on TM with 1-min HMP intervals every 10 just to remind my legs that things could be worse. Was hoping to get outside for some trails but we ended up starting the reno of our floors today so an after-kids-in-bed run it was. Killer headache, but the sore throat is better today. 

30 for the week; 22 for the month.

11/4

6 (TM) progression. Started out at easy and then cut 4 minutes off my normal easy pace finishing time since I felt better as the run progressed. I've been really bummed that I'm not running IMM tomorrow, but guess what, I have strep! So...probably good that I've not running. (I'm actually relieved bc now I know why Wednesday's run felt so wretched.) Starting antibiotics today. Didn't do anything yesterday on my SRD (was planning yoga) as I felt HORRIBLE and like I'd swallowed glass/had all my limbs stretched to the point where joints were aching.

Today's run was kinda bizarre but it worked for me--started out at easy pace, ran 1 min. at HMP when I got to 10 minutes, then bumped up base pace by .1 for the next 10, etc. Repeated the bumping-up 3 times but then increased the time at HMP by 1 minute every 10, and bumped those by .1 every 1 minute so the last mile I was running 6 minutes at progressively faster paces, then coming back down for a recovery interval of 2 minutes before starting the pace-bumping up again. 

11/2

5 blah TM miles. Started out at aerobic and my legs/lungs were just too tired...took it down to somewhere between easy and aerobic and was just barely on the safe side of sideaches. I need more sleep!! Planning SRD and yoga tomorrow--hopefully that will help a bit.

11/1

6 easy on TM. Didn't finish until 11:15 PM...busy busy busy day.

In other news, entered the Chicago Marathon lottery--notification is December 13th. Fingers crossed!!!

8 today on TM, mostly at aerobic pace. Hoping to get 6, decided to do a bonus cool-down mile, and then a couple minutes in realized I should just go back to aerobic.

107 for October. I'm feeling about 85% recovered and hoping to be back 100% in another week or so.

10/29

7 easy on TM with a half-hour baby break at 4 miles. (Does that make it a double?) That's six days for me this week in what should have been a lighter post-race recovery week. Yoga yesterday seemed to make a huge difference; I told myself I would stop immediately tonight if I had the slightest twinge in my hip, but nada. This was a definite mental-health run; Neil gets home tonight. Hallelujah!!! It's been dang hard without him--hence the six consecutive days of running (albeit pretty low miles). Now that it's 11 PM I should get to bed...

30 for week, 99 for October thus far.

Friday: Easy 3 + yoga today. Right hip really started to bother me about 2 miles in so I cut it short--I've been having some aches and pains on that side but this is the first time it changed my gait. Probably bc I've run 5 days in a row and I haven't done that in...like a year? Maybe not the best choice the week after a race, but my daily mileage has been so low that I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem.

Thursday: Short version: 5 on TM with intervals (3 min at HMP, 2 at easy).

Long version: Well, today was pretty intense. No sleeping baby + up at 6 to get kids off to school + day of school parties + day 2 of DH's absence put me on the TM at 9:30 pm. Baby woke up a mile in (WHY?!) despite all my best efforts to ensure he would sleep--was hoping for double digits tonight. Managed to placate him until 2.5, then had to stop to feed him. for some reason at this point it seemed like a good idea to dye my hair (been so busy it has literally been six months since I've had it done), so ran another 2.5 while the dye was doing its thing. This is either a life hack or a huge mistake--we'll see when it dries.

Wednesday: 

6 on TM--started out easy and then moved it up a little to finish in time. Neil flew out for his grandmother's funeral this morning so running may be hit and miss the rest of the week while I'm flying solo with the kids.

10/25

5 on TM; mile warm-up, 3.5 of intervals (2 minutes at 9:13; 3 minutes at 10), then half-mile at 10--was planning to run cool-down mile but phone rang and I'm getting treated to a delightful afternoon on the phone with the insurance company.

10/24

4 miles on TM--baby woke up at 1.5; managed to run another 1.5 before he got super upset (stopped twice to restart the music on his swing), fed him for 44 minutes, then back on the TM for the last mile. I'd planned to make this an easy 2-3 but ended up cranking up pace after 1.5 trying to finish before he got too upset and then figured I'd do another mile to see if it would make him go back to sleep. Good news is that the faster pace felt totally fine which I didn't think it would after Saturday.

I'm officially back into the weird-runs-bc-of-newborn stage. Also...need something new to train for!! I'm toying with the idea of doing a one-month focus on speed before a Thanksgiving 5k.

Purdue half (2016)

Race report:
I knew going into this one that my main constraints were going to be lack of training, ongoing healing from delivery, and lack of sleep, and sadly there wasn't much I could do about any of them! Thursday night I got about 2 hours of sleep, so I went to bed as early as I could on Friday and was asleep by 9. I woke up around midnight absolutely soaked in sweat and freezing cold (one of those lousy hormonal post-delivery things that hits me every 3rd or 4th night), so I changed all my clothes, rolled up in a dry blanket, and tried to sleep a little more, then at 1 am Matthew's swing totally gave up the ghost. Fed him at 1, 3, and 5 with about 80 minutes of sleep in between each feeding, then got up at 6:45 and got ready. Drove down to the parking lot and fed him in the car again up until the last possible minute in hopes that he wouldn't go crazy before I was done!

I found my friend who was running her first half--we run different paces but were thinking we'd hang together for the first few miles and see how it went pace-wise. We lined up with the 10/mm pacer since she told me she normally ran about 9:30-9:40/mile and wanted a 2:10 finish, so I figure we would shoot for around 9:55 average for the first couple of miles and see how that felt. . Started off out of the stadium parking lot and first mile along Cherry was 9:38--I felt kind of bad because I kept telling her to slow down on this mile--that adrenaline is hard to combat! We walked through the water stop in the second mile (10:07), but she was already struggling with the pace and asked me multiple times to just go ahead. I felt pretty bad leaving her but I also didn't want her to feel pressure to go faster and I knew I couldn't slow much and still make it back before Matthew got crazy hungry.

Third mile was 9:41--nothing really interesting about this. Walked through the water stop again hoping my friend would catch up but when I couldn't see her I figured she was too far back and I needed to just run my own race. 4th mile we got the first decent downhill on Salisbury (9:26) and then the fifth mile was almost all downhill across the bridge to Lafayette (9:06) and skipped the water stop. I was taking Honey Stinger chews every 2.5 so I grabbed my second one here. This mile also made me realize that I couldn't go much faster than the 9:30 pace, since I started to really feel it in my pelvis (that's been getting steadily better since delivery but I sure didn't want to push it!), so I took it back a notch and felt much better.

6th mile was 9:39. This is where we started to hit the hills again in Lafayette that I was dreading, so I reminded myself to just keep a consistent effort and not worry about pace. Ran under one of the church clock towers just as it started chiming, which was really nice coupled with all the steeples and scenic downtown/fall leaves. Walked through the next water stop and slowed a bit with the hills to keep effort the same for mile 7 at 9:59. Mile 8 back over the bridge was 9:36 and then mile 9 with the first of the hills I was REALLY dreading was 9:53...that's the seemingly eternal gradual uphill to Chauncey. It really wouldn't be that bad except all the short steep rollers preceding it in Lafayette wear you out and it's at that crappy point in the race where you've come a long way but haven't hit the double digits yet, so it still feels like a long way left! Then we ran forever through campus, which is a different route than I remembered, so I kept wondering when the heck we were going to turn (and also trying to not think about the fact that I could just turn NOW and be back at the parking lot within 5 minutes!).

Finally turned and ran past the new Co-Rec for mile 10 at 9:37, then down the Engineering Mall and tried to mentally gear up for miles 11 (9:56) and 12 (10:14), which were the second set of hills I was dreading--the two back to back hills on Stadium (mile marker 11 was just before the top of the first hill) and then immediate right turn to McCormick and more uphill. I seriously felt like I could have been walking faster on this part than I was running at the 11-mile marker--this was also the first place where I noticed a headwind during the whole race (of course!). I told myself it would turn into a tailwind during the last mile, but I know my HR was awful at this point and I felt pretty nauseated and awful. Once we cleared the hills I felt much better and was able to enjoy the last mile (9:34) and passed SO MANY PEOPLE, which is always nice to do that late in the race! I was consistently passing about three times as many people as were passing me for most of the race, but in the last mile I passed 34 people and was only passed once, which was nice. Downhill to the finish and last .14 was 1:03. Passed DH and kids as I ran into the finish chute, then met up with them and waited a good 30 minutes for the kids' fun run (which gave me the opportunity to sit down suddenly before passing out, wish that there were more Porta-Potties, and very classily feed my baby on a curb underneath a giant blanket). Walked the half-mile to the car, which really helped with post-race stiffness, then home to my shower and some Tylenol with codeine for my grumpy body that was like "are you kidding, just had a baby, let's lie around and eat cupcakes instead of this craziness."

Chip times still haven't been posted; Garmin time for 13.14 was 2:07:26 (9:42/mile).

Random thoughts:

1) Kids' fun run was AWESOME. I loved loved loved this part. Look at the hand-holding! The intensity!! (Jules was feverish and Isaac kept her company.)

2) Neil went to the store after dropping me off, bought cider, and then added his signature spice blend to it and brought me a thermos of hot spiced cider. That was pretty much the best post-race drink ever...I always get SO freezing cold after a race and that was the perfect antidote! Three cheers for him!

3) My current PR is on this course. I hate this course in terms of runnability--there are so many hills--pretty much the entire time you are going up or down, and the big downhill is in the first part of the race, so the last half really is rough. It's beautiful and you run past lots of gorgeous trees (fall is the perfect time for this!) but I wonder what kind of PR I would be able to set at the Mini?

3) I'm really glad I ran so much through my pregnancy. It got pretty hard at the end there with nerve pain in my leg, and I can tell that I'm not 100% healed, nor do I have the fitness that I would have liked to have, but all in all, I don't feel like I crashed and burned during the race the way I was worried I might. :-)

10/19

3 on TM--first 2 were easy and then did 6x1-min. fartleks @ HMP just to remind my legs what that felt like, then walked half a mile to cool down and did 20 minutes of yoga. Last run for me before the Purdue half on Saturday.

The last time I ran this particular race I thought I was crazy for training for a half with such a young baby (he was 6 months old when I ran it and go figure it's my current PR) and now I am doing it with a 3-week-old...oh man! But however this race goes Saturday (and I'm trying to tell myself that my goal is just finishing and not a great time, bc I'm not going to be able to do a great time), I'm really grateful that I'm physically able to toe that starting line! So many times during the last few months that I just did not want to run and it's pretty exciting to see all of that work to maintain fitness coming to fruition now.

10/18

3 easy on TM--so tired with so little sleep.

Weighed myself first thing this morning instead of midday like I did yesterday and I was down 3 more pounds.

10/17

4 on TM today; progression run. Averaged 10:17/mile; started at 11/mile and worked up to 9:32. Trying to decide on plan for the rest of the week--probably 3 tomorrow and Wednesday, yoga Thursday, and totally off Friday before Sat. race.

And as Matthew will be 3 weeks old tomorrow, today is the official start on getting back to racing weight--right now I'm about 2.5 lbs below where I was at the beginning of pregnancy, but I'd gained with the stress fracture and marathon training, so I've got a ways to go. What's worked best for me in the past is to really focus on veggies, cut out sugar 6 days a week, and not eat after 9 PM, so that's my plan for now. I'd like to set new PRs for 5k, 10k, and half by next May.

10/14

7 at 10:17. Boys had a playdate today so I decided to get my "LR" in today while the baby was napping.

10/13

5 at 9:51 on the TM. Why is it so much harder on the TM than outside?

10/11

3 easy on TM. A little pain tweak here and there but not as bad as yesterday. RW post-run yoga to finish.

5 on the TM at 10:14. Had to stop a few times in the second half for kids--pretty tired today but the run helped with the residual soreness from the hills Saturday. Let's just say that today's run was a good training run in case I don't get any sleep the night before the Purdue half...not much sleep last night.

10/8

10 glorious miles in the beautiful October weather today! Really good run--I was pushing hard and definitely felt like I left it all out there on the trails today. So actually it would have been a great race effort but probably not so good for just a regular training run, but...yeah. I'll have to take it easier next weekend in preparation for tapering.

9:27 with most of my splits pretty tightly in the 9:20 range. 3 sub-9 miles (mile 4 @ 8:57, 5 @8:25, 10 @ 8:51). Mile 8 was uphill the whole way and so dang hard--10:57. I was seriously trashed after that one--I was planning an out-and-back but Neil called to let me know that Matthew was going crazy so I met him planning to nurse Matthew at mile 5, but Matthew had fallen asleep...so I ended up doing 5 laps on the mile-long hill that I knew would be super killer instead of the 2 I'd planned, since it was adjacent to the playground where Neil was hanging out with the kids. But I did manage to get the whole run done before Matthew really wanted to nurse, which is nice since it's always soooo hard to start again once I'm cooled down and shivering like crazy feeding the baby! (Shades of training for my first marathon and running 18 miles on the treadmill at 10 pm and stopping to nurse Nathan at mile 14 and then getting back on the TM...) I think the worst part right now is that my sports bra feels like it's cutting off my ability to get a deep breath and my chest always hurts--have to wear super compression ones right now with such a young baby and it is not fun at all.

23 miles for the week, 26 for the month, 958 for the year.

10/6

Rest day yesterday--boy did I need it! Got all my midterm grading done so that was a huge relief.

Today: 5 on the TM at 10:06. Stopped at 3 for water and my baby (who was in the swing on the other side of the room) immediately woke up--he fell asleep as soon as I started again. Looks like he was trained in utero!

10/4 and 10/3

Monday: 5 on TM at 10:12/mile (aerobic); comfortably hard but not as enjoyable as the faster run on Saturday. Some pain.

Tuesday: 3 on TM at 11:20/mile (easy)--this one felt harder by far than yesterday, since Matthew did NOT sleep much last night--I'm a total zombie today and thank heavens it was an easy one on the schedule today or I probably would not have been able to handle it. Took 2.5 hours to start this run for real from the time I'd originally stepped on the TM to start--baby was not in a good mood today and Luke & Nate were both super cranky as well.

Update and first postpartum run

Didn't run Monday bc I just did not feel up to it.

Walked five miles Tuesday, then had a baby two hours later. Super great delivery and was by far my easiest and most peaceful birth!

Rested Wednesday all day and walked a very little bit Thursday--I was feeling pretty weak. Normal activity level Friday.

Ran 3 miles Saturday. Garmin didn't pick up until 1.12 miles in. Second mile was 9:51, third mile was 7:59 for the remaining .88, so 9:04/mile, average pace was 9:30. Pretty darn nice to see those numbers again!

95.6 for September, 3 for October, 935 for the year.

9/24

4.5 running + .5 walking to cool down. Did some intervals to warm up--3 running, 2 walking (x2), then 4:30 running, 2 walking, then ran the rest with 1-minute fartlek intervals for the last 1.5 miles. Bathroom stop at 3 miles.

30.75 for the week, 18 running and 12.75 walking.

90.6 for the month, 926 for the pregnancy.

9/23

4.25 walking trying to regularize contractions and somehow end this...on day 4 of regular contractions and bleeding with no baby. Feel like death and so exhausted that I don't know how I will get through labor.

9/22

4 running, .5 walking, another mile walking last night. Easy pace with FF last mile and one 2-minute walking break at 2 miles thanks to a really bad contraction (ran through it but my stomach just did not stop cramping for the next 4 minutes until I walked it out!). Had pretty hard contractions the last 2 days, so my mom came into town, and everything stopped as soon as she got here. ARGH.

9/21

3 walking this morning with Nate in stroller, another 2.5 walking last night a few hours after my run during the older kids' piano lessons. I have a whole bunch of those "early labor" signs so who knows, could be today, could be 2 more weeks. Regardless, last night I was having so many contractions and I was so dang tired and totally NOT wanting to have a baby with that level of exhaustion that I decided today needed to be an easier day just in case!

9/20; 39 weeks

5 miles; last mile did alternating 1-minute fartleks. Walked a mile to cool down.

9/19

Ugh really dreading running! 4.5 on TM today. First .5 was miserable until the swelling in my ankle went down enough to flex easily (stopped at half-mile mark to stretch out again and that helped a lot). Stopped at 3 for water.

9/18

SRD for me today--I was really hoping to pick some miles up yesterday but we had one of the busiest days we've had in months, and by 10 PM when I finally had a chance to run I was totally exhausted--went to bed and was asleep 15 minutes later.

28.1 for me this week with 21.1 of those running--5 more running miles than last week! Every run is SO freakin' hard now and the nerve pain/swelling in my legs is really bad--the sooner this baby comes the better!!! During my last pregnancy I only managed to run 4 miles between 38 & 39 weeks bc of the nerve pain so I just keep reminding myself that as crappy as it feels I'm doing a lot better this time around than I was last time!

59.85 for the month; 895.25 for this pregnancy.

9/16

4 "easy" for me today on the TM and a total crazy-end-of-pregnancy run. I ran half a mile and then had an uncontrollable urge to go take everything out of my bathroom cabinets, wipe them down, and then reorganize everything...so I did that and then ran the remaining 3.5. Yes, I completely realize how insane this sounds. :-)

9/15

4 miles on TM; hoping to have time to walk later, but it's another busy day. Started out at slow warm-up and ended at HMP -20. Wish I'd had time to run longer. ETA: walked a mile with the boys in the woods after picking Luke up.

9/14

3.1 walking. Trying to take it a little easier since my pelvis was pretty achy yesterday!

9/13

5.1 running with Nathan in the jogging stroller, .4 walking, 30 minutes of yoga. We ran a ridiculously hilly route bc I let him choose and my hips now hurt sooo bad...don't like to think about what they would feel like if I hadn't done yoga first! In hindsight this really was too much for today but my only chance for a run today was with Nate this morning...was only planning 3 but he really wanted to go look at ducks (which required the extra 2 miles) and in the moment I was feeling good enough to agree.

9/12

8 running, 1 walking, some serious stretching afterwards. Not gonna lie, I felt like garbage when I started my run at 8:30 PM and didn't know if I'd even be able to get a mile...took a 2-minute walking break at .5 and stretched out again, then dropped my pace quite a bit and ran consistently the rest of the time with water/bathroom breaks every couple of miles. Avg pace 11:35 which meant no contractions/nerve pain, so probably a good pace to hang out at for the next couple of weeks.

9/11

SRD--1.5 walking with kids + 6 miles biking with family.

4.25 walking--had planned to run but nerve pain bad enough that I kept tripping.

16 running this week; 15.75 walking. Definitely on the taper towards delivery track...

9/9

Yoga + 3 walking. Nerve pain really really bad today.

YTD: 862.9

9/8

Pretty craptastic day--a huge mess at work thanks to a very sexist student that has required a lot of going back and forth with the dept chair and the Dean of Students. Run got pushed back over and over and then interrupted repeatedly with urgent emails. Plus I was just super uncomfortable the whole time--didn't sleep well and hurting.

4 easy running; 2 walking

9/7

Decided I needed an easier day, so walked 3 very brisk miles with DS in the stroller (holy crap is it hot out there!!) and then did half an hour of yoga. Hopefully this helps some of my aches and pains!

9/6; 37 weeks

4 running and 3 walking (2.5 early outside this morning with Nate in the stroller and .5 after my run on the TM). Not gonna lie, today's run was pretty miserable. I think the baby was just not in a great position--had to stop at .5, 1, and 2.7 to go to the bathroom. Didn't sleep well last night bc my hip flexors were pretty achy after yesterday's run--I didn't take the time to stretch out thoroughly afterwards and boy did I pay for it!

9/5

8 miles with HMP intervals and .5 walking to cool down. Right around 10:59/mile. Pretty tired by the end.

36 weeks catchup

Last week we were in Florida and it was SO HOT so I didn't run much (also I did not want to go into labor).

Monday: 4 miles running/walking (whenever the contractions got really bad), then swam for the next 11 hours
Tuesday: moved to a different beach house bc of a huge string of health issues with the first, so no time for running. Also crazy leg pain after all the time in scuba flippers the day before. Lots more swimming.
Wednesday: more swimming. All day swimming.
Thursday: 9 m bike ride + swimming
Friday: 5 m bike ride, lots of contractions, lots of swimming.
Saturday: drove home. Feverish and also lots of contractions.

And that was my week.

8/29

4 hot and sweaty ones down on the Gulf Coast this morning! Run/walk intervals...i was periodically joined by extended family so I would walk with them for a couple minutes before running again (I was running up and down the a quarter-mile long road our rental house is on since there's no sidewalk along the main super-busy road). We are right on the beach, so I thought about running there, but I was worried about a fishhook like the one my friend picked up running on the beach a couple weeks ago. Maybe later in the week I will give it a try. Hoping this morning's run helps with the swelling in my right foot--still hasn't recovered from the drive down!

8/26

7.2 at 10:57...pseudo-speedwork with HMP intervals and FF last mile. Packing up to head to Florida at 2 AM tomorrow, so who knows what I will be able to run next week! This is it for me this week; 30 total with 25.4 running and 4.6 walking.

8/24

8k trail race got cancelled due to weather (torrential rain all day and tornado sirens going off 20 minutes before the race start), so I ended up running 10k on roads/trails with my husband. Go figure that there was nary a drop of rain while we were running but absolutely INSANE humidity--seriously hard to breathe! Nice to get outside with him but definitely more contractions with variations in terrain as opposed to the TM--I did a minute or two of walking on some of the bigger hills and still ended up with pretty regular contractions the last couple of miles (Neil was teasing me because when he asked how close together they were I answered in mileage rather than minutes. Hah!). Walked .6 to cool down and make sure that everything calmed down with the baby. :-)

8/23; 35 weeks

5 easy for me today--another packed day so this was all I had time to run. Will try to fit in some walking later today. Walked another 2.5 miles last night for a total of 10 yesterday; planning to do an 8k trail race tomorrow so I'll probably take it a little easier today.

8/22

7 easy (TM) and .5 walking (outside). Really beautiful weather today--hoping to pick up some bonus miles later tonight walking or biking with my kids, depending on the homework situation.

8/20

5 easy today--felt SO nauseated the whole time and got a mouthful of stomach acid about twice a mile! Had time to go longer but just really didn't feel good. Walked .7 to cool down. 34 total this week, 24 running and 10 walking. I don't see that balance changing much in the next couple of weeks--getting to the point where running is pretty difficult.

8/19

7 today; first 5 easy and last 2 more tempo-ish working up to HMP, back down, and up again. Half a mile walking to cool down.

Yesterday was SRD; 1.5 walking.

8/17; 34 weeks

6 somewhere between easy and aerobic with HMP and FF last mile. Walked a mile to cool down.

Yesterday didn't have enough time all day to run and shower, but I DID have little 10-15 minute chunks randomly scattered throughout the day as long as I didn't have to shower afterwards! Walked 6 miles throughout the course of the day/evening, plus early AM yoga.

Enough of a workout yesterday that I won't count it as a rest day, since I'm going to divide walking and running miles for the week. I haven't been tracking my walking miles for the last few months, even though I usually walk a bit to cool down, but I think I will start tracking them now since I may need to shift the running/walking balance for the last few weeks until delivery.

8/15

6 easy with FF last mile, walked 1/3 to cool down. Very tired today and this run was not at all enjoyable. TM started going nuts the last few minutes and randomly dropping speed over and over via the digital display; eventually buttons became nonresponsive and I had to stop, wipe everything down, and start again for the last 1/3 mile. Really hoping that issue doesn't repeat again--I think it was just from sweat on the screen.

8/13

6 easy with FF last mile, half-mile walking to cool down. Had to stop at 3 miles to take some anti-acids and water--nausea and heartburn have been SO bad the last couple of weeks and I just couldn't deal with it today. TBH every day I wonder if I can actually make it through the run--definitely feeling the effects of late pregnancy and tired doesn't even begin to describe it. Will just keep going while I can!

30 for the week, 60 for the month

8/12

SRD yesterday; normal yoga. Crazy busy day with tons of meetings for kids--I spent a solid hour driving to and from the middle school 3 times and had another 2 meetings at the elementary school.

Today--easy 6 with FF last mile--felt very easy today which was a nice change. Rewatched the trials for the last couple of miles and it's amazing how easy it was to speed up with that playing on my screen! :-) My mom was visiting so I'm glad I managed to fit this in.

8/10

6 easy with FF last mile +.3 walking to cool down. First couple of miles were really hard--my legs were just dead and I was super nauseated. Stopped at 2 and stretched out my calves; seemed to help a lot. Now off to our local waterpark for the evening--promised my kids I would take them before school started.

8/9; 33 weeks

6 easy today + mile walking to cool down. Had a lot of pain yesterday in my hip flexors after no cooldown or stretching thanks to the drama-filled end to my run, so really focused on that today. So dang tired these days thanks to the baby making it impossible to sleep more than a couple of hours...7 weeks to go.

8/5

6 today--easy for the first couple of miles and then picked up the pace progressively to finish at HMP. Wasn't planning to run a harder one today but had to stop quite a few times in the first 3 miles for kids and was frustrated enough that I just wanted to run faster and get it over and done.

4 easy yesterday and then pool. My legs were so dead--wore my compression socks the rest of the day which helped a lot.
Now driving to MI to meet up with friends for the weekend at the lake, so this is it for me running-wise this week--first time I've run 5 consecutively in quite awhile!

30 for the week/month.

8/3

6 at 10:28/mile (aerobic pace with 14 min. total of HMP intervals). Nice to actually feel like I'm getting a workout again; we'll see how the leg feels later. Off to the pool for some XT.

8/2; 32 weeks

6 easy earlier today--another one where I wanted to go longer but didn't have the time! Literally had 8 minutes post-run to take a shower (icy cold!) and get out the door in time.

Had pretty regular contractions every mile or so, which is always fun. (Not.) But thanks to my previous pregnancies, I know that there is absolutely nothing I can do to start labor on my own short of a Pitocin drip, so...contractions were less noticeable after the first mile when I adjusted the belt position.

Eight weeks to go!

8/1

Had some major issues with pain at the stress fx site after the race Wednesday--probably all of the leaping over logs and running up concrete stairs. Took normal SRD Thursday (yoga and swimming), then Friday pretty much rested on the couch as much as possible--felt AWFUL. Dizzy and tons of contractions. Saturday mowed the lawn, did yardwork, but no running--18.2 for the week and 114.2 for the month. Normal SRD Sunday.

8 easy today; felt pretty good. Wanted to push the pace but didn't, wanted to get in another couple of miles but ran out of time. No leg pain!

7/27

6.2 tonight. Local race series trail 5k and then picked up the other 5k once the kids were in bed, both with DH, so that was nice! Ran the first 5k at a pretty easy pace thanks to all the obstacles on the trails (11:43) and the second a little harder (10:40). Both were dang hot but the second through my neighborhood was definitely worse even after the sun was down--the shade and trails cut the heat quite a bit! Pretty fun course with lots of stairs (both concrete and 2-ft high ones cut into the trail with logs here and there), four or five stream crossings (no wet feet though--water was pretty low), muddy and sandy patches, and LOTS of hurdling fallen trees. My favorite kind of trail with just enough stuff to keep it interesting and make you watch every step--goes so much faster that way!

A couple of amusing bits--I had to walk up the steep bits of the trail bc there was literally not enough room for my leg to bend without hitting my stomach, and the RD asked if she could take a picture with me after I finished to convince her daughter that it was possible to keep running during pregnancy (she really wants grandchildren). Haha! Overall a good running day and I was super happy that the first race of this series fell on my birthday. :-)

7/26; 31 weeks

Monday: Another day where I seriously contemplated taking an USRD but ended up with 7 aerobic pace/HMP intervals/FF. Gotta get kids to music lessons now.

Today: 5 easy that felt so stinkin' hard. Everything aches right now; at the joint-pain-stage of the cold. Off to the pool in hopes that the water helps.

7/23

4 easy on TM with FF, walked 1/3 mile afterwards to cool down. Sinuses are just about completely closed, ugh! Woke up early this morning simply because I couldn't breathe. Summer colds always feel like such an affront. Headed to the pool for the rest of the day--too hot to do anything else!

30 for the week, 96 for the month, 675.2 YTD.. If I run 33 miles a week for the next 9 weeks I could hit 1000 for this pregnancy but just adding 3 miles a week (assuming I can keep up the 30 which I don't know if I can) sounds a little ambitious even for me...

7/22

7 on TM; combo of speed intervals and easy recovery pace. Went a lot better than I was expecting; I was up late last night (favorite old running buddy came into town for a quick visit) and I caught my kids' crappy summer cold, so I really didn't know if I'd even be able to get a mile since I felt pretty lousy when I started! Gotta love it when the endorphins kick in.

SRD yesterday; prenatal yoga & a couple of hours at the pool.

7/20

6 easy late-night miles for me (11:21 PM finish!). Had to do the dreaded glucose tolerance test today (if you're unfamiliar with it you basically have to chug 50g of sugar syrup), and after that + a blood draw + a TDaP booster (tech wasn't kidding when she said it was going to hurt a ton later-OW!) I was so nauseated & dizzy most of the day that running was out of the question until all of the crappy glucose got metabolized. Just glad it's done and that tomorrow is a glorious SRD--planning for yoga + swimming.
And because I went to the trouble of looking it up, 664.2 miles for this pregnancy so far.

7/19; 30 weeks

5 on TM; first 4 easy and gradual uptick on last mile for FF at HMP +31. Headed to the pool now and hoping it relieves the leaden legs!

7/18

8 on the TM; HMP 1-minute intervals until I ran out of time the last mile and ran the rest at HMP -47 seconds.

7/16

3 very easy for me tonight, but OUTSIDE!!! First time I've run outside in 7 weeks so I'm a wee bit excited (waited until 9:45 PM when it had cooled off and DH was able to go with me, since I'm a little nervous about going by myself these days). Stomach cramps every time I ran up a hill, but it was glorious to be off that darn treadmill!

31 for the week; 10 weeks to go!

11/13

SRD yesterday; yoga and pool.

10 tonight. Did the first 7 pretty fast and then took it down a little for the last 3...didn't finish until 11 PM and I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. My mind was more fatigued than my legs--just not one of those runs that was enjoyable. But double digits are always good, I guess...

7/13

4 miles easy; had some cramping 7 minutes in so I walked for 5 until it went away. It didn't bother me the rest of the run but I decided to do my short-distance run today and then use the extra time to mow the lawn. Managed to get it almost all the way done before the lightning and torrential rain hit! :-) Nothing I haven't run in before, so I just tried to hurry it up and finished before the grass got too wet. Good X-training!

7/12; 29 weeks

6 easy today--didn't feel easy! Off to the pool & hoping that helps to wake up my legs a bit.

7/11

8 today; 42 seconds slower overall than the same distance Friday--legs just felt SO leaden today! Not much sleep over the weekend and I definitely could tell. Today is crazy busy with stuff for the kids so I'm thrilled that I managed to wedge this run in the little chunk of time between clarinet & swimming lessons.

7/9

Quick easy 3 this morning; now headed up to Lake Michigan beaches to meet extended family. 30 for the week and a whopping 35 for the month. Lots of leg pain after yesterday's speedwork; massage, compression socks, and Tylenol finally made it bearable enough to sleep.

7/8

8 miles, aerobic pace with 2-minute HMP intervals every 8 minutes (10:29/mile). Negative split and did NOT have to stop once for my kids (ah, the magic of going to the library right before my run!!). Was hoping to get in another 3 but ran out of time before we had to leave, so I'll nab those tomorrow. Enjoyed this run so much more than the others this week--no cramping at all and is the pace that I would normally do my LRs at (at least the ones where I'm not hitting MP miles) so it felt much more "normal."

7/7

Thought about running today so I wouldn't have to run before I drive up to Michigan Saturday, but basically my mantra today is "everything hurts and I'm tired," so I took my normal Thursday SRD and did yoga. Hopefully I'll feel less achy tomorrow and be able to semi-enjoy my run tomorrow (I am SO SO sick of the TM but this weather pretty much guarantees passing out if I run outside). Wonder of wonders, I made it through my entire yoga DVD without having to stop once, which is a miracle since I was watching my friend's 3 kids this morning and so there were 8 kids playing around me. Now just hoping that the forecasted thunderstorm hits so that I have an excuse to lounge around my house instead of taking everyone to the pool. :-)

7/6

Easy 6 and yoga. I hate how long it takes to do runs at easy pace. Can't wait until I can do sprint intervals again!

7/5; 28 weeks

6 on TM; planned as easy run but had enough kid interruptions the first 2 miles that I really had to crank it up the last 4 miles in order to finish by the time I'd promised to take kids to the pool. Last mile at HMP; hopefully I don't feel this too much later.

7/4

7 in a progression run with HMP-intervals. Midterms this week for the summer class I'm teaching at Purdue, which equates to my worst grading week, so I probably won't get many miles in this week (also another weekend away visiting my sister who is moving to Hong Kong). SRD yesterday and didn't end up running Sat after 9 miles walking in Chicago then driving home. Confession: I am feeling pretty darn tired and that's not good headed into this week! But I do feel better post-run so that's good...now to cram in an hour of grading before the holiday festivities start.

7/1

Yoga and SRD yesterday (hahaha...rest...prepped for a party to which we'd invited 23 families).

100 for June.

5 today; easy for first 3.7 and gradually cranked it up the last 1.3 to end with HMP. No cramps! Now off to Chicago for a quick overnight...we'll see how many miles I log walking. If I get home early enough I'll try to squeeze in a run late tomorrow night.

6/29

5 very easy, about 30 seconds/mile slower than normal easy pace. First mile at normal easy pace and then had to take it down to stave off cramping. But at least I didn't have to walk today! Not sure if I will run again this week or if I will give myself a couple of days off--spending Friday and Sat in Chicago and hosting a big party tomorrow, so it's kind of a busy weekend with lots of on-the-go time so I won't be able to relax if I start feeling crummy. We'll see. 

6/28 pt 2; 27 weeks

Last post update: biked 8.8 with kids tonight. Cramps super bad on the big uphill and I decided to walk it--it was bad enough that I could barely walk. Tapered off but definitely did not feel good second half of the ride (maybe exacerbated by the fact that we biked to Dairy Queen and I split a Blizzard with Neil?).

6/28

5 very easy today. The best I can say is that my run followed the exact pattern that all my other runs did at this point in pregnancy--darn cramps were back to haunt me. But at least I know why--did some research last night through my old logs and it looks like it's the round ligament causing all the pain; it herniated when I was pregnant with my 3rd (had to have emergency surgery to fix it, I'll let you imagine how fun that was with no anesthesia). Doesn't hurt when I'm not pregnant but right around now it really comes back to haunt me for a few weeks. Hopefully it will stop in 3ish weeks as it's done in the past, but with my last couple babies I just gritted my teeth and ran through it when I could and walked when I couldn't so that's my plan now as well.

Anyway, got 2.2 before the cramping was too bad; ran/walked for a few minutes, then had to walk half a mile before it stopped and I could run very slowly again from 3.1-5. Gradually got speed back up to my normal easy pace for the last third of a mile.

6/27

10 miles today--kind of an interesting run. I wanted to do a faster one today, so I did my standard aerobic pace w/ HMP intervals. At 5.3 I had to stop to help my kids with something and then my mom called to discuss what time I'm meeting her in Chicago this weekend--she is always SUPER busy and hard to get in touch with, so I pretty much had to take the call. Long story short, it took 10:35 before I could start running again, which was just long enough for some wicked cramps when I started back up (from reading my running logs from previous pregnancies this is always an issue right at this point). Tried to breathe through them, couldn't, stopped & walked, started again at a much much slower pace (slower even than my easy pace)--after about 1.5 miles they were finally gone and so I slowly worked my way back up until I was at a normal pace again about 7.5 miles in. I'd been planning to run 8 but since I'd just barely started feeling good again I ran to 9...stopped at 9 for 2 seconds & figured I might as well finish out the 10. Avg pace 10:35, last mile 9:48. Pretty happy with that at 27 weeks. :-)

6/25

4 easy on the TM; off to the pool for the rest of the day.

30.2 for the week; 82.2 for the month

6/24

SRD yesterday; 30 minutes prenatal yoga and 2 hrs swimming with the kiddos.

7 easy with 1-minute HMP intervals today on the TM--so hot! Very soggy shoes.

6/22

6 easy with HMP intervals on the TM--so miserably hot! I was dripping sweat so much that it was hard to see. Took a couple of water/bathroom breaks just to cool off and get my HR down. Realized about five minutes before I was done that I was wearing the same tank I'd worn for my last two unbearably hot runs--think that one is out of the rotation. Just doesn't seem breathable! Kind of sad that it took me that long to connect the dots...I blame runner brain. 

6/21; 26 weeks

6.2  on TM this morning; 10:27 mile. Last couple of miles by far the fastest; had to stop at 2.1 and 2.7 for kids and had some wicked stomach cramps when I started back up again. Once those were gone I just pushed it to finish ASAP. Hard to find a good time to run now that my 3-yr-old isn't napping and my husband is leaving for work before the kids or I am awake and then going back to work after dinner. Oh well--it is what it is and I'll just be glad for the miles I can get.

6/20

7 on the TM; first 3.5 easy and progression for second 3.5. 2:35 faster for the second half. Not loving this heat at all; I have an old injury that makes my right leg & foot swell like crazy during pregnancy whenever it's too hot, and it's swollen enough now that it's really hurting! Running usually helps so I'm hoping it feels better tonight.

6/18

3 easy + 2 walking. I was pretty tired today (mowed the lawn and did a lot of yard work before running) so I decided that I should stick with my 30 miles/week limit and not push it even though I had time to do so.

30 for the week; 52 for the month. 

6/17

7 on the TM @ aerobic pace with HMP intervals; avg pace 10:28/mile. Started out with 1-minute intervals but then boosted until I was running at HMP from the 10-interval until mileage clicked over to the next full mile (by the end of my run this meant about 3:20/interval). Generally a pretty good run! Definitely more tired than I was earlier in the week, so I will do an easy run tomorrow, but this has been a very strong week.

6/15

7 on the TM; easy pace with 1-minute HMP every 10. Definitely felt harder than yesterday since this was my 3rd day in a row and I didn't get done until 10:30 PM! Neil got home from basketball just as I finished running so we had a nice breezy cool-down mile walking around our neighborhood...I finally found a time when it was enjoyable to be outside today!

6/14; 25 weeks

6 easy on the TM. More stops than I'd like thanks to kids--1.5, 2.6, and 5. For some reason they were all super grumpy today and not inclined to do their own thing while I ran. But the 2.6 stop was thanks to a huge rush of stomach acid in my throat--I really hate it when that happens as pregnancy advances.

6/13

Another 7 for me this morning--must be the magic number here today! TM again (big surprise). 8 seconds faster than Saturday. Felt great the whole time.

6/11

7 today on the TM; first half at aerobic pace and second half at HMP. Had planned to do my LR yesterday and an easy run today, but I think I caught a weird fever-only bug two of my kids had last week...I was super dizzy in the morning, about passed out making jam, and by 2 PM couldn't even stand up. Didn't run, drank tons of water, went to bed early and felt fine this morning. Didn't want to push it too much with my run today so I ran it semi-conservatively for the first half (37:38) to make sure I was okay and then pushed the second half (35:10), which, go figure, felt 1000x times better than the first! Not much of a LR but I'll take it at this point! And until this weather cools down it's all TM for me...blah, but I just don't want to risk overheating.

22 for me this week

6/8

Another 5 on the TM today--feel like a broken record! Since I'm planning a SRD tomorrow I pushed it today with some intervals--2 minutes at HMP and 3 minutes halfway between easy & aerobic pace. Comfortably hard but kind of depressing how this pace felt hard. This is always the point where I really wish it was possible to devise a training schedule for the next few months rather than just saying, "Well, I'll run what I can." Avg pace 10:21/mile. Interval paces 5.5 for the 3-minutes and 6, 6.1 for the 2-minutes. 

6/7; 24 weeks

5 at easy pace with some HMP 1-minute intervals every 10 minutes just to keep things interesting. 20 minutes yoga to finish. Also got 11 hours of sleep last night which is AWESOME since I averaged 4 hrs/night the last 2 weeks on vacation! Faster than Monday by a minute or so.

6/6 playing catch-up

Well, running w as interesting the last few weeks. I got in a lot more cross-training and hiking than actual running...it's just SO dang hard to fit it in on vacation with all the driving and minimal sleep. Most of the time we were accommodating someone else's schedule which also made it really hard to fit in runs.

Saturday after my 5 I drove to Iowa and spent Saturday and Sunday night there with our dear friends. Walked about 2 miles Sunday. Drove to Denver Monday, drove to Utah Tuesday and ran 5 m up the canyon. Altitude wasn't too bad but I felt like I was working SO hard and the uphill was murderous--I was FLYING on the way back and I think my last mile was 8:48?

Wednesday I got up at 6 am and did 4 on the TM. We spent the whole day at Thanksgiving Point. I was so dead tired by the end of the day and my ankle hurt like crazy. Thursday we went to Salt Lake and it was again super-exhausting. No run. Friday was an awful day--Neil's flight got delayed 3 times, then cancelled, and it was really stressful--he was supposed to get in that night. I ended up with 5 at the hottest part of the day and it was just miserable--one of those runs where my mouth filled with stomach acid and I just felt like crap. Saturday I'd planned to do my LR, but without Neil there I ended up walking all over BYU campus with the kids, then drove to Salt Lake, picked him up, and we hiked about 2.5 miles way up AF canyon with the kids. It was magical and helped me to get in a better frame of mind for dinner with the in-laws. Sunday was church and more in-laws (both were super late nights and I was exhausted). Monday I'd planned to run, but then the guys left to play basketball at 6 and didn't get back until almost 9, which burned my running time, so we hiked 4 miles and then I ran a horrible awful miserable 2 miles on the TM when we got back and walked another. It was seriously the worst run I've had in ages--I was just so tired. Nathan woke up SO many times every single night and I didn't get more than 4 hrs of sleep the whole trip (best night was in Iowa when he woke up 14 times, and then I had to drive 10 hrs to Denver the next day).

So that finished out May with 97 miles, which was kind of a huge bummer.

Tuesday we drove to Idaho and went out on the lake. I couldn't ski (pregnant) so I held Nathan and cheered for everyone else. Wednesday we drove to Yellowstone and hiked a bit that evening. Hiked more on Thursday, including a gorgeous venture to Mystic Falls. Hiked more Friday, then drove to Rapid City Saturday and home on Sunday (long long day--15 hrs in the car and got to bed at 4 am after unpacking while dealing with super cranky kids who were refusing sleep).

5 mile progression run today that felt pretty good. Started at easy pace and gradually worked up to HMP. Total was 54 minutes at 10:48/mile (so much slower than my slowest run in Utah, but oh well!). Walked .5 m to cool down.

5/21

5 muddy trail miles this morning; consequently, my splits were all over the place (10:35, 13:09, 10:12, 11:18, 9:00). Legs felt pretty heavy; this was definitely my hardest run of the week, thanks to accumulated fatigue, and I'm looking forward to some rest! Pushed myself pretty darn hard the last mile since I was hungry and tired, but when I got home my kids and DH were just setting out on a bike ride, so I turned around and biked another 3.7 with them. Good cool-down, I guess? 30.3 for the week; 80.4 for the month. Headed to kids' piano recital, then hitting the road.

5/20

5 easy on the TM. A little stiff at the beginning, but worked out pretty quickly.

5/19

SRD yesterday; yoga and walking with kids. Also lots of general craziness--it was NOT restful.

10.3 this morning--first 9.3 were a trails link-up that I LOVED but took much longer than I'd anticipated--I'd run 2 of the trails before but the third was so twisty that I seriously got dizzy and nauseated (it was nuts. Just imagine that you run for two feet and then turn sideways to get between two trees, and then immediately turn around and run for four feet in the opposite direction before immediately turning around and running for three feet before doubling back again--repeat for 2 miles. I was blown away by how many miles of trail they fit into such a small space, but they maximized every inch!). Loved the trail overall but I may wait to do it again when I'm not pregnant. 

smile emoticon Anyway, it was muddy enough that I had to walk a few times (started to lose my shoe so I figured I needed to slow down), which added to the darn steep mud-covered hills meant that my average pace was 11:38/mile and I was like, oh crap, running out of time to get my kids from their playdate--so I took a shortcut home through lots of brambles, ran as fast as I could, picked up my kids, then ended up running the last mile up and down my street while I bribed my kids with Popsicles to hang out on the front lawn waiting for me (at least that mile was a little faster--9:13 and my legs were SO heavy!). I really wanted to get to 10--obsessive much? I have a lot to learn about trails timing as compared to road timing--I just always forget how much slower it is on the trails!

Anyway, it was a good kicked-my-butt run and I saw a blue heron, two coyotes, and a deer, so I felt like a semi-legit trail runner. wink emoticon

5/17; 21 weeks

Long long day! Started my run about 9 and I was already dragging, but managed to get 5 miles on the TM. Mostly easy pace + 1 minute at MP every 10 minutes just to increase turnover (and remind myself that the easy pace really WAS easy, hah!).
Definitely feeling more pregnant/heavy/tired/achy.

5/16

5 on TM; so many interruptions that I had to finish the last .5 after picking kids up from school. Not a fun run.

5/14

5 this morning--had to wear tights, SS, LS, and jacket. Stupid Indiana. Windy and real-feel of 31 + some sprinkling rain. Sad to say, I took my oldest two along on bikes and was not sufficiently sympathetic to their complaining 3 miles in when they decided they didn't want to move anymore--not very fun for anyone involved. Took a shortcut (carrying their bikes) to get them home at mile 4 and then ran a much faster last mile. 10:16 overall; 25 for the week, 50.1 for the month.

5/13

5 easy on the TM

5/12

8 on the TM; progression run. Started out at easy pace and finished up at MP. This was a really good confidence-booster, despite the blahness of running on the TM. After M/T runs I was worried that I was going to have a hard time recovering from the Mini in time to not lose fitness (and believe me, once it goes during pregnancy I can't get it back!), so this run was SO good! Comfortably hard. Overall 10:42/mile; stopped twice to help out my little guys, which helped bring my HR down.

Started at 5.2/5.3/5.4. Every 15 minutes I ran a one-minute interval at 6, and bumped up my base pace (so the last 15-minute set was at 5.7/5.8/5.9). Gradually bumped up continuously over the last 5 minutes to end at 6.1. 

20 weeks; 5/10

Still really struggling with fatigue; slept 10 hrs last night but just not feeling it in my legs today. Tried a little interval stuff but had to take it down mid-run.

4 miles; 43:49

5/9

3 easy on the TM today--well, easy pace, but did NOT feel easy! I've been dragging all day today; I think the post-race fatigue hit. In other news, checked in with my OB today and I was down 5.5 lbs from my last appt 5 weeks ago, which I think is attributable to water loss--I have been guzzling water all weekend but still feeling constantly thirsty!

One America Freedom Festival 500 Mini-Marathon 5/7

First of all, this is one of the least flattering photos I have ever posted of myself, and it's requiring quite a lot of mental self-talk to do it. I don't look pregnant--I just look bulgy. But I achieved something pretty awesome today, whether bulgy or not.

13.24 miles in 2:08:27, 9:42 mile (Garmin, turned off after crossing finish line)
13.1 miles in 2:08:22, 9:47 mile (official)

5k pace: 9:55
Brickyard: 9:53
11m:  9:52
Finish: 9:47

Regardless, I beat my goal of sub-10 miles at 20 weeks pregnant, which makes me pretty darn proud!!! And I got faster as the race progressed, which is always great!

This was an interesting race in that I decided less than two weeks out I was going to run it. I didn't think that I would be in a position to still run this much at this point in my pregnancy, since in past pregnancies I've been maxing out at 12 mpw at this point, so to still be running 30+ mpw is pretty darn exciting, especially being able to do long runs! In general I have felt much better this pregnancy than with previous ones; I don't know if that's because of the extra time between babies (SO nice not to immediately be pregnant 6 weeks after weaning a baby) or what. I don't think I was in substantially better shape given the 8 weeks I had to take off for the stress fracture, but I think mentally I was much more used to distance running since I'd run 2 half and 2 full marathons since my last pregnancy.

Anyway. I got up at 4:20 AM after a very fitful night's sleep, but anticipating this (see, I'm getting wiser the more I race!) I had been really careful about sleep, nutrition, and hydration all week (given the forecasted highs were like 30 degrees over the bizarrely cold temps we've had for the last two weeks). I got ready, ate my PBJ in the car on the way to meet my new friends (only one of whom I knew in passing before today!), and arrived at our carpool at 5:10 AM. We had a nice ride down to Indy, part of which I passed in being wildly jealous of their group of 15 runners who all work together for a big biotech company in our area--makes talk at lunch much more interesting! Got the car parked, found a bathroom, and then headed to the start line. I really wish I'd been able to somehow get an aerial shot because I LOVED seeing the 30,000 runners lining up...it was just amazing!

Splits:
1: 9:39--this was actually a really hard mile for me. I loved the energy at the start and seeing Meb Keflegzi waving from the cherrypicker overhead--that was AWESOME!!--but I felt SO hot already and I was really worried about how much warmer it was going to get during the day. I kept trying to slow down and when I saw my first split I was so kind of mad, because I was trying to get 10-minute splits for the first 5K and then reassess.

2: 10:01--slowed down and felt less worried mentally, although I was freaking out a little because I felt like I was sweating more than I had ever sweated on any run ever. Then I realized that my sunglasses were trapping heat, my lenses were fogging over, and I had sweat rolling down over my eyes--I put my sunglasses up on my head and the problem was solved. Took a honey stinger and some chia water at the end of this mile.

3: 10:00--still feeling pretty darn hot, so I walked through the water stop and made sure I got every last drop.

4: 9:44--felt like I was settling into the pace a little more and starting to really enjoy the running experience rather than freaking out that I was going to bonk at the 5K. :-) Another honey stinger and more chia water.

5: 9:43--is this where we turned into the town of Speedway? I really enjoyed this section--there was so much to look at and so many people out cheering! I LOVED all the crowds! This is also the point where someone running next to me tapped me on the arm and said, "Hi!" and I stared in running-brain-addled confusion for a few seconds before realizing it was Deb, one of my online running-forum buddies who I've never actually met IRL! 

6: 9:39--the Speedway miles were easily my favorite of the entire race. It was SO nice to talk with Deb and not worry about pacing or general running worries or anything--and especially nice because the Speedway had been the part I was most concerned about since it's SO huge and I thought it might get me really mentally down. Snuck a honey stinger/chia stuff at this point (no gels on the track, but they didn't say anything about non-littering-stingers, so I hope that was okay!)

7:10:07--felt like we were running into the wind a bit at this point but it actually felt really nice to cool down so I didn't mind!

8: 9:43--more nice chatting miles with Deb--seriously this part went so fast!

9: 9:52--Deb split off to go to the bathroom and while I really debated waiting with her, I ended up going ahead. Immediately I felt very lonely and kept checking behind me hoping she was catching up! I took a looong time walking through the next water stop hoping to give her some extra time. :-) Another honey stinger. 

10: 9:32--for some reason this mile felt awesome and was one of my favorites despite not being particularly attractive course-wise. Maybe it was the water spray thing, maybe it was the knowledge that there was only a 5K to go...

11: 9:43--started having some weird hip niggles here. Fortunately they went away after about 30 seconds; I think it may have been from the camber so I switched to the other side of the road and that seemed to help. Ate the Clif gel that volunteers were handing out about 10.5 and had some chia water to wash it down. 

12: 9:42--started passing people lying on the side of the road being worked on by med staff and reminded myself to still keep my pace in check so I didn't end up there too. 

13: 9:08--let the pace go and enjoyed every step to the finish line! 

last .24: 1:56

Picked up my food and found Deb again just as we had made our way through all the food stuff and were heading over to the meeting area. Walked over to I and found Ted and Mark  (more running board buddies) standing there; it was really nice to chat with both of them! I was sorry to miss Rod and Sandy, also from our running board, who hadn't finished yet, but I had to start the looong trek back to the car (we were parked on Market off the circle) and then had a very interesting experience changing my clothes at the Hilton which involved listening to a woman frantically trying to find a bathroom, breaking into the men's bathroom to find a guy randomly asleep on the toilet and then urinating all over the floor--in surprise, I suppose? (I could hear this all from the men's bathroom next to me and it was making me INSANELY curious to know why someone was screaming and why the security guys were telling someone to leave or they would call the police (the guy passed out on the toilet)). Fortunately my friend was outside so she filled me in on the details. :-)

I have to say that this race was WAY more fun than I thought it would be! I ran it at what felt like an easy pace the entire time--I never felt like I was pushing too hard and I still had something in the tank to pick it up the last mile. I felt like I ran a smart race with the pregnancy and kept it within good limits while also meeting my goal (under 10/mile avg pace). Definitely more enjoyable than the half I did a month ago and just a really great day.