Work Out Wednesday

I've gotten a lot of questions lately about how I ran so long in pregnancy. And a friend suggested I blog about fitness as well as eating.  Since I'm not yet able to work out, rather than post my work out plan for this week, I'll focus on what I did the last 10 or so months.

In my late teens and early 20s I ran for the fun of it, and even ran with my college's club cross country team.  Then I graduated law school, got married and got a real job.  Somewhere in there I lost the art of finding time to take care of myself.  I started to get serious about running again after Hailey was born.  But it was not until my  brother was killed that I found myself needing to run.  I found great solace in putting one foot in front of the other and just letting my mind go.  When we were younger we used to run together - and by run together I mean I about killed myself to keep up with a guy who never trained yet easily ran a sub-7 minute mile on unfairly tall frame.  My runs became a way for me to "talk" to him again, as well as a way to work through the sadness and anger - to let all the things I wanted to say to his killer but couldn't go,

By April I found myself actually looking forward to running.  My 10 year college reunion was in May and I really looked forward to running the trails there again.  When I  was finally able to lace up my shoes and go for that run, I found it unexpectedly hard and had to catch my breath a few times.  The day we returned home I was ecstatic to learn I was pregnant.

It was then I started researching running while pregnant.  I read the Runner's World Guide ** and asked my doctor and decided to keep going.  My first doctor was old-school and said I could run as long as my heart rate never got over 140, which was almost painfully slow.  But I kept plodding along. I made mini goals for myself by signing up for 5ks and ended up doing a 5k at 8weeks, 20 weeks, 24 weeks and 32 weeks.  I listened to my body and slowed down when needed and took breaks as necessary.

At 23 weeks I changed doctors, for the better. And on her advice stopped tracking my heartbeat and instead listened to my body and made sure not to get too worked up.  This helped my runs to be more enjoyable.  As I got bigger I found I needed support for my belly. I tried a few belts and ended up loving the Belly Bra ** which I felt gave more support overall.  And there was no need to try to adjust it when my belly became huge and I stopped being able to see below my belly button.

After my last 5K I decided to just go until I no longer felt comfortable.  At 35 weeks I was put on temporary  restrictions due to contractions, so I stopped running for a bit.  I started up again at 36.5 weeks, but then fell (unrelated I was walking to get lunch) the next day and twisted my ankle, bringing an end to my pregnant running career.

My best advice is that like running at any other time, it's 90% mental.  Sure you feel like crud especially those early weeks, but you'll feel so much better once you get out there. Staying active keeps both you and baby healthy.  Of course you should always get the approval of your doctor, but I am happy to answer any questions you have about my personal experience.

** full disclosure I'll get a very small stipend if you buy either item linked.