Only a half marathon to go!

So we are officially at the halfway point of this pregnancy.  Its so interesting, time seems to be going so slowly these days, literally dragging on between appointments and waiting for the next milestone, yet when I look back on it, I can't believe its been 5 months already.  Yesterday marked the end of 20 weeks, so I only have a half marathon to go!  When Chad pointed this out to me though, I had to remind him what a marathon really is - a 20 mile long run and a 10k gut-it-out-while-being-completely-miserable finish.  I think weeks 36-40 will be this final 10k.  Yikes.

I've (so far) had a very easy pregnancy.  I had about 3 days of feeling a bit nauseous around the 8 week mark and about 4 weeks of being completely wiped out exhausted, but this was the worst of it.  I've been told I'm lucky, but I'll take it!  With the exception of my waistline disappearing (what little waist line I had before this) and workouts being a bit harder, most days I'm not even aware that I'm growing a baby in here.  I haven't felt any movement yet, so I'm sure when I do, I'll be more aware.  My running has slowed down in a major way.  Right now I'm maintaining 2-3 times of running per week, at least one of those is on a treadmill.  The summer temperatures in central Florida are not conducive to this pregnant womn running any time the sun is out and my normal running partners are way too fast for me (though they're very nice and considerate, I hardly want to interrupt their training to keep 'slow katie' company on a 4 mile run).  This leaves my Wednesday Tioga running group which is a 3 mile outside run at 6pm, and maybe once more during the week when I have an empty hour early in the day, and treadmill running for the rest.  Luckily, I don't hate treadmill running, I like to zone out and have my pace controlled and the freedom of being able to run any time of day.  Even more luckily, one of my best friends moved and gave (!!!) me her treadmill so I have one at home.  Figured this will be a good way for me to ease back into running post-baby-birth (yes, I already have a running stroller also).

Though I've slowed down my running, I've been able to keep up my working out pretty regularly, 5-6 days a week which is a saving grace.  I told my coaches right away so they knew to expect a different Katie for a while and they've been wonderful.  I can still do pretty much everything that I did before, most stuff is just a bit harder and I'm a bit slower.  I did the "Hated Hundred"(100 burpees for time) about a month ago and my time is a whole minute slower than I was a year ago.  Pull-ups are harder, as are push-ups and anything related to jumping, but this is mostly just because I'm a good 12-15lbs heavier than I have ever been.  In.  My.  Life.  Its very eye-opening though and I'm thankful for this experience, confident that it will make me a more empathetic trainer and running coach for moms and those clients carrying around extra weight.  At the very least, I should feel very, very light when I'm back to my normal weight after this!  I'm also not maxing out any lifts these days.  The heaviest I'll go is a 3RM, which is still very heavy, but I'm able to breathe regularly through the entire movement.  I imagine there will be a time when I have to back it down further, and at that time I will.  I'm very happy to still be working out, and I keep telling myself that the more I do now, the easier it will be later.  Fingers crossed :)

     

                                     Pull-ups at 19 weeks, photo by Zoe Benjamin

One last thing before I wrap this post up.  We are not finding out the sex of the baby until the birthday.  We've always said we wanted to be surprised and we're sticking with that plan.  Though it seems to drive OTHER people crazy, we seem to be doing just fine with the planning and preparation without knowing whether to drown our house in pink or blue (not that we will!).  Green is my favorite color, and luckily its neutral.  Its so funny, people ask "How will you PLAN??" as if we can possibly plan with certainty for anything in this situation!  We don't know what the heck we'll be doing if its a boy OR a girl, so why does knowing that help us any?  :)

Oh, and I haven't had any cravings out of the ordinary.  I want frozen yogurt and smoothies like every single day, but that probably has more to do with it being a thousand degrees outside than the whole growing-a-baby thing.  And I'm only actually having frozen yogurt once a week maybe, though I am having a fruit protein smoothie for breakfast these days.  I'm also eating a lot of eggs, but I tend to go through these phases periodically in my life generally anyway, pregnancy notwithstanding.

I think this covers the answers to most of the questions I get on weekly basis.  All in all, I'm a lucky mom-to-be and couldn't be happier!

Another update coming next week, until then keep Running Happy :-)

                        

                     Trying hard to maintain BW dips as long as I can! Photo by Zoe Benjamin

Update

To say there's been a lot happen since my last blog post would be the biggest understatement of 2013.  I hardly know where to start, so I'll just hit the big ones and further update some of them in future blog posts.

January was... well... nothing special. Continued training for my upcoming races, took a weekend course in Kinesio Taping, and finalized my running calendar for the rest of the year.

February was busy. The Delerium Ultra 24 Hour Run was held on 2/9 in Bluffton, SC.  A few of us drove up that morning, ran straight for 12 hours covering just over 50 miles, crashed in a hotel and drove back the next day. Cause that's how we have fun (??). Two weeks later we drove out to New Orleans for our second annual running of the RNR NOLA full. I said it last year and ill say it again - this is a GREAT race! Still comes in Top 5 for marathons in my book, even two years in a row. I'd say there will be a third annual, except for another of my updates coming later. But you should do it sometime. Next year in fact, since I (probably) wont be there :)

March was definitely a memorable month. I had my last marathon of the season, a bucket list race in NC. The Umstead Marathon was on March 2nd in Raleigh. I ran alongside my Dad for the entire race, step for step, and it was one of my most favorite marathon experiences. We talked, we grumbled, we greeted other runners, we finished with smiles on our faces, and just thinking about this day makes me miss running long distance during my hiatus. My superspeedyfast friend came up with me to race and placed in the Top 10 Females overall which was the icing on the cake.

The month of March was also taken over by my participation in the Crossfit Open Games. This was my first time, in my adult life, competing in something other than endurance sports. I was on a team from Go Primal and we competed at Crossfit Gainesville every Friday evening. Every Wednesday we would anxiously await the release of the week's workout, Thursday was practice, and Friday was the competition. Chad was very (VERY) patient, supportive, and accommodating and managed to cheer me on at every event, along with several clients and friends (thanks!). While I did NOT finish in the top 60 (shocking, I know), I had a really great time and will definitely be competing next year in some capacity. This experience sparked something in me that I haven't felt before. While I loooooooooove long distance running, there's something exciting about going as hard as you can for a short (4-15 minutes, depending on the workout) period of time and competing with others. The environment that CFG provided and the camaraderie that my teammates and coaches created made the 5 weeks fly by. Lord willing ill be back and ready to compete again next year.

It was also during the month of March that my husband and I decided to buy a house in Gainesville. For the past 5 years we've been on the fence, stuck between the two worlds of renting and owning, unsure of whether or not we wanted to make Gainesville our permanent residence. Both of our families live in NC and while we love "Gator Country" we've always wanted to raise our children around our tightly knit families. Chad looked for jobs for a few months and when nothing panned out we realized that we had family here in town - a huge network of friends who we could call at a moment's notice if we needed anything, friends who would drop everything to help in a crisis, and friends who we could just go out to dinner with for date nights.  Though its not family in the traditional sense, we have lots of sisters and brothers right here. With this realization, coupled with Chad's lack of success finding a job better than the one he has now, we bit the bullet, found a house, and bought it. We're currently in the midst of a huge renovation, surviving with no kitchen, and finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (yayayayayayay!!!).

April started off with a road trip to visit my best friend in Alabama and run a "for fun" half marathon. During the crossfit games, running pretty much took a backseat so I could focus on the weekly competitions. It would definitely not be a competitive half, we decided to run together and enjoy the  time at Pensacola beach. It was the MOST fun!  The Gulf Coast Half Marathon ran down the coast of the panhandle, with lots of views of the ocean, miles of pancake flat terrain, and ended with a bottle-opener-medal - the first medal that hasn't gone straight into my shoebox! For a super cheap early registration and an easy destination for a weekend, this race is definitely worth it.

April got a bit more exciting when - the week after the half - we found out I was pregnant!  Though we were hoping for this news sometime soon it was a great surprise (I imagine it always is).  I'll explain more about this in a future post so as not to involve those who wish to stick to running-related posts, but its definitely affecting my running - in a MAJOR way.  I'm currently 20 weeks along (holy moly), halfway there.  Running a couple times a week, slower, and shorter than ever in my life, but my workouts are still strong and I'm simply trying to maintain all that I can in this time of my life.  I know lots of people (my husband included) were worried that I'd push myself too much and not back off when needed, but I'm doing a VERY good job, if I do say so myself, of listening to my body and changing things as change is needed.  My plan is to update this blog more frequently throughout my pregnancy because the biggest help to me so far has been following other fitness bloggers who write as they progress through their own pregnancy and sharing tips and ideas.  Look for more coming soon!

May was the month of the JOB CHANGE!  I had been a personal trainer at GHFC for almost 8 years now.  I've been running coaching as a side business for 2 years.  It was time to make the switch to full time running coach and develop my skills there exclusively.  Though I have loved my time at GHFC, I never had time to devote to my running business as long as I was trying to work enough hours to make enough money, blah blah blah.  With the news of a baby coming by the end of the year, I knew it was either now or never.  I wanted to get my clients and business off the ground before then.  I'm currently renting space out of Axis Training Studio off Tower Road, training runners for all sorts of distances, and loving every minute of it.  Its very liberating to know I'm solely responsible for my income, advancement, and who I surround myself with.  I'm in a great place and I'm so thankful I made this change.  Luckily I still get to teach classes at Tioga, so I can stay in contact with my members and trainer friends there.  Life really IS good :)

June and July have flown by, as I imagine the rest of the year will as well.  Kitchen renovations have taken over our life and we've been without a kitchen for 4 weeks and have about 3-4 more weeks to go.  Its a process, one that we're thankful to be able to do, and one that we will NEVER do again.  We have wonderful people working for us and luckily I've still been able to take *most* of my daily afternoon naps. Whew.

I'll update more often from here on out, that I promise you.  Not only to keep you informed, but because writing an update edition takes TOO LONG!  I've been working on just this post for about 5 days now, and that is just ridiculous!  If you're not interested in pregnancy stuff, just skip the next few posts and I'll get back to running related stuff soon enough (I'm hoping...?).  In the meanwhile, while slower, wider, and slightly less gracefully - I'm still Running Happy and you should too!

Until next time!