I wrote my last post and had it ready to go August 31, 2022. I took a pregnancy test the morning of September 1. And here we are, 5+ months later! At first, I didn’t want to announce until we passed the 12-week mark or so. Then it was until anatomy scans (usually 16 and 20 weeks but we did ours at 18 and 22 weeks due to work travel). But I think the cat’s out of the bag for everyone (friends and family and work) at this point. So maybe it’ll be fun to reflect back on how I felt and how my running/lifting/fitness went.
I felt like I had finally recovered from COVID (in early July) then was just dealing with the heat and humidity. I was already being a little self-conscious and defeating about my running mileage and paces. After finding out we were pregnant, it felt like I didn’t want to make my runs public on Strava because my runs were almost suspiciously slow and my mileage was relatively low. How silly! Now, I would love to see those paces and numbers again.
Fortunately I didn’t have a fall goal race in mind other than the Dash to the Finish 5K and possibly the Richmond Half Marathon in mid-November, though if pregnancy weren’t in the cards, I was targeting the Houston Half (or full). So I kept most of my runs around 3 miles and let myself do just 2 if I felt like it. I did about 4.5 in San Francisco from my hotel down to the Embarcadero and back mid-October, so I felt ready enough for the early November Dash 5K. My Bay Area trip was awesome and I did not take enough photos but I ate really well. I had booked a wine tasting trip that I could not fully enjoy but we went to the Oxbow Public Market in Napa and that was my favorite part.
For the Dash, I decided to not run with my chip in my bib because I wasn’t going to like my results and wanted to keep my sub-2 NYC Half as my most recent NYRR race results. Hopefully I’ll be able to claw my way back to that Corral F/G fitness again. I ran with my friend who was about 5 months post-partum, which was cool. It got really hard at the 2 or 2.5 mile mark thanks to the hills of Central Park. I still need to do the Newport 5K in Jersey City one day for a super flat 5K experience. The Dash is great for soaking up the marathon excitement and atmosphere – although it was a hot weekend!
I retired several pairs of old shoes I wasn’t using much: Nike Pegasus 36, Adidas Adios 3, Adidas Boston 3, Adidas Tempo 9, and Saucony Freedom ISOs (still had some wear and bounciness left but I kept reaching for other ones). I’m happy to have pared it down a bit! I now have a few pairs of Hokas (my OG pink Clifton 7’s are on their last legs but the super bright Rincons in the photo above are young and lively), Saucony Endorphin Speed 2 for workouts, Brooks Launch 8 for easy days, then some specialty ones for racing or trail runs (and some track spikes because they were free).
I had trips to SF, DC (for fun), Boston (for work), Orlando (for work), then Vegas (for Christmas). Mostly managed to keep lifting weights at my usual gym as well as various hotel gyms during my travels. After the first trimester, the experts recommend no more bench press (but incline bench press still fine) or other exercises where you’re lifting heavy laying on your back, front planks, or overhead press. They also recommend you decrease your lifts to ~70% of your prior 1-rep-max. This has actually been pretty doable up through my writing this at 26 weeks. I feel really strong and quite frankly kind of badass being so visibly pregnant in the gym. I also took up prenatal yoga at 21 weeks which has been fun and a good workout (and a good stretch).
More to come as I enter the third trimester! My biggest cravings have been for blueberry muffins, Oreo ice cream, and Chipotle burritos, which are all easy enough to obtain.
East Coast Appetite 