I am officially 12 weeks and 1 day pregnant! I am due on 11/14/2017. My only goal is to stay active during my pregnancy. I used to be inactive, and I was extremely unhealthy. I want to be healthy and have a healthy pregnancy.

Taking things day by day. If tomorrow, I wake up and running doesn’t feel right anymore, I will shut it down and move to biking or walking. One thing I know for sure, I will not be one of those people running a marathon while pregnant. LOL. It’s actually really nice to have no goals or pressure on my running.

PRs before Pregnancy-

5k- 18:36, 10k- 40:02, 1/2- 1:28, full- 3:14

Mileage before Pregnancy- 70 MPW

One of the last workouts I remember doing was 6 x 1 mile hilly repeats. I got faster every mile. I ended with a 6:20 and 6:18. I was in the best shape of my life. I could easily run 6:45-6:55 pace for 6-8 miles during a tempo run. Almost every ‘workout’ I did averaged in the 7:10-ish range for 8-11 miles. I was ready to crush some PRs in the spring… Little did I know…

Week 4- Clueless Bliss

It is very common for me to have a later period when stress hits. In the past, I have been up to 8 days late.  So when Tuesday, March 7th rolled around, and I didn’t get my period, I didn’t even bat an eye. Then March 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th. 4-6 days late was still no biggie. I rationalized that I could not be pregnant because I was running so much. HA!

In fact, on Saturday March 11th, I raced a 19:18 5k unkowningly 4 weeks and 4 days pregnant.

However, as I look back.. I can see something was ‘off’ this week. I was slightly disappointed with my 5k time. I felt that I was in better shape than 19:18. I also felt that I was running with the ‘parking break on’ during the race. I chalked it up to an ‘off day’.

I also did a workout on the treadmill this week. It felt 100x harder than it should have. I hit all my paces, but I just felt very off. Like, I was racing not doing intervals. I had been running all of my workouts outside, so I chalked it up to ‘i’m not used to the hot gym’.

 

During all of week 4, I had no idea I was pregnant. I waited over 7 days before I took a pregnancy test. I had never been so shocked in my life when I saw a ‘positive’ result.

Week 5- Complete Shock

The off runs from week 4 was all making sense now. There was this ‘easily winded’ feeling I got just when running at an easy pace.

I spent this week really trying to listen to my body. I completely cut out doing all workouts. I just did not feel comfortable pushing my body ‘that hard’. When I run workouts, I push my body HARD. If you are competitive runner, you know what I mean. I was worried about pushing too hard- it just didn’t feel natural or right at the time. I decided to do 100% of my running was just going off feel every day.

Most days were ‘easy’. Some days I did a progression or slightly harder effort. My old ‘harder effort’ runs were easily 6:55-7:10 pace. Now, they were almost 1 min per mile slower.

Week 6- “Hey this isn’t so bad” LOL

I was starting to feel back to my old self after the initial shock of finding out.

My running days were mostly easy miles again. No structured workouts of goal paces. Just listening to how my body felt, and I felt surprisingly good this week.

I started inching into pushing the pace just a little to get the blood pumping. To my surprise, my legs still had speed, and it actually felt really good to run fast and give a hard effort sometimes! Things were very different from what I used to do.. No more 6:10 intervals for .5 miles, but I felt good ending a progression run with a 7:00 mile! My breathing was easy, and I felt ‘comfortably hard’.

I also experimented with going ‘further’ this week. I did an 11 mile long run. Stopped at my car for some water. I was more thirsty than normal. Just taking my time.

Week 7- Legs feeling heavier & fatigue sets in

This week I still was not suffering much fatigue or nausea. One thing I started to notice was the amount of time it took me to ‘warm up’ or get out of the super easy pace range. Some runs I felt like my legs were literally bricks.

My turnover was gone. It took me over 45 min of running to even get down to what used to be my easy pace LOL. It didn’t feel aerobically difficult at all. My legs just felt like the parking break was on. It was a weird sensation that I still have.

Even if I wanted to run fast, I just didn’t have that next gear. I felt my body almost put up a protection mechanism to prevent me from overworking. It felt very natural to slow down the paces. Sometimes it was almost funny.

Week 8- Nausea & Sleep Spells

The real fun began at the end of week 8. I suddenly could not stand the thought of certain foods. I would eat insanely large quantities of food throughout the day, but I would still get so hungry it made my nauseated. I could no longer even go to the grocery store. I didn’t know what would ‘set me off’ and make me feel sick.

I also would get insane hunger pains after I ran. I made at least 4 stops at McDonalds for some breakfast this week after a run haha #dontjudge I usually eat very well, but this week I had demands to go to Taco Bell or DQ like every day. It was bad.

In addition to my great diet, I also spent a good chunk of time on the couch. I am a very energetic person by nature, so this was very strange for me

I haven’t taken a nap since I was a child, but this week I took 2 naps!! It was the strangest experience.

I felt like my body had been taken over/hijacked!! And it has 😉

Week 9- Shifting Mindsets

This week was really hard. I felt terrible pretty much every day. Exhausted, lazy, hungry, nauseated. Constantly craving fast food and bagels and donuts. Basically in tears because the thought of my usual favorites like salads and fruits made me want to gag. What was happening to me? I gave in to every craving this week.

My only goal with running was just to be active. If I had to stop and walk or call a run short, I would. I kept the pace really easy for most of my runs. I started to really embrace the whole ‘slowing down’ thing.

Week 10- LOL this is starting to get obvious

Not only did I feel huge, but it was also starting to become extremely obvious my paces were way off.

This week I started the new approach:

1- stop as often as you want for pictures, porto-potties, trips back to the car for water, walk up a hill, checking your phone. I literally didn’t care at all about anything related to pace or miles or training. My mindset is now just on ‘being active’. This might seem like a super easy shift, but for someone who used to take their running pretty seriously, it’s a big mind shift. I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

2- Playing the ‘how slow can I run game’ became a new favorite. The miles sure started to tick by slower, but it was fun to really slow the pace and have literally no pressure. I was able to take in a lot more of my surroundings. I am running the same routes as before, but it feels totally different.

Week 11- Slowing down but feeling better

It was almost getting to the point where it was comical to be posting my runs. The nausea and fatigue started to go away. The biggest struggle now was lugging around extra weight and fitness not being the same. I started getting asked, “what races are you doing this spring?” all the time. It was hard to not blab!

Week 12- Finally Telling!

I am signed up for a few fun races which will be nice to run with others and be apart of my traditional summer races in a new way 🙂 Looking forward to no pressure and the changes to come