Monday, January 14, 2013

The "Long" Run

Well, crap.  Monday again?  When can we figure out a way to get rid of this damn day??
I know, I know.  I'll quit my whining.  Whether I like it or not, Monday came once again like a horrible train wreck....unavoidable and head on.  Lame.
Well, now that I'm done grousing like a 10 year old, I'll look at the bright side.  I have 3 days of work in the office, one business dinner, a trip to Buffalo, and then I'm off to Florida for 5 days for our mini vaca.  Phew.  I can make it.  (Sorry to sound like such a baby)
How was your weekend?  I had a pretty busy one (well, for this nauseous and tired lame-o it was busy).  I had to run a bunch of errands, a few family things, a football "party", and a long run.  I'll focus on the last item....namely, because I have nothing fun to talk about for today other than budget revisions (snooze) and because my long run has...well...it's changed.
When I first went to my OB a few weeks ago, I was a bit concerned.  Well, okay, aside from first time mommy concerns....I was concerned about my activity level.  Pre baby thoughts, I would workout 7 days a week (relax, Ill get to it) and my week would look something like this:


Monday-Easy swim 45 minutes
Tuesday- Lunch Run, PM weights
Weds:  Lunch Swim (speed), PM bike
Thurs:  Speed work (run), PM weights
Friday:  Easy swim or yoga or off
Saturday-2 to 3 hour ride
Sunday- 90 minute to 20 mile run

Depending on what I was training for.  Back in January, I stepped off to get my womanly self right and into baby mode.  My scale back was about 60 minutes a day, lower intensity.  Still running, biking and swimming, and add in a few longer bikes before my half ironman.  No biggie.  But everyone's heard the pregnancy half truths regarding exercise....keep your heart rate below 140.  Pass the talk test.  DON'T RUN, you'll shake the baby (WHAT?)  Don't bike (outdoors).  Don't do anything, period.

Oh you bet I'm wearing this.
Well, I wasn't standing for that.  So after an awesome talk with my OB, I was set to go with some guidelines.  As long as baby and I are checking out healthy (and we are) I can do anything (well, aside from sky diving and scuba and the like!) as long as I keep my heart rate down (around 140, but based off my talk test level), and replace all the calories I burn.  Sweet.  They also advise limiting the time of exercising (roughly 75-90 minutes a pop) but gave me the A-OK to run my half since I've been running halves and fulls since 2008.  I like these guys.

Well, that's a great idea.  In practice.  In reality, I've felt so damn nauseous for the past two months that running...sounds horrible.  I've been doing 45-60 minutes of activity a day, but leaning more on biking, swimming, yoga and kickboxing (which is excellent for stress!).  I've been running 1-2 times a week, anywhere from 4 to 8 miles.  And the pace.....well, let's just say it doesn't make me feel like a rock star.  But hey.  I am a rock star.  If I run a 10 minute mile, and I'm running for two....that breaks some kind of record....right?  LOL

Moving on.  So this weekend I knew I needed to tackle a 2 digit run in order to feel ok about my Ocala race.   I also wanted a ballpark so that Greg doesn't freak out at the finish line when I don't appear in my usual time (about 1:50, or an 8:15 pace).  So I headed out on Saturday and ran to my parent's house, which is 11.5  miles away.  My thoughts?  Well, if I didn't look at my watch, it wasn't bad!  I walked every 5 minutes, or up the hills.  I drank.  I ate.  I'm pretty sure I threw a party out there.  I arrived feeling fine, a bit warm, but hey, it was 60 degrees out!  My time for 11.5 miles was 1:54, about 12 minutes slower than normal, which is perfectly fine.  It's funny what "long" is to me, when last year, I would knock these babies off like nothing.  Times change (and will certainly change back!!) So I'm looking at about a 10 minute/mile pace for next weekend  - est time 2:10-2:15.  If the weather cooperates, if I'm not sick, and if the course isn't long (or I suck at tangents).

It works.  And I'm interested to see how I fare.  After the long run, I felt none of my usual soreness, but I had tight shoulders, my ribs hurt, and my....chest hurt.  But that's normal when you;re lugging around an extra cup there :-P

Did you run while you were preggers?  Any thoughts to share?  I'm really looking forward to this race, but I'm certainly out there to have fun, enjoy the run, and not stress about time, which is new and exciting to me!

PS- Looking for a really long run?  Check out my friend Stephanie's new blog "Cleveland or Bust!"  You go girl!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the shout out!!! It means a lot to have your support. I just referred your blog to an expecting mother/runner.

    ReplyDelete