Running While Pregnant: Week 12

We bid adios (because I can't spell adieu) to Tuesday Tough Grrllll for awhile. I can't fake being worthy of posts with that sentiment these days. But, I'm still getting out there at least 4 days a week so I can at least speak to how Baby TOP is treating Mama in the fitness department.

One of the best things that happened in the first few weeks after my positive pregnancy test was that my Garmin battery died. At first I was annoyed. I've come to really rely on it to know if my pace is the right one for whatever workout I am doing. It was tough to get used to not knowing how fast or slow I was going. But, let's face it. I really shouldn't be running for any kind of pace right now. I've even given up on running for a certain distance. I am running, instead, for a certain amount of time. Here's how this past week looked:

• Wednesday: Forty minute run. (Start with 1:30 walk, run till 20:00, walk for 1:00, run till 39:00, walk 1:00.)

• Thursday: Could not drag myself out of bed. (Blame Modern Family's season premiere!)

• Friday: Normally a rest day; ran 30:00 to make up for Thursday (Same walk, run, walk pattern as Wednesday)

• Saturday: Run 60:00 (walk 1:30, run till 15:00, walk 1:30, run till 30:00, walk 1:30, run till 45:00, walk 1:30, run till 59:00, walk 1:00)

• Sunday: Rest day.

• Monday: Yoga stretching, strength training (this was LAME and I should probably not count it... but I did SOMETHING so what the heck?)

• Tuesday (today): Run 30:00 with same walk/run pattern.

With the walk breaks I am doing about 10:00  miles which is fine by me. So, I am running about 16 miles a week. I know I could push and go further and faster, but there's is no fire in my belly for that right now.... My belly is busy with other things in it right now, I guess!

I have been completely wiped out every afternoon and if all the kiddos are napping, I am prone to falling asleep for about 20 minutes myself. The good news is that it doesn't seem to matter if I run in the morning or not: I'm exhausted regardless. So, I can't use afternoon exhaustion  as an excuse to stay in bed. May as well get that run in - I'm gonna be a mess anyway!

Saturday long runs really really do have an impact on me, though. As I said to a friend a couple of weeks ago, "You know you are pregnant when I one hour run in the morning necessitates a 2-hour nap in the afternoon!"

I guess I could also attribute the exhaustion to other Saturday activities. For example, after my run this week, I came home, loaded up the 2-weeks of recycling and trash, went to the dump, did some birthday shopping for one of  T's friends, went grocery shopping, stopped at a farm stand, put away the groceries, did the laundry, cleaned the kitchen.... But, hey, that's just LIFE. And you can't skip LIFE just because you've got a plum-sized being sapping your Get Up And Go!

It will be really interesting to compare Week 12 to future weeks of RWP posts. Fingers crossed that they are mostly full of successful runs!