There are Oreos in my Bathwater

Yes, the diatribes of a pregnant woman. The statement kinda says it all. But here's the whole weekend...

Saturday: Liberty 10K in The Colony

I won a free entry to this race - can't beat that.  First year they've added the 10K so it wasn't very big. After about 24 hours of so much rain, I drove to this race in pouring rain... and the second I get into The Colony, rain stops. There's still so much low cloud cover, and the humidity is outrageous.

The entire race, not a single drop of rain comes down. :-( But I'm also surprised a mile into the race when we turn onto the "trail", which is literally a flat dirt/gravelly trail. Muddy and uneven.

Okay, if it's not all concrete or asphalt, a race should really tell you on the race website in the Course section.  I've been surprised by two races before where the terrain's slight unevenness compared to concrete hurt my ankles - crushed limestone trail in one Fort Worth race and miles of settled years-old bricks in another Fort Worth race ironically.

Otherwise, race was uneventful. Just stuck with doc's orders - 160 beats per minute heart rate for 5 minutes and 1-2 minute walk to recovery below 140 bpm, then repeat.  Finished in 1:24:22.  Pregnancy has slowed me down, but I was still happy with my time.

I arrived home, saw on the heart rate monitor that I had burned almost 1000 calories between the run and during my heart rate coming down, and was concerned about replacing some of those calories right away.  I headed to the pantry and found a 6-pack (like the little travel packs) of Oreos that I had taken at a post-race food table and didn't end up eating right away. I rarely eat Oreos too. Feeling dripping wet still from sweating through all the humidity, I jumped into the bathtub and opened up my Oreos. I guess I'd forgotten how crumbly they are. Crumbs and pieces feel into the bath. "Well now I'm just a pregnant cliche", I thought. Funnier still since I've had very little appetite this pregnancy, not the ravenous hunger or random cravings at random times and random places that you would normally expect from a pregnant gal.  But the oreos in the bathwater continues to feel very symbolic for what's going on, trying to stay active and make it through all this the best I can...yes, sometimes with oreos in my bathwater.

Sunday: 12 miles, 8 running and 4 on the elliptical

Horrible humidity in the morning again. Ugh, so I instead opted to run about 3 pm - yes, 15 degrees warmer (90 degrees) but only about 57% humidity. Felt a little better than yesterday's weather package! I headed out with my handheld Amphipod water bottle (20 oz) and plans to shoot for 6-7 miles.

I was running low on water by about mile 3. Luckily had reached a shopping center and popped into a Potbelly's sandwich shop to refill my water at the soda fountain.  I had my Blackberry on me (always do on all runs now that I'm pregnant) and kept hubby up on what was going on and asked him to bring me a water bottle close to our neighborhood on my way back. So I had another refill at mile 5.65. I was still feeling pretty strong, although didn't want to overdo it. I hadn't run more than a 10K since I was 4 weeks pregnant in mid-April.  So I mostly walked from mile 6.1 until I decided to stop at 8 miles.

I really want to get my mileage back up so all along I had planned on trying to supplement my run miles with time on the elliptical. In the evening, I hopped on and reached the goal of 4 miles on there.  It's a good way to simulate running with the continued leg fatigue, while not taxing my heart rate too much in one day.

Ending the Week on a High Note

I'm feeling great, like I did at the beginning of the year, and this week's workouts show it too! I hit 27.18 miles for the week total = 22.18 miles running + 5 miles elliptical. And I got in a 1 hour Zumba cardio class.

Even if you are one of those who want to let out a  "pshaw" sound and blow off the elliptical miles, I'm still thrilled with my 22 miles ran in one week. At 5 months pregnant, I'm so thrilled to be feeling so good.

Happy Running All!