Running Updates – Week 32-36

Notice the blog post titles have changed to : running vs. training 🙂

Let’s start there, shall we? I have a lot to catch up on, so maybe I’ll try breaking things up into multiple posts.

Week 32: 21.3 miles

High-light: a 10.3 mile run with KH who came down from Minneapolis for a workout. I was able to pace her through all 5 of her hard miles! Wahoo!

Low-light: The 4 mile “run” the day before the workout above. I walked/ran — my lower abdomen cramped a bit and my lower legs just felt swollen and filled with pressure. I told myself to just run a mile – then 2. I made it to 4 miles, but honestly… on days like this I should probably just throw in the towel.


Week 33: 17.5 miles

3.5 miles on Monday, which did not go well. 10:30 miles. Lots of walk breaks.

Tuesday I came down with the flu (so made sense that Monday felt hard). I was hot, then cold – then achy, then weak. Yuck. Luckily it only lasted for 2 days, but afterwards I was SO TIRED. For the next 3 days I could not sleep ENOUGH. I’d wake up in the morning, eat something, and then become desperate to find a way to crawl back in bed for a long nap.

It got to the point where I called the clinic to make sure there wasn’t something else going on. Nope, blood work was relatively normal (for this far along in pregnancy). Thyroid #s had changed direction and iron and Vitamin D were low, but not low enough to cause tiredness like this. So, I chalked it up to recovering from the flu.

8 miles the following Saturday at the cabin with my FIL who is training for TC10. I told him I’d try to go 2-4 miles depending on how I felt. I don’t know if it was because our pace was perfectly slow, or what it was – but it was a GREAT RUN! I did his entire 8 with him, averaging 9:30s! I napped for 3+ hours later that afternoon. Still soooo tired…

6 miles the following morning with Nathan. Just the two of us! We don’t get the chance to run with each other much anymore, so it’s always a treat :). Afterwards I laid down and slept, HARD, for 4 hours. Maybe this running thing is setting me back in recovering from the flu?

Week 34: 4.7 miles

This entire week I could NOT SLEEP ENOUGH. I barely made it through the work day, let alone many of the house things/family things that need to happen. Luckily Nate is just awesome and picked up the slack while I went to bed at 8, sometimes 7, in the evening :(. I felt really bad about not being able to help much, but there was nothing I could do – my brain was so foggy and anything that I did do took 3-4 times longer than my usual zip-around-quickly-double-tasking self.

We went down to the GAC Alumni race that weekend – always one of our favorite races! I knew I hadn’t run at all for over a week, but wanted to at least try the 5k. I did about 5-7 minutes of warm-up, which is just enough time for my lower abdomen to complain about the extra weight it is carrying, me to walk for a few minutes while the muscles loosen, and then for me to jog back to the start line.

I came in last in 25:01. My first last place finish! 🙂

Good thing Nate’s TNC jersey fits over this bump!

We typically have a hard time convincing alumni women to come down and run the race. I don’t know if they think they needed to be speedy? I insist that it doesn’t matter pace and that I’d run no matter my pace: first or last. That was easy to say back when I was winning the meet by 30-60 seconds – but now I’ve fulfilled my promise.

Stopping to give Greta a high-five during my race

Not that I care about pace right now, but it is interesting to note that I was FOUR MINUTES faster for this 5k than with Greta (and this time around I was a week farther along). I’ll take it!

ALMOST done. The finishing stretch seems a whole lot longer when you know you’re in last place & everyone is waiting on you…

Nate came in 55th with a time of 20:22. He hasn’t been doing a lot of running this summer so was a little disappointed in his time.

Nate right before his race. Greta was pretty devastated to let him head to the start line.

Greta signing “more” after watching the men race past us. She is quite the little sign-er. We regularly use 50-75 signs, I would guess? Baby Signing Times and now Signing Times DVDs are the only TV she can watch, and she loves them. We love that it helps her all-around: the cognitive benefits of learning a second language, the dexterity involved (she is slowly learning to use one or two fingers positioned or moving in a specific way), etc. We are big fans. Plus, Nate can use the signs at his office since he treats a lot of families that go to the MN State Academy for the Deaf. Win!

Greta ran in the Little Gustie race as well! She still fits into the 6 month GAC XC onesie Dale and Heidi gave us when she was born (we keep stretching it out to fit each alumni event :)). We have a new T-shirt on order for her for track season so she can hand down this onesie to baby!

Love this picture

I told Nate after the race that I can not WAIT to compete here next year!! Seriously – I’m really fired up about getting back into shape and racing again :).


Week 35: 3 miles

Nate, Greta and I did the MN Walk for Recovery. It was really great to stop by the event and realize how far I’ve come (and remember what we went through just over a year ago…).

Nate and I in our matching Beauterre Recovery Insitute shirts. Greta was starving after the walk. A few good chomps from a granola bar stopped the tears.

I’m okay with just walking the rest of the time between now and when baby arrives!

Week 36: 10.2 miles

I walk/ran for the first time on Tuesday during an hour-long realtor preview/open house. Mesa was in doggie heaven (she hasn’t run much lately…). I texted Nate during my 4 mile excursion: “I forgot how much I love running!”

Mesa is SO HAPPY!

Wednesday, the next morning, we had a showing so Mesa and I headed out once again. I was a little sore (SI joint, mainly) so took it really easy, walking more than running. We covered 3 miles before seeing the buyer and agent’s car leave the driveway. I like that these showing/open houses get me out the door! Yay!

Friday afternoon I drove over to the Faribault high school to present to the team. I LOVE DOING THINGS LIKE THIS! The entire presentation was light-hearted and had kids interjecting and sharing stories. There were a lot of fun questions at the end as well. Then it was time to run with the team. Luckily they were tired from two speed days so I kept up just fine on a 3.2 mile run. I chatted with a lot of the girls’ team (lots more questions!) and a few of the guys. Honestly, this presentation and run were the highlight of my week – maybe month! I truly love doing this.

Taken right before I headed over to Faribault High School. Wonder what the XC team thought when they saw their “motivational speaker/fast runner”? 🙂

Would your XC team welcome a presentation on my OTQ story and what lessons, attitudes, and stories they can apply to their own training? Send me an email! nichole (dot) porath (at) gmail.com

I was invited back for any workout with the team after baby comes. I can’t wait! The team is very welcoming, the coaching staff is fun — and honestly, it brings me back to “the old days” when I used to find training partners anywhere I could – the Red Wing YMCA guys, the Red Wing guys’ XC team, etc. I can’t wait to be “that” 33-34 year old doing 1000 repeats next to a team less than half my age – at least I know I’ll bring a big smile, lots of high-fives, and a contagious attitude to “embrace the suck” (as the team says)!

Now, you might be thinking: why make the Faribo XC team your team? I wish I could have the same relationship with the Northfield XC team, but have not been able to volunteer with the NF team at all in the 5 years we have been here. I don’t know why, but they just don’t seem interested… in a volunteer coach, a presentation, help in any other way :(. Oh well – for all things, a reason!

Total miles for this pregnancy: 1850.4. So yeah… Definitely not going to try to hit 2,000 :). Maybe 1900, though?


Your turn:


Any big ups or downs during September? Races? Injury? Sickness? Life stuff?


Are you starting to think ahead to your 2017 race calendar? I know I am… what races are on your radar? What big goals do you have?