Pregnancy Weeks 29-31

Running update:

Things have been going so much better. Yay!

29 weeks

Running has been going awesome during weeks 30-31, and I find myself falling in love with the sport all over again. Chris now writes my plans in minutes and specifically writes workouts as X mins running/X minutes walking. For my “long” aerobic/easy days, he will write that I may expect to walk more than half of the time.

Then I can exceed “expectations” and that makes it more fun :).

30 weeks

30 weeks – growing steadily!

When I came back to running after my really sick week, running was freakin’ hard. I found myself gasping for air after the slightest incline. I’d only be able to go a mile to a mile and a half. I wondered if this was going to be “it” for running for me.

Luckily, though, I stuck to it and just vowed to try to get out everyday. Everyday became progressively easier: my body became used to carrying around a little more weight and a bigger belly, and my lungs adapted to their ever-shrinking size and I was able to breathe a little better every day.

For the first 3 days of week 31, I’ve been able to do 3.5 miles, 4 miles w/ a 24 minute run/walk “workout” in it, and 4 miles easy. 3 great runs, back to back! Yay!

I’m visiting my parents this week so have been running at the farm or in Marshall. It’s fun to rediscover the gravel roads at the farm, and very amusing to watch the reactions from the people around Marshall. I don’t know if they’re used to seeing a ~7 month pregnant woman running around town :). Most men will look at me, look down at my stomach, and then completely avoid further eye contact. It’s amusing :).

Week 31!

Feeling great!

I think another aspect to the renewed love for running is that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have just 9 weeks until baby, which isn’t long at all! I am dreaming of getting back to killing myself with mileage, strength, and all of the little things.

I. Cannot. Wait.

Baby Olympics!

I had an athlete/friend offer to help plan a pre-baby shower. She came up with a brilliant theme: “Baby Olympics” since my/Nate’s goal was just to hold a co-ed celebration/party (I’m not that into traditional showers…).

Welcome to the party! $2 to pick a date/gender, winner takes all. If no one wins, money will be put to a jogging stroller!

It turned out just awesome. So many people came: current athletes, former athletes, family, neighbors, and friends. We ate and then ventured out for the Games.

First: Don’t break your water! The object was to carry a water balloon between your legs from the start to finish, while carrying a 15 pound backpack on your front. Pregnant women just got to be themselves. This one received a lot of good laughter!

Hard not to laugh at this!

No need for a backpack for the preggos

Second: Stroller Nascar. The object was to drive your stroller, complete with baby, around the house without having your baby fall out of the stroller. The competition for this was FIERCE.

Third: The Baby Bottle Challenge. 8 ounces of the liquid of your choice (water, milk, or beer – surprisingly, most people chose beer :)). Object: to get the liquid down as fast as possible. Nipples had been modified to be more conducive for adults’ flow, thoroughly tested by Nate and Craig.

Fourth: Diaper Dash! ‘Nuff said.

My dad looks fierce! He’s up against the “moms” of the neighborhood!

Fifth and final: The “baby mile” – basically a modified version of the beer mile

We celebrated with the Olympic Torch relay (should have been at the start, but it was a better closer).

MIL to Jerry (coach that brought me to the Olympic Trials) to my mom to me

We ended the night with gifts. People are so generous. I am speechless.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!

Home for the week:

While driving home, my dad insisted we splurge for a Chuckwagon. I haven’t had one of these since I was maybe ~12 with him? Loved that I could curb that pregnancy craving with him 🙂 For all of you wondering, it was NOT as good as I remembered. Bummer.

I’m now home for the week, visiting my sister who is in from Denver. Sierra, my oldest niece, and I have definitely bonded.

She absolutely loves following me around. It’s pretty awesome. Well, most of the time. Maybe that’s why I’ve been running more while visiting her/younger sister – it’s a break!

Today’s adventures included running MULTIPLE times up and down the block and around the yard (with obstacles). She loved it. When I told her I wanted to finish my run, she promptly said: “Oh, that’s okay! I’ll go with you!”. I had to employ great grandma to distract her while I snuck out for my 4 mile run.

I will cherish this photo forever! I love the look of pure joy/happiness on her face – and if that means I need to run up and down the block a million times with her, rack my brain for new things to cheer/encourage, I’ll do it!

Once I was back, we had to practice running many, many more times 🙂

Another fun adventure was the eye doctor, while my sister had an exam/picked out glasses. I had the priviledge challenge of entertaining both girls. Sierra thought all of the glasses were “just beautiful!”, and Violet started bawling the minute mom left. Ohhh, my…. I’m trying to look at these experiences as training for parenthood??

Coaching:

Before the baby shower I was able to coach a few of my athletes (and one former athlete) to a few timed miles. It was hot and humid, but Craig and Amy still cruised to awesome workouts. I was also able to watch Angela, a former athlete of mine, in action, which was a lot of fun.

I’m sure my mom was freaking out at the fact that I was gone for some of the “prep hours” before the shower, but eh – once I was out there with my athletes, I simply couldn’t NOT coach. It’s in my blood, so I’m so glad I was able to celebrate the shower with a workout before hand!

Other than that, it’s mostly quiet on the coaching front! Most are logging miles in preparation for big fall goals, so I get the fun role of torturing them “just enough” and keeping them motivated, with the eyes on the end prize!

That’s all for now, folks!
Until next time, run happy!!