Baby We Were Born to Run

The title of this blog comes from a lyric/title of a Bruce Springsteen song. One of my only pre-pregnancy ideals was that I was going to continue running throughout my pregnancy just like Paula Radcliffe. This was put into my mind when I read a Vogue article showing a picture of Ms. Radcliffe totally preggo running on a treadmill. I believe it was four months post pregnancy that she ended up winning the NYC Marathon. I am not delusional enough to think that I would be running at THAT level, but until then, I had no idea that exercise was even ok for pregnant women to be doing.

Then my friend AH got pregnant with her first baby and wrote about reading Exercising Through Your Pregnancy. I had just read the Vogue article and decided to read this book. I was totally curious about it, even though I was not even planning on getting pregnant at that point! The book is divided into two parts - the first part explaining research done with exercising pregnant women and the second part about formulating your exercise plan while pregnant. I only read the first part because that was over two years ago and I didn't see the need for reading the second part.

Then my doctor told me that it was completely ok to keep running as long as I didn't run more than I was running pre-pregnancy. Sweet! I didn't want to win any races or train for any marathon. I just wanted to get out on the road for a few miles each day.

So I found out I was pregnant and went for a run. As I mentioned, I had a good week and a half where I had no symptoms and was feeling AWESOME. I was still running my 8minute miles and feeling good.

Then Week 6 came. Now I am no longer running those 8 minute miles.

I basically have been running three times a week. "Running" is defined as doing a 2.3 mile loop through my neighborhood at the pace of a snail with no timer. (I am pretty competitive so I decided that the watch was not my friend). Or on cold days, "Running" has meant run/walking at the pace of a turtle for 30 minutes on the treadmill. Which is basically equivalent to 2.5 miles.

I am grateful that I haven't been THAT sick that I haven't been able to exercise, but I am definitely not exercising at a level that I am used to, nor do I really feel like exercising. I do it because of the books and websites that say it helps with sleeping and that it is good for you, the pregnant woman. I also am very careful not to push it near any limit and I don't run on days when the dizziness/lightheadedness is bad. And to be honest, I actually feel really out of shape. I get out of breath really fast and it really is a workout to do the aforementioned workouts.

I thought, "Hey, the Wii Fit would be a good exercise regimen". But I forgot that the damn Wii Fit weighs you and makes snarky comments. "Hello ---. Your last workout was 154 days ago. You have gained 4.6 lbs - oops! missed your goal." I have thought about writing Nintendo a letter asking them to put a "pregnancy" setting on the Wii Fit that would basically get rid of those snarky comments.

I can still do a plank for 60 seconds though. In fact, my pregnancy Wii Fit scores have been much better than my pre-pregnancy Wii Fit scores. I may now run a 12:00 mile, but damn i can rock the lunges.

So that's my deal with exercise 8 weeks in. I would imagine that my run/walks will become more walk than run eventually. I do not plan on getting one of those belly belts for pregnant runners. But, I take it a day at a time so maybe I will run longer than I expect to. We will have to wait and see!