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December 30, 2007
2007 Review
Same questions as 2003, 2004 and 2006:
1. How many miles/kilometres did you run this year?
871.26 miles
2. What were your highest and lowest mileage weeks?
H: 43.44 miles
L: 2.33 miles
3. What was your longest run?
17.23 miles.
4. How many (if at all) races did you enter?
1 x 5 mile time prediction run
5. What were your best and worst race performances?
I only entered one race, and I didn't actually race it, being that I was 22 weeks pregnant at the time.
6. Do you have a favorite, memorable run that you did this year?
I had a lot of miserably cold runs in the beginning of the year, so those are memorable in a bad way. Memorable in a good way - running 10 miles with Molly after work in sub-zero windchills. Running in Hawaii was pretty cool, even if I wasn't used to the heat and the hills were really hard.
7. What was the craziest weather you endured while running?
As usual, wind gusts over 30 MPH were brutal, especially when I almost got frost-bite on my face back in January. I also got tricked by the snow plow that month.
8. What were your goals for 2007? Did you achieve them?
Well, let's look:
Since my main goal is to spend a good portion of the year pregnant, it's hard to make specific running goals, so:
1. Try to avoid injury.
I did manage to avoid injury this year, but when you have a long string of weeks where you only run once or twice, that isn't too hard.
2. Run every race to the best of my ability.
I guess I can call success? I only did the time prediction run, and I'm not sure I could've done much better than I did.
3. Try to be less hard on myself.
Hmm. I'd say fail, since just yesterday I posted that I wasn't running as much as I'd like to be. But then again, I really am not feeling too badly about my pregnant running falling short of what I'd imagined it to be. I'm not sure I think I stand on this one. The beginning of the year was kind of rough on me, and it was hard not to be frustrated.
4. Run 1000 miles or more.
With 5 months of mileage not topping 50, this wasn't going to happen.
9. What are your goals for 2007?
It's hard for me to make goals for next year, since I don't know exactly how my running is going to be affected by the baby. So like last year, I'm going with slightly vague goals:
1. Continue running as often as possible, for as long as possible, until my due date. If running becomes too hard, switch to the elliptical.
2. Resume running after the baby is here as soon as I'm comfortable - but ease into it!
3. Lose the baby weight as quickly/safely as possible.
4. Avoid injury.
5. Run any races to the best of my ability.
6. Run the Women's Race again.
And the numbers:
Running: 140:42:13 | 871.26 miles
Walking: 12:09:04 | 46.32 miles
Elliptical: 9:15:00 | 34.6 miles
Weight lifting: 5:51:00
----------------------
Total: 167:57:17
Graphs (click for larger):
December 29, 2007
30w0d
If I weren't using the super boring pregnancy date title format, I think I'd be tempted to title this one "I did it!" (said in a Hiro from Heroes voice). I don't know why 30 weeks got into my head as a big milestone, but even though my running is far below what I would've liked it to be, I feel proud of myself for still running 4-5 times a week at this point. And again, even though it's a lot less than I'd like to be doing, I feel proud that I ran 6 miles this morning.
I even went outside for part of my run! We got hit with a few more inches of snow yesterday, but it's in the 20s and the roads are semi-clear. I ran really, really slow this morning in part due to the snow, but also the hills in my neighborhood. I've been running on my (flat) treadmill, and there were no hills when I ran at my in-laws last week so I'm really not used to any form of an incline. I got in 4 miles before running out of places to run and I kind of wanted a bathroom break anyway. So I stopped had a brief break (< 5 minutes) to clean off my shoes, pee and change into shorts. I then ran 2 miles on the treadmill; I was starting to get some possible braxton-hicks towards the end, so I was glad to stop.
I might go outside again tomorrow, but we'll have to see. My pants don't stay up too well and it's hard to adjust them when I'm carrying my water bottle.
December 23, 2007
29w1d
When I last updated, I'd had a lower mileage week. Last week went better, with my running 5 times for a total of 16 miles. I was still stuck on the treadmill, due to the ice and snow that is still lingering around. Moving on ...
I ran 18 miles this week! There is something odd about the "highest" mileage week of my pregnancy coming as I reached 29 weeks. I got to run outside for three of those runs due to being at my in-laws where there was no snow or ice and it was in the 40s! I ended up running 5 days in a row, which I don't like to do - but I wanted to take advantage of the warm weather. I couldn't turn down being able to run outside in shorts in December.
I was going to walk with Molly today, but we're now at my parents house where it is 13 degrees - with 42 MPH winds making it feel like -6. No thanks! Hopefully it'll be a little better tomorrow so I can run outside, although that's looking doubtful. Maybe I can see if my mom's health club will let me in under her membership or something so I can treadmill. I'd really like to get through this next week before starting to cut back. After reaching 30 weeks, I figure I'll take things week by week, but I think I'll be more willing to consider just running 2 miles instead of 3.
December 11, 2007
27w3d
I'm already tired of winter, and it hasn't even technically started yet. The Engineer used the snow thrower 3 times last week ... the roads are still all crappy because they do such a poor job of snow removal here. So I am still inside on the treadmill - bleh.
I only ran 4 times last week and one of those runs was a pathetic 1.5 miles. I made the mistake of thinking that I could run at lunch, only an hour after eating a piece of cake. That didn't feel so good, so I stopped early. On the plus side, I did manage to run 5 miles on the treadmill on Saturday - with only one break.
I had my glucose tolerance test on Thursday. The drink tasted like concentrated Sprite, so it wasn't completely horrible. A lot of places use an orange flavor, which would probably be really gross. I felt kind of crappy after taking the test, but that probably had more to do with having run 3 miles on an empty stomach and then only eating a piece of cheese than the actual test. I didn't have to fast, but they said to avoid sugar. Sugar's in everything - even fruit counts as sugar. But after the hour, my blood sugar level was 124 so I passed. My diabetic brother told me that for normal people, that wasn't a very good level ... I think he said it would be considered pre-diabetic. But for pregnant women, under 140 is good. They checked my iron levels at the same time, and mine was 11.something. Normally that would be considered anemic, but I was told that with the increased blood volume it's okay - but trying to add iron through my diet wouldn't be a bad idea. So I'm glad to have dodged the bullets of iron pills and the 3-hour test. I really wanted to avoid a gestational diabetes diagnosis because a lot of places require that you be on an IV during labor and I am very anti-IV since that can restrict your being able to move around. I don't know how much I'll want to move around, but I want that option. Now the next obstacle is the Group B Strep test.
My belly has definitely popped ... I think it's going to start resembling a basketball at some point.
December 2, 2007
26w1d
I ran 5 days this week - something I haven't done since May. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep that up, since it's getting uncomfortable and I'm now completely grounded to my treadmill. I've been tolerating the treadmill runs during the week because I've been able to go outside on weekends, but that came to an end yesterday.
Two things prevented me from going outside yesterday: temperatures in the teens with a windchill below zero and snow falling. Now, normally neither of those things would be enough to keep me inside. But while my tights still fit, my warmer pants are probably not a good fit right now. And even if I could scrounge warm enough clothes, the Engineer has forbidden me to run outside when there is snow on the ground. I'd think that was silly, but my mom and I went out later in the day and just trying to walk across the unplowed parking lots was very uncomfortable so running would have definitely been a bad idea.
Further grounding me is that it started sleeting and there is now a layer of ice on top of the snow. Molly, who loves snow, doesn't even want to go play in the yard. Add in Minnesota's poor snow removal on streets and spotty sidewalk clearing, and I won't be outside for quite awhile. So treadmill it is - blah.
On a happier note, the Engineer and I are now looking forward to New Year's Day football:
