Weight Gain and Performance

Weight gain and performanceIt's only a brief article but it highlights something that I'd read before. When I was training for my half marathon last December my cycling team had a guest speaker come in and talk to us about racing strategy, training, and nutrition. One of the concepts I walked away with was that extra weight really effects performance, and not in 5 lb increments but truly down to every single pound. I thought about that often as I struggled to battle an extra 5 lbs and work on speed training to get down to a decent pace for my half. It seemed to work because I did pretty well. Keeping that philosophy in mind easily explains why running has grown to be the most difficult activity during the pregnancy. In addition to the 15lbs I'd gained after my miscarriage I've added 20lbs on during the pregnancy. Hence my new 15min/mile average pace. The effort it takes to lug my new curves forward leave me feeling winded and my legs feeling like they're made of lead. The other day while running and chatting with my running GF, MandiRuns , and questioning how it could be that I'd gotten so slow and lost so much fitness, this concept got back in my head like a flash of light and I said "Oh! That explains everything!".

Fit Pregnancy in Photos

I was just a little pregnant for this color filled fun 5K but shhh... No one knew it yet!



The elevation profile for the Sedona Half Marathon at 7 weeks pregnant. Ran it slow and steady!



Mormon to National to Telegraph at Somo. 11 Weeks pregnant. 9 mile trail run with some of my best people and my favorite Fluff.



Somo Team Time Trial. I just showed up to support the team but enjoyed the "race". 22 weeks pregnant and placed 4th out of 6 women in my category. I also talked a pregnant teammate and friend into joining me out there! And to make it even better I won a pink Electra cruiser bike in the post race raffle!



Team ride 6/3/2012. 24 weeks pregnant and 35 miles down.

Creating a blog

I first created this blog in hopes primarily of inspiring myself. The first months of this pregnancy were challenging for any given number of reasons. Fears of miscarriage. Moving into a new home. Trying to reconcile starting out this pregnancy a whopping 15lbs heavier than the last one. Dealing with the exhaustion, nausea, constipation, and lack of sleep that all accompany the first trimester. I had gone online in search of answering the question "Can fitness and pregnancy really coexist". I was happily inspired by several articles from Active.com as well as blogs from other mother/ runner/ athletes. I think I started the blog during those early difficult months to inspire and challenge myself to stay focused on the goals of maintaining my fitness and my health. I'm happy to say that although my fitness goals have changed in the reality of my changing body, I am thrilled at all the ways I've been able to squeeze in fitness. I ran a half marathon at 7 weeks pregnant and followed that up with a 9 mile trail run around 11 weeks. Now that I'm getting larger I regularly meet with my running girlfriends for their easy recovery runs instead of trying to keep up with their regular paced runs. I rode 35 miles this weekend with my cycling team and recently placed 4th out of 6 in the South Mountain Time Trial. I'm swimming regularly and attending prenatal yoga. There have been several times when I've doubted whether fitness and pregnancy could coexist for me and I am thrilled to look back at my calendar and see that I'm making it work.