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!".

Round is a Shape

Come on. You've heard the joke. It goes something like this...

I am here today to share how I plan to celebrate my new curves!Of course I'm talking Josh into doing pregnancy photos and have found some good inspiration with these...


One of my google searches into hippie home birthing, breast feeding, and cloth diapering led me to a site where I got this gem of an idea...



I can honestly sit here and say that I am excited about my new curves and looking forward to celebrating them. Embracing the way that my baby is changing my body is one way of showing that we are ready to embrace the baby into our lives and all the changes that come with. So we're scheduling pregnancy photos to be done in July and I'm thinking the Henna painting should be done sometime before my shower. I feel blessed enough that I have had friends who have volunteered to help me with both! Woo hoo!And speaking of curves. Here's a little shot of mine.

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.

Sometimes the best laid plans...

I had big plans going into pregnancy. It was my goal to start out pregnancy as fit as possible. My ideal body weight. My maximum level of fitness. My fitness habits and routine well ingrained. I thought this was going to be realized when within weeks of finishing my half Ironman in 2011, tada! Josh and I were pregnant. We had tried for one cycle and were surprised to learn that one cycle was all we needed. Being in our early 30's and never having attempted to get pregnant before we were prepared for months of "practice" before we expected baby making success. We celebrated the pregnancy right away and shared the news with our closest friends and family. I was ecstatic to enter into pregnancy with my "ideals" realized and thrilled to know that fertility was not going to be a problem for Josh and I. Sadly this first pregnancy wasn't meant to be. I excitedly kept up my jogging and cycling through 10 1/2 weeks of pregnancy. Even keeping focused on my pre Ironman nutrition routine for the most part with a few indulgences of uber yummy comfort food like mac and cheese and cheese burgers from my favorite local diner. At some point my body caught up with the fact that although I was 10 1/2 weeks pregnant, my little embryo had failed to develop beyond about the 6 week point and my body began the process of expelling the pregnancy. Sometimes the best laid plans are just not meant to be. The miscarriage was no picnic and the weeks that followed were emotionally challenging to say the least. I had my friends and family for support and with their help struggled through the following weeks. I gave myself permission to grieve, indulged my emotional eating and frivolous cravings, and gave myself a break from my focus on fitness. I'm pretty sure I thought the cure for what ailed me would be found in a boston cream filled donut. It wasn't all gluttony and bad choices. I finished my first 1/2 marathon 8 weeks after the miscarriage and finished in just over 2 hours. A proud moment but bitter sweet because I'd anticipated running the race at 18 weeks pregnant... The holidays were around the corner and my cycle had returned to normal. Josh and I were given the thumbs up to try again whenever we were ready. And blessedly, here were are pregnant again and well beyond the point of needing to be fearful of a miscarriage. This pregnancy started out very differently. Instead of starting out at my "ideals", I had a few extra pounds and I'd let some of my fitness slide but I learned that there are more important things and to quote my midwives "Babies like a little extra fat". Not sure if that's been proven but I'm prepared to embrace it!