Running for Two: Trimester One

Running for Two: Trimester One

So, hey, I’m pregnant! Ok, that’s old news, but I’m in my second trimester now! Based on the way in which your due date is calculated (which was something I didn’t really know, perhaps, I am a dum dum) I was technically pregnant when Teal and I ran the DRC Half in November.  Let’s just go with that so I don’t have to have a birds and the bees plus pregnancy calculation discussion on the internet. 🙂

Turns out Teal wasn't the only preggo in this pic!

Turns out Teal wasn’t the only preggo in this pic!

At the time I got pregnant I was not far off from finishing my training cycle for Dallas Marathon which was to be my last big marathon HOORAH! before I knew I’d take a step back from such long distances while pregnant.  Since this is a new thing for me I didn’t want to pressure myself at all with running and let it play out the way it would.  I found out I was pregnant around Thanksgiving which made me immediately think – wait, what all long run distances have I covered during this short amount of time?  And it made since why there were a couple of runs where they just felt HARDER already and I would come to find out why shortly!

 

My first race where I knew I was pregnant

My first race where I knew I was pregnant

A couple of side notes about my pregnancy that have nothing to do with running. 🙂  There was one point I thought I might be pregnant, I remember telling Teal this, but when I took a test it was negative. Which was fine thought I felt already like something was just different with my body.  As it turns out I’d really just taken the pregnancy test too early.  The other thing which I just think is neat that your body just naturally start do is…Brent and I like to drink wine, but my desire for it just decreased.  We’d sit down to unwind, I’d have one glass and I was just done.  Again, I’d end up finding out I was pregnant during that time so it would all make sense later.  OK, here is my final side not for you, I actually had a dream the night before that I got a positive pregnancy test so naturally I got up the next morning and took a test which was positive!!

Anyway, back to running, in the time that I was putting in long training runs for the marathon and I was pregnant but didn’t know it I’d actually run an 18 miler and 20 miler.   Honestly, I just felt like runs got harder but I didn’t at the time know why.  After my first doctor’s appointment they had told me to make sure I could still carry a conversation while running to know I wasn’t pushing myself too hard.  OK, well, that’s easy because when Teal and I meet Catherine to run we all talk each other’s ears off. 🙂  When I’m by myself you can sometimes find me mouthing things to myself to see if I could carry a conversation if I had someone with me to talk to. Ha.

End of my last 20 miler for marathon training...a very toasty day!

End of my last 20 miler for marathon training…a very toasty day!

I tried very hard in this first trimester (and still do now) to embrace that I will slow down, to remove any pressure I am guilty of normally putting on myself and know a slower pace of running is better than no running at all.  This was a little bit harder in the first trimester just because I was keeping the pregnancy secret until I was out of the woods with the first trimester.

Other than that I’m trying to drink as much water as possible and hope Baby H doesn’t mind my continued running! I’ve been trying to get in 20 miles a week, so we’ll see how long I can keep that up!

Please note I don’t actually know the gender of my baby yet, so don’t read into the color of the header.  However, I think, this baby will be a girl. 🙂