What a mess

Since everything is still pending and you never know who’s reading your blog, I won’t go into much detail, but….

Monday afternoon on the way home from work, I was t-boned by a drunk that ran a red light. Everything’s fine – Kate and I escaped unscathed, thank goodness. We spent a few hours in Labor & Delivery being monitored, but we’re both OK and got to go home Monday night. She’s as active as ever and not slowing down any time soon! My Toyota 4Runner is totaled, and we’re kind of sure/kind of not sure if the other driver had insurance. She did pony up some insurance info after awhile, but it’s a big long mess and I don’t want to go into too much detail in the even that we need to hire a lawyer and all that fun stuff.

Bottom line – I could TOTALLY do without this drama. Ugh.

Free time? What’s that?

Has anyone else experienced an uptick in activities these past few weeks? I mean, it just seems like you’re busier than normal? It feels that way for us. I can’t remember when we didn’t have a night (weekend or weekday) that we didn’t have something going on. Makes me think that, at least here in Colorado, the days are getting shorter and while it’s still hot as HECK out, I can sense that winter will be here before we know it. It’s already back to being dark when I go to work in the mornings, and it seems as though it’s dark by 7:45 now. Bummer. I live for summer around these parts, especially since it seems like ours is usually shorter than most. I have hope this year that the snow will hold out for a few more months, but you never know. We’ve had an unseasonably warm year with very little snow earlier this year, so here’s to hoping that continues for the rest of 2011.

After my 10k a week and a half ago, I listened to my (very aching) body and took it easy the following week, running just once (5 miles) and letting myself recover. My muscles were incredibly sore, mostly from booking it uphill – it’ll get my quads every time! – and mentally and physically, I was exhausted. This week I’ve been back at it, logging 5 miles on Monday and Wednesday, back to Pilates class, and hoping to log a 7-8 mile run on Saturday. I actually don’t have any races planned for September, which is no fun, but there doesn’t seem to be any race that I really want to do, save the American Discovery Trail marathon relay over Labor Day, but one of my relay partners just moved to Denver, and my other relay partner is running the full marathon! So that’s a bit out of the question.

I did order the maternity support belt and got it in on Friday. I tested it out Monday. I took it off after a mile. It was pressing against my bladder and making my lower abdomen cramp. Ok, isn’t the point of it to relieve baby pressure off of my bladder!? Maybe I’m just not big enough yet, so I’ll try again in a few weeks. But I’m happy to say that the two 5 mile runs I’ve done this week have been met with minimal discomfort. If anything, it’s not my growing belly that’s slowing me down… it’s my stupid IT band in my left knee. Sucker hurt from the minute I started running on Monday. I rolled it out that night and on Tuesday, and my run on Wednesday felt much, much better.

Anyway..back to being busy. I know it’s only going to get worse once the kiddo is here. But you know, I like being busy. Too many nights at home and I get bored/stir crazy. What about you? Are you finding yourself busier lately, perhaps trying to pack in as many activities as possible before winter or school starts?

Panerathon 10k and thoughts on running at 22 weeks

Last Saturday, I ran the 3rd annual Panerathon 10k. I’d actually signed up for the 5k two years ago, when I’d started running, but the race was cancelled due to ice and someone falling before the race. Last year, I’d intended to run the 10k as part of my Rock n Roll Half Marathon training plan, but got lazy and distracted by job interviews. So third time was the charm this year!

It was a bit of a cloudy day when we started, but the weather was actually pretty nice. It followed partly the same path of the Classic 10k that I ran about a month ago, only instead of a point-to-point race, this race was an out and back. Which meant the first 3.1 miles were downhill, and the last 3.1 miles were all uphill. Ugh.

Probably in the past week or so, I’ve really started to feel the effects of having a bigger tummy when running. Kate’s been sitting on my bladder (probably due to size and gravity) whenever I run, and it’s getting a bit uncomfortable. So given that the race was 50% uphill, I really didn’t expect anything spectacular, and certainly not a repeat of my PR at the Classic 10k.

But surprisingly, I did awesome! I finished in 1:07:44, which is about 30 seconds slower than my previous 10k time – a nice feat for me! Yeah! I was super happy with my effort and overall performance. A few folks asked to take my photo at the finish line – apparently pregnant runners are a site to be seen. :)

Afterwards, I stocked up on free Panera bagels and pastries (yum!) Not sure if that makes running 6.2 miles worth it, but it was a nice reward. Last week, I logged 14 miles total, pretty much what I’m aiming for (12-15 miles weekly).

Back to running with a belly. It’s getting difficult and uncomfortable, and quite frankly, I don’t feel like I’m huge so it shouldn’t be uncomfortable yet. Well, I do feel huge, but realistically, I definitely could be bigger. I still get comments quite a bit that I’m small and don’t look pregnant and when am I going to start showing? While I don’t know the answer to those comments (I personally feel that in the last week or so, I’ve finally started “popping” and am getting a tummy), I do know that it’s increasingly feeling like I’m running with a backpack that keeps getting heavier. At 22 weeks, I’ve gained 8 lbs, which I am very happy with. Overall, I feel OK, Kate is getting more active by the day, so I know she’s doing good, too. And I eat like a horse, so it certainly isn’t for lack of stuffing my face these days.

I ran 5 miles on Wednesday night at the gym, and the baby’s protesting quite a bit these days by sitting very low on my bladder/pelvis. I don’t really know how to explain it except that it doesn’t feel great. It’s not bad enough to make me stop and walk or give up running, but it’s very different from before. After some research and some advice from a pregnant runner’s group, I ordered a maternity support belt that supposedly will help a lot with the uncomfortable bladder feeling. So hopefully it gets here soon and I can get some relief shortly.

I was thinking last night that I don’t know how I will take it if/when I have to stop running during this pregnancy. I think it would put me in a serious funk, and while I know there are other things I could do, nothing brings me the same joy as running, you know? My goal was always to make it as far as I could – hoping to make it to 40 weeks, but always telling myself I’d go as far as possible and that something was better than nothing. But like most runners, I’m stubborn and competitive with myself and hate the thought of defeat. So I’ll just choose to ignore the fears of no longer being able to run for now, and hope this maternity support belt is the answer to my bladder woes.

Sunshine award and a little down time to finally blog

It’s been a crazy week. On top of finding out we’re having a little girl last Monday, my grandmother passed away, my husband was passed over for a promotion at work, and I ended up at Urgent Care for low blood pressure. YIKES. If I never relive last week, I will be totally fine. What a nightmare! Emotional rollercoaster doesn’t even begin to describe it!

Let’s start with the happy thing. Our big anatomy scan was last Monday, and we got to spend about 45 minutes with our surprise girl. We were so convinced she was a boy that it took pretty much the whole night to sink in that we’re really having a girl! We are over the moon in love with her, and she’s already got such a stinker pants personality (stubborn, ornery and active…hmm, reminds me of her dad!)

Check out these awesome long legs! Future runner!

 

We actually ended up having to do an internal vaginal ultrasound to get to money shot of her lady parts. Stubborn girl had a foot in her crotch the entire time and wouldn’t move, but since she was sitting breech at that point, we pulled out the secret weapon and got a great shot of her butt/genitals (lol!) Can’t wait to show that on her first date. ;-)

Besides the excitement of having a girl, she’s totally perfect and everything looks great! Nice, strong heart, beautiful brain, two arms and two legs with ten fingers and toes, functioning organs, and even a cute nose, mouth and eyes that we got to see! She’s an active little girl, that’s for sure. Since I started feeling her move about four weeks ago, she moves CONSTANTLY, especially enjoying kicking me in the crotch. Not cool, girl. Not cool. We’ve decided, after much debate for the past 7 days, to call her Kathryn Grace. We’ll most likely go by Kate.

I’ll blog about the other happenings later this week, but I want to move on to something happier – the Sunshine Award!

Bee @ This Time It’s For Real awarded me the Sunshine Award! Thanks, girl! She just moved to Austin, TX so if you live in or around the Austin area, make this native Texan proud and drop her a comment. :)

I’d like to pass this award on to Nancy @ Living the Dream and Lori @ For the Run of It. Both are such inspirational women who motivate me to get out there and run!

In the spirit of the award, here’s 7 pieces of information about myself… I can’t guarantee they’ll be interesting!

1. My first baby is my big orange tabby cat named Stewie. My husband proposed to me 6 years ago with this tiny orange kitten, meowing very loudly, and a ring around his too-big red collar. I’d had an orange tabby as a little girl that I loved and who ran away when we moved to Colorado, so having another orange kitty was always a goal of mine, and my husband pulled through. Today he’s a 14-pounder lap kitty whom I spoil very, very much!

What a handsome guy!

2. I’ve gone 21 weeks without being hit with any sort of craving. Is that weird? The one thing I think I might crave is a large iced tea from Sonic. Could be worse, I suppose, but I keep waiting for something weird and random to strike. The problem is, I think, I just love food in general. Wanting pizza is nothing new to me!

3. When I was a wee baby, I had braces on my legs because they were turning to the inside instead of growing straight. Interestingly enough, my mom actually had surgery on one of her legs as a teen because it was significantly longer than the other leg, so the surgery removed part of her femur to shorten it. Leg problems apparently run in my family! A part of me does believe my leg problems as a baby contribute to my hip flexor problems while running.

4. In real life, I am a technical writer/editor for a living. After working for a small privately-owned software company for 4 years, I jumped to government work and have worked on an air force base for the past year. LOVE it, although funding is volatile at times (love you too, Congress).

5. This year I successfully grew yellow squash, zucchini, and roma tomatoes without killing them – a first! Next year, we are building box gardens and I plan on having a bountiful harvest. I can hardly wait! The weather is so finicky here in Colorado, though. Last summer, we had quite a cool and rainy season, with it snowing until the last weekend of May. This year, we’ve had a hot and dry summer with the exception of the last 2-3 weeks where it’s poured every single afternoon (which is actually more typical of Colorado). So who knows what next summer will bring, but I’m hoping to expand my garden to include strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers, peppers/jalapenos, in addition to squash and tomatoes. Yum!

6. I am WAY more nervous about having a girl than a boy, which surprises me! I think it’s because I know what they’re like, and I was a totally dramatic and sucky teen, so I’ve spent the past week really praying this little girl really does take after her dad!

7. I MISS VODKA TONICS WITH LIME! We’ll meet again soon, my dear friend.

Quick update!

For those that aren’t friends with me on Facebook, we found out today that we’re having a beautiful baby GIRL! We are so shocked because we were both convinced that it was a boy…but nope, it’s definitely a girl! She is wonderful and perfect and she has nice long legs like her daddy… FUTURE MARATHONER! WOOHOO! :)