Well I guess things have been a little busy in my life! Traveling, a teething baby, wedding planning....
I took a full 12 days off of running and skipped a couple long runs, but I am back at it now! Yesterday I ran 15.20 miles at a 9:31 pace. Luckily I had my BRF Aaron along with me for most of the miles. He's the absolute best, and filled the miles with talks of positive thoughts, Disney plans, and wedding details. Those miles flew by and I'm glad I'm still where I need to be for marathon training. I'm still nervous about this whole marathon thing, but I'm doing my best to make it happen!!! it turns out I don't really have time for blogging and may not have weekly updates. Writing this as I play with Emmy and wait on some laundry to finish in the dryer. Emerson is starting to crawl and I can tell it won't be much longer until I'm spending my days chasing her around the house! xoxo
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I have never been a morning person. Before Emerson, I would have told you that I ran because that's what my training plan said I was supposed to do, or because I knew it would help me reach my goals.
Today I woke up at 5:30 to go out for a run, simply because I felt like it (and I wanted to try out the brand new purple headlamp Jamie bought me!). Pregnancy has turned running into something I want to do, rather than feeling like I have to. It's taken all the pressure off of PRs and mileage goals. I run simply because I enjoy it, and to (hopefully!) give my daughter a happy, healthy life. Emerson Lilly, you are the most beautiful little blessing. You've brought more happiness to my life in twenty-nine short weeks than I ever could have imagined, and I cannot wait to kiss your chubby little cheeks. Momma loves you so, so much! The second trimester has been fairly uneventful as far as pregnancies go. I've been blessed with an easy pregnancy and I had never expected to feel so normal! I've continued running four days a week throughout the second trimester, but have cut my mileage to about 15-20 miles a week. I've also slowed my pace a lot. Since the weather has been cooler, I haven't needed to do run/walk, but instead have been listening to my body and taking a break after every mile or so. Some runs are easier than others, but I am overall feeling pretty good. There were about three weeks where running was such a struggle, and I ended up taking an entire six days off, but my body truly needed the rest. An easy beach run while in Myrtle Beach with my sisters quickly reminded me why I love running so much. I've been back at it ever since, even though that sometimes means sneaking in a little 2-3 mile run! My long runs have been pretty limited since Seawheeze Half. I've done 8 miles a couple times, and ran a 9 mile race around week 25. The race was hot and hilly, so I had to walk a lot, but I'm doing my best to keep the distance up! I figure that will make coming back to running easier after Emmy is born! A couple weeks ago, my running friends wanted to run the last ten miles of the Columbus Marathon course, so I tagged a long for a few miles and was surprised by how great of a run I had! The weather was absolutely perfect, I barely needed to walk, and I loved getting to run somewhere different from the usual! One of the goals I had set when we found out we're expecting was to run a half marathon in every trimester. I kept hearing different things about the official start of each trimester, so I decided to count mine based on the most logical way: math. 40 weeks / 3 = 13 weeks, 2.33 days per trimesterThis means the third trimester started on 26 weeks, 5 days, which coincidentally was the same exact day as Columbus Half Marathon! On race morning, I was unsure of how to pace myself so I decided to start easy and take plenty of walk breaks so I could finish strong. It's a little frustrating not being able to actually race, but Columbus is one of my favorite races and I enjoyed every minute of it. The crowd support is unlike any other race I've experienced, I love the course, and reading the stories of the Children Champions reminded me of how grateful I am to be carrying a healthy little baby. Emerson was moving around quite a bit during the race, which is a strange feeling that I'm still not used to! I love how miles 2-3 on Broad Street I got to watch the speedy runners coming back (mile 6.5-7.5 for them). I saw Jamie here and cheered on a lot of our friends too! Since it was an unusually hot day, I made sure to drink lots of water and go extra slow. Once we made the last turn on High Street around mile 11, I knew I had a lot left in me and had probably been a little too cautious in the beginning. I ran the last mile and a half pretty close to my normal half marathon pace, and it felt so good to move like that even though it was only for a short distance! Once I crossed the finish line and found Jamie, we watched a few of our friends that were running the full, then headed to CRC's after party. I'm so excited that I was able to run a half in every trimester! The first two were before we even found out I was pregnant, and the other two were significantly slower due to lots of walk breaks. However, they were all faster than my first half marathon - Princess almost 3 years ago. I will definitely continue running as long as I can, but for now I'm taking things one day at at time and don't have any more big races planned before Emmy is here.
Half time 13.1/26.2 20 weeks/40 weeks Last week we hit the halfway point in this pregnancy! We had our 20 week ultrasound and know that our little lady is perfectly healthy and is measuring almost exactly in the 50th percentile. I don't have any crazy cravings, but I could eat fresh fruit all day, especially watermelon, grapes, and apples. I'm running four days a week, and have continued 4/1 run/walk for the majority of my miles. Although running while pregnant isn't easy, I'm so thankful I'm able to and plan to continue as long as Emmy and I are both healthy and comfortable! This momma has gained less than six pounds so far, and I finallllyyy have a cute little bump! I am SO excited for fall, and can't wait for caramel apples, boots, pumpkin carving, and cooler weather! Running is so much easier now that it's not super hot out. This week, I ran Wednesday and Thursday with Jamie and Andy (4 and 4.5 miles). Yesterday morning my long run was eight miles but felt slow. When Andy and Wes caught up to me on our way back, we ran together for a couple minutes until my next walk break, and ended up on the topic of how my running pace has changed during pregnancy.
"My pace is around ten, but walk breaks make my average so slow!" Andy looked at his watch. "You know we're doing 8:30, right?" Oh. It turns out my running pace hasn't slowed down at all, and I'm so much faster than I was even a few months ago! It feels insane that I'm able to hold pre-pregnancy paces for four minutes, even if it means I have to take walk breaks. Next week, I'm going to try to stick with someone who runs a ten minute pace to see if I can walk less if I start slower. Today I took Charlie out for 3.5 miles. He was such a happy boy, but is so tired out now. I'm glad I had another wonderful week, and I'm looking forward to an extra day off work tomorrow for Labor Day! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!! <3
Running has been difficult for me for the past couple months for several reasons:
1. Recovering from running back to back half marathons was tough!! 2. It all of a sudden got super hot and humid in Ohio. 3. I'm fourteen weeks pregnant! Jamie and I made the exciting announcement last weekend after Columbus Running Company's Mile Dash.
We found out about the newest addition to our family back in May, and things are going very well so far! I was lucky enough to not have morning sickness at all, and my doctor says I couldn't possibly be more low risk. We decided to have the Harmony test done at 10 weeks, and found out we're having a girl (and she doesn't have any chromosome abnormalities)!! I'd add in a bump picture here, but unfortunately I have absolutely nothing to show. I have gained a whopping eight-tenths of a pound so far. J is probably starting to get sick of me asking every morning if he sees my bump yet haha!
The only struggle has been my energy level - I swear I get 8 hours of sleep every night plus 2-3 hour naps on the weekends and I'm still exhausted all the time! I'm starting to feel a bit better now that I'm in the second trimester. I have only been running 3-4 days a week, and I'm honestly a little frustrated by not being able to do more. On non-running days, I've been either swimming, walking, or doing yoga to get a little bit of exercise in. Some days are harder than others, but I have still accomplished a lot of great things so far this pregnancy. I ran my two fastest half marathons ever on back to back weekends -- this was before we found out. I ran my fastest mile ever (7:42!!) at track a few weeks ago, and I also placed second in my age group at a super hilly Fourth of July 5k!
A few things I learned to make running a bit easier during the first trimester: 1. Slow down! I have been mainly doing run/walk again (4 minutes/1 minute), but the last few weeks I've been able to skip some of the walk breaks. I'm hoping to go back to normal pace and all running this trimester, but so far my average pace has slowed about 30-45 seconds per mile - that's including the walking. 2. I've been bringing water on almost every run. I hate bringing extra things on my runs, but this is one thing I haven't skipped. I like to fill it up mostly with ice so it's still cold during my run, and I take a drink during every walk break. 3. Listen to your body and don't be afraid to take a rest day. I'm honestly not the best at this one, but I'm trying! 4. The dreadmill is sometimes necessary when it's super hot out. I've been planning my runs around the weather by starting my long runs extra early, waiting until it cools down if I'm running after work, and picking the worst weather day of the week to stick to the treadmill. I'm honestly surprised by how wonderful I feel! I wish I could be running more, but I'm doing well with listening to my body. I'm so excited for Vancouver, SeaWheeze, and Seattle in a couple weeks, and I just registered for Columbus Half! I'm planning on doing a few shorter races too, and trying to maintain my distance and pace throughout the second trimester. I need recommendations on a belly band -- I'm hoping I'll have a little bump soon!!! Less than 25 weeks until my little Princess is here <3 |
Hello, my name is Alyssa!I'm a momma to Emerson Lilly and two fur babies, a distance runner, and just a girl full of sparkle and quirks. I love traveling to races and exploring new places to run! I started this blog in 2014 as more of a journal to keep track of training for my first marathon, and I've continued to post about training, races, and other things happening in my life. Also, I'd like to be your best friend. :) Categories
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