 |
| 12 Weeks Preggers at the Chicago Marathon |
Now, even though I dropped out of the marathon, I most definitely did not drop out of running. During my pregnancy I continued to run 3-8 miles, 5 times a week. Some people thought I was crazy for doing this, but I played it very safe. I always made sure that I was well hydrated. If I felt any abdominal pain at all I would slow my pace to a walk and drink some water. In general, I ran at a slower pace and didnʼt concern myself with speed or hill runs. I did end up doing the Chicago Marathon at 12 weeks pregnant, but I only ran half of it. I figured since I was running for two, I would chalk it up as a full marathon. That makes sense, right? I also ran a 10k race at 15 weeks and another 10k at 18 weeks. 28 weeks is when I had to call it quits and hang up my running shoes temporarily. I was getting bigger and with my small frame it was just too uncomfortable. But donʼt think that I gave up my running workouts just so that I could become a couch potato. Oh no. We just happened to have a spinner in the garage. We bought it from our local YMCA when they were purchasing new spin bikes. We got a GREAT deal on it. So, I dusted it off and started doing 20-30 minutes of spinning a day. I liked it because it gave me a great cardio workout and the impact wasnʼt as jarring as running was. I will say that when I found out I was pregnant I started wearing a heart rate monitor during my workouts. I kept a pretty moderate heart rate and made sure that I wasnʼt in my max heart rate zone. If you donʼt wear a heart rate monitor, there are ways to tell that youʼre overdoing it. If you are short of breath or feeling dizzy chances are that you should slow your pace a bit. I continued to spin until a week before my due date and that was only because my doctor advised me to cut down on any activity that made me sweat. My fluid levels were somewhat low and she wanted me to stay hydrated. However, she did say that walking was fine. So I strapped on my Nike runners and hoofed a 2-mile walk. I did this up until the day I delivered, which was on my due date. I went through different stages of exercise during my pregnancy, but I did continue to exercise all the way up to my delivery date.
Everyones level of exercise is different. The general rule is when you find out youʼre pregnant you can continue your level of exercise. What you donʼt want to do is start a brand new exercise program once you find out youʼre pregnant. For example, if you have never run before and you find out youʼre pregnant, you donʼt want to start training for and upcoming 10k.
As for my nutrition, I pretty much ate what I wanted as long as it was healthy. I have a couple basic rules:
1. It must be organic.
2. If it comes in a jar, box or is packaged in some way I must be able to read and be familiar with all the ingredients. No chemicals please.
3. No soda. Only milk, water, chamomile tea and real juice. Nothing from concentrate.
4. All my dairy products are sans the bovine growth hormone.
5.If I ate any meat I made sure it came from a reputable butcher. When I was pregnant the thought of meat, chicken or eggs made me vomit so this wasnʼt much of a problem. However, I did crave the occasional steak.
6. I would take my prenatal supplements everyday. I also took an Omega-3 supplement that was infused with ginger. FYI-Ginger can help relieve any nausea you may feel during pregnancy.
 |
| 20 Weeks Preggers! |
 |
| 39 Weeks, 5 Days Preggers! 2 days before I delivered! |
K
