Flashback to First Trimester Running

 
And now, I have officially moved into the second trimester and truly feel better.  The nausea has subsided and though I still have a weird taste and drooley feeling in my mouth, I can deal.  More on 2nd trimester runs in future posts.

Alright kids, hang on, we are going to take a trip back in time... to the first trimester.  Since some people find it a little odd, or scary or cool that I run while pregnant, I thought I would share some of the experiences along the way in the first trimester, before this blog was around. 

(It's a time machine... for our trip back, get it? Oh well.)

 

I have been running since I was about 7 years old as a hobby that my stepdad got my sister and me into... never anything more, I am not very athletic and I am certainly not lightning fast!  But I enjoy running.  I enjoy the goal of a race looming out in time.  So when I knew a baby was a possibility, I never considered not running.  I had been consistently running year-round again at least a year before becoming pregnant.  SO that is the history there.  

At my first OB appointment, I had only a couple questions-- the one for this post was-- "I have been training for a half marathon I plan to run in April, are there any guidelines for my continuing to run and build miles?"  Her response was-- 'no, just keep your heart rate under 160.'     

Ok, I thought, not a biggie, though I had not monitored my heart rate, ever!  (See note above about not being a die-hard athletic runner).  Well, that night I wore my trusty heart rate monitor (the one I just had to buy and had never used).   I don;t run fast, and have no trouble breathing, so I was SHOCKED when I could not keep my heart rate under 160 without basically doing a snail crawl of a jog.      

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=heart+rate+monitor&x=11&y=20

Well, that was not going to happen.    

I just had the intuition that the body that was able to create a baby with regular running, could sustain a baby while continuing to run.  (Plus, I am stubborn...  But I wanted to be an informed stubborn mule.)  So I began buying books...    

First I read:    

Runner’s World Guide to Running and Pregnancy, by Chris Lundgren    

The book is filled with a bunch of stories and a little scientific info devoted to running while pregnant.  The stories were more a pep talk, and a lot of them seemed like they were from forever ago... pregnant in the 90's, really?     

http://www.amazon.com/Runners-World-Guide-Running-Pregnancy/dp/1579547478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271781676&sr=8-1
 

Then I read:   

   

Exercising Through Your Pregnancy, by James F. Clapp      

Despite the ubber cheesy cover that also is a 90's-esc flashback and looks like a power walker instead of a runner, this was/is my favorite book!   It is FILLED with real medical studies and information and put my mind at ease about how to run while pregnant.  Plus, the studies are really motivating for all the positive benefits that exercising while pregnant has on the baby-- it almost makes you nervous NOT to run!    

http://www.amazon.com/Exercising-Through-Pregnancy-James-Clapp/dp/1886039593/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271781904&sr=1-1

Armed with those resources, I set out with a mind more at ease (and somewhere in there decided to actually share the news with my stepdad/running partner why I had been acting a little strange).     

The first trimester was pretty much AWFUL!  I seriously wondered how anyone had a baby in the past, and why anyone would have more than one kid.  I was soooo sick.  Morning sickness would have felt like a slice of heaven... I had all day sickness and drool and ickyness.  Blah.  BUT the one time the symptoms seemed to subside slightly was when I would run.  So if I could work up the energy and effort to lace up, I felt like a million bucks again.     

And I ran, still keeping up runs three days a week  (two short runs of 3-4 miles during the week and a longer weekend run).