16 weeks pregnant

Tuesday 12/7/2010
I wanted to record my experiences while pregnant...especially to document my fitness changes along the way.  I have been a personal trainer since 1999 and have worked with several pregnant women over the years.  Fortunately all of my mom to be clients have been able to train with me throughout their entire pregnancies and I'm positive that maintaining their workouts helped them get through or even avoid some of the discomforts pregnancy can bring on physically and emotionally.  So now it's my turn to practice what I teach!


Since this is my first "official blog" I have a little back logging
(or back blogging) to do on how things have been going the past 4months!
Overall I think I am feeling pretty great..It's totally true that the 2nd trimester you start to feel like yourself again (well myself plus some extra weight and a natural boob job curtesy of this pregnancy thing).  I have had ZERO food aversions or sickness or nausea, which is both good and bad.  Good, because I HATE throwing up more than ANYTHING in the world, bad because I think I may have gained a little too much weight too quickly.  I guess Ill find out tomorrow when I go in for my Dr. appt.  I can still fit into my favorite, nice and stretched out jeans...but we'll see for how long.

THE BEGINNING: "I did what all normal women do when they find out they're pregnant...signed up for an olympic distance triathalon.  That's normal right?!"

September 11, 2010 was the day I found out I was pregnant.   I had been training for my first triathalon in about 8years.  The race I was training for was October 17th and a sprint distance.  I started the begining of August right after I got back from an amazing 3day conference for personal trainers.  I was all pumped up to motivate my clients and set new personal, business, and fitness goals for myself.  Training was going GREAT!!  I even stuck to all my workouts while on vacation. When I got back I continued my training with my good friend and running partner who had been trying to get pregnant, so when I told her I felt a little off she immediately wanted me to take a pregnancy test.  I hadn't even missed my period yet, so I really didn't think there was ANY way it would read positive even if I was actually pregnant.  Sure enough...a faint double line.  I was in COMPLETE shock, immediately followed by denial, then panic.  It took 5 more positive tests over the next three days to convince myself it was real.  I was still 5 days away from my missed period, so I wanted to wait until I actually had a missed period before I told my husband.  So I did what any normal woman who just found out they were pregnant would do...signed up for an olympic distance triathalon coming up that weekend (5 days away).  Ok the the panic may have been a little overboard, but I was afraid I would regret it if I didn't do it, and rationalized that most people wouldn't have even known they were pregnant yet.  So on September 18th, about 4 weeks pregnant I competed in my first triathalon in over 8 years...and had a BLAST!

The next few weeks I continued with my training...I felt pretty good.  The pregnancy fatigue definitely set in big time beween weeks 4 and 8.  I think it was a combination of pregnancy and the unusally yucky weather we'd been having in San Diego. 

8 weeks pregnant 10/17/2010 Women's Sprint Triathalon!  It was raining :(  But atleast it makes the water feel not as cold.  I did a big race day no-no and borrowed a friend's triathalon wetsuit for the race, which I have never tried on or practiced in prior to the race.  Oppps.  It ended up working out great...I was actually in the top 15 out of the water for my age group!  Besides the wet roads the race went pretty well...my run felt awesome!  I had to remind myself to not push it a couple of times and just enjoy the event.  It was a bummer that I lost my timing chip during bike to run transition ...but the goals was just to do it, so goal accomplished.

1st dr appt 10/20/2010.  I was relieved that the dr wanted to do an ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy and give me some piece of mind.  We saw the little peanut looking thing and heartbeat.  Pretty cool.  She told me to keep exercising as much as I wanted and to just stay away from activities that were dangerous. 

12 weeks pregnant 11/6/2010 15k race in Chicago! There were 35000 runners in this race. It was FREEZING!! I am definitely not built for the cold.    It took me 6 miles to finally warm up a little bit and I hit my stride...I ran all 9.3 miles and was happy when it was done to get in a nice warm car.  Other than freezing my butt off...it was awesome and I'm glad I did it. 

11/17/2010 Ultrasound with Obstetric Specialist.  There is a little alien looking baby in there!  We could see arms and legs, and all kinds of movement.  The Dr doesn't know 100% but guessed it could be a girl.  We'll probably know for sure at the next ultrasound in January. 





FAST FORWARD.... DECEMBER 8, 2010

12/8/2010 Dr appt went well.  Good heartbeat and lots of movement.  I've gained 10lbs!  Holy cow!  But the Dr said it's ok, but just to be conscience of how much I eat and to try not to gain more than 25lbs total since I'm a little shorter (5'4").  I took today as a lighter workout day...only did about 2miles run/walk with the doggies. 

Here is a little workout log of the past week or so...

12/7/2010 Today's workout was 2500m swim!  Felt great to be in the warm sun and warm water...I don't like the cold!
12/6/2010 Ran the doggies 2miles in the AM.  Did 30miles on indoor spin bike immediately followed by a potty break, then brick with 1mile run on treadmill, then another potty break and a 30min total body weight training workout.  Feel strong, but man do I have to pee a lot!
12/5/2010 Taught Bay Park Fitness Boot Camp in the AM, then met my running partner (now 11weeks prego with twins!) for a 6mile run.  Legs felt heavy and we had to 2 bathroom breaks in the middle!  Thank goodness we're doing this together so we both totally get it when we have to make several pit stops!
12/4/2010  Got to sleep in!  YESSS.  No running partner today for our usual along run, so the dogs got to come...ran 5k with Thor to my husbands office where Zeus was.  Took Zeus for 1.5 mile run, then ran/walked Thor the other 5k home.  Felt great!  And thankful for the breaks for water and to go to the bathroom!
12/3/2010  REALLY TIRED TODAY.  Trained clients, cleaned, and relaxed most of the day.
12/2/2010 Met my good friend and her dog for a 6mile run on the beach... we were slow but enjoyed ourselves.  Legs felt really heavy and I was breathing really hard, even though my heartrate felt fine...it was just hard to catch my breath during the run.  Felt great after, but struggled with the breathing during the run
(this was a new thing).
12/1/2010 Walk/ran 2miles on treadmill, Short swim 1000m, and weight training workout.  Weight training workout feels great!
11/30/2010 Walk/run dogs 3miles in the AM.  Went for a Bike ride about 1 hour 45min.  The ride was challenging because it was so cold and lots of headwind.  (Felt drained for the next few days from this ride).
11/29/2010 walk/run dogs 2mile sin the AM.  Weight training for 45min.  Cardio 60min on ellipitcal PM.  Felt good to got lots of exercise in post Thankgiving day weekend! 

11/28/2010 Taught Boot Camp in the AM...enjoyed a relaxing day off.  Then as the day ended and I reflected on the awesome week I had, I went ahead and did something slightly crazy...maybe even insane by some standards:  I signed up for two triathalon races for 2011!   I signed up for the same San Diego Classic olympic distance triathalon I did this past year when I was 4weeks pregnant, which will be September 2011...then the slightly crazier one: Half Iron Man in October 2011.  I know it might be a little unrealistic to think I will be fit enough to complete a half ironman after having a baby just 5mo earlier, but there was something inside me that made me just have to do it.  I think it was a mix of confidence from feeling so great from the workouts last week expecially the runs and bike workout and a need to have a little motivation and a goal to work towards.  My plan is to maintain my runs (slow) as longs as possible then switch to walking and elliptical, switch to an indoor spin bike for my cycling workouts when the biking outdoors gets a little too uncomfortable, and maintain my pool swims then increase my swimming when working out in general starts to get uncomfortable.  Yeah I know... I have no idea what lies ahead with this baby thing, but Im just going to hope for the best and worst case scenario I may have to push the races to the following year. 

11/27/2010 Ran 8miles with Prego with twins running partner...nice and slow.  Felt great! 

11/26/2010 45mile bike ride up the coast with Prego friend.  Felt amazing...like I could've done at least 60miles!

11/25/2010 Thanksgiving! Ran 8miles!  Felt Strong!  So excited to eat my Mom's yummy food, nervous about being bombarded my other family members just finding out about the pregnancy.