Back in the Gym

Even though I feel like napping all the time, I am doing my best to keep moving. As long as its not early in the morning I join Josh at the gym here in our apartment complex. Josh usually runs and does some weight training. I either walk on the treadmill or work out on the elliptical machine and then do some very light weight lifting --- just upper body with the 2.5 pound free weights.

It feels pretty good to get off the couch, even if I am barely breaking a sweat. The important thing is raising my heart rate a little and just keeping my muscles moving. I do get out of breath a lot faster because I am carrying extra weight and my lungs are being squished by my ever growing uterus. What's funny though is that I still get the urge to push myself. As soon as I step on the treadmill I want to set it to 6.0 mph and run for at least 30 minutes, but today I settled for 3.3mph for 15 minutes. I did put it at a 1.5% incline though, just to add a little difficulty. But by the time I was finished my pelvis was ready to be done, so I am succeeding at not pushing myself too hard.

Thankfully the machines have a heart rate monitor so that I can keep an eye on my heart rate. The rates are: 1)warm-up 2)fat burner 3)cardio 4)peak high. I try to keep my heart rate between 'fat burner' and 'cardio' which is between 130 bpm and 155 bpm. That is the safe zone for my baby. Also if I allow it to go higher and I start to really heat up it can be very unsafe for my little James because he will heat up also and in the uterus the baby has no means to cool down, which is why I am not allowed in a hot bath or the hot tub for the duration of the pregnancy.

So long story short, I need to be careful and listen to my body, but I also need to keep moving  :)

On days that I don't go to the gym I am trying to do some prenatal yoga or prenatal Pilate's. Since that's in DVD or YouTube form it can be very difficult to get motivated and off the couch, but rest days are also very welcome :) 

I look forward to getting back to proper running once James has arrived, but in the mean time I am very much enjoying a slower pace :)

The blog title?

You know, if you are reading this as someone who doesn't know me, it just occurred to me that I have never really explained the title of this blog. As far as I can remember I have not mentioned running of any kind in any of my blogs. So here it goes ... 12 blogs later, finally an explanation.

Before I became pregnant I was an avid runner. I was on the road or in the gym 5-6 days a week running a minimum of 5k (3.1 miles). I also did the elliptical machine, the StairMaster, the bike and rowing machine from time to time as well as light weight lifting. I like to think I did swimming too, but I don't think once every 2-3 months really counts.

Obviously since taking the pregnancy test which came up positive I have scaled back big time. I remember the last workout before the pregnancy test ... by the end of it I wasn't feeling well and had some abdominal cramping. I also read that if you work out hard for prolonged periods of time keeping your body temperature elevated you could be doing damage to your unborn child. Of course I don't want to do that, so I haven't been pushing myself as I was before. I had been working on improving my 5k time, but that can now wait.

For the past few weeks it has been difficult to workout anyway, due to the nausea and exhaustion, but when I do make it to the gym or out the front door, I just walk. My muscles feel like they are getting a workout, but I am not turning red and sweating buckets like if I was running. I sometimes lift lighter weights than before, but it has really come down to listening to my body. If something doesn't feel right, then I stop.

I do still have a mud run with my dad a week from tomorrow. I considered dropping out, but its only 5k. I figure we can walk/roll/skip/jog through the mud. We are not out to win, just to have fun. I signed up months ago and it wasn't cheap, so I'm still participating! I am not missing out on my chance to get dirty!