Fitness During Pregnancy

I was hoping to have a food post to share with you today, but the butternut squash pizza I made last night was only about a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. Womp, womp. Brad liked it, but I was not impressed. So, it’s back to the drawing board before I share it with anyone.

BUT, today I learned something very interesting at a Google Analytics workshop — how to see what links you guys click on from the homepage. What I learned is that the Fitness tab is what is clicked on most often from the homepage. Very surprising for me!

So, since I haven’t shared anything Fitness related in quite some time, I thought I’d address that today.

First, let me point out that I am no expert or even a novice at what you should be doing while you’re pregnant in the fitness department. This is just a recap of what I’ve been doing thus far.

The year before I got pregnant, I started to have a love/hate relationship with working out.  If I did anything, I ran. But even that didn’t bring me the satisfaction I used to have. Sure, I felt good after I ran, but I didn’t have the drive that I used to have. Something was different…

So when I got pregnant, I decided to cut myself some slack; to stop beating myself up about not wanting to run and really not wanting to work out. I always thought I’d be one of those pregnant women who ran during pregnancy until I physically couldn’t run anymore.  But something came over me once I found out that I was pregnant and for once in my life I’ve been a little more gentle with myself.

So what does that mean in terms of fitness? Since I found out I was pregnant, I’ve had a goal to at least walk for an hour 5-6 times a week.  And I’ve found this goal to be completely doable for myself. I enjoy this time I spend (typically) outside with Rascal and a podcast.  I usually listen to the Pregtastic Podcast so I feel like I’m doing something useful doing this time — learning about babies and pregnancy.

But lately, I’ve been actually wanting to run.  Every once in a while, Rascal and I challenge ourselves to run the length of a few blocks, but how far I can actually run is a mystery since he starts lagging long before I feel the need to slow down.  I’ve started day dreaming about making a goal to train for a half marathon as soon as the doctor gives me the okay after my pregnancy.

5K Race

Oh, races…I kind of miss you.

And then Tanya invited me to run a 5K for her birthday, something she has invited me to do several times, but the stars never aligned and I was always busy or out of town this upcoming weekend. However, this weekend, I’m completely free.

Keep Your Resolution 5K Course Map

So I have signed up for the Keep Your Resolution 5K, which benefits Girls on the Run.  What a great reason to get out there and see if I can run a mile or three! In reality, it might be more of a run/walk, but sometimes the level of fitness your body can hold onto is quite surprising.  I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

And then, wouldn’t you know it, I was recently contacted by the folks from The Biggest Loser Run/Walk Race Series to ask if I wanted to participate in their off road race at the White Water Center.

Is it crazy to think I can go from not really running for three months to running (?) two 5Ks in one month?  Um…probably. But if anything, it will be fun to get up at the crack of down on a Saturday morning. Okay, so maybe not.  But I’ll feel great afterwards, especially since Tanya has promised bagels after the race this weekend.

Will run for bagels.

What are you pregnancy fitness expectations? Or what kind of fitness level did you maintain during pregnancy?