(Water) breaking news

We are proud to announce that our AprilRuns Team is now complete! Little Sophie was born this morning and both she and V are doing fine.

Btw, I am not going to run today.

Emma Rules!

It has been a little more than a week now since our life has changed forever. Little Emma is doing fine and slowly getting ready to become a big sister to our second daughter.

 

My private Janathon stats

As we left January far behind us, there is time for a small update:

Preggo running: Against all odds, I am still pregnant. We have successfully made it to week 36 and the baby is growing as cabbage. Funny enough, I now feel better, stronger and more energetic than a month ago. They say this is the sign that my body is getting ready for the hardest (ultra)marathon ever (=labor). We’ll see. Oh, by the way: 14 kg total weight gain.

Janathon: Although I have not been commenting much on your blogs, dear Janathoners, I surely was reading them, often green with jealousy every time a beautiful run was accomplished and described. The same goes for all other runners: Enjoy the mud, snow, blizzard and sweat as long as you can! Soon I will be breathing at your back again.

7 Reasons Why Not To Run

The Greek philosopher Epictetus said: “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.” So rather than trying to change the world, I should try to become by happy by liking the world around me, as it is.

Since running is out of picture for the foreseeable future, I was thinking of some advantages of NOT running (or moving around too much) – and listed them below in no particular order:

1. No sweaty tech-shirts and socks around the house.

2. Enough time to read books and organise my PC files and folders properly.

3. Enough time to reply to private emails and to send out Christmas cards.

4. No stress about Christmas presents/tree/dinner.

5. No dark or cold mornings (no early mornings at all).

6. No risk of injuries.

7. A moment to STOP and THINK about the most important things in my life :-).

P.S. Week 31. I am soooo happy this is just a temporary situation!

Preggo Running VII. – Epilogue

26-28 weeks: All went well throughout the second trimester and then yesterday (at 28w+1d) I returned from a routine gyn check with a new unexpected diagnosis: short cervix. Apparently, it is something that happens to many pregnant women as the baby is growing and her head/body/fluid press against the lower end of the womb. The one good remedy here is resting. Resting from work, from stress, from any physical activity. So here is my newest challenge: how do I go from full time job and active life to bed rest in 1 day?

Not quite sure about that, so far I survived one day in bed – with my notebook and telephone next to me (what would one do without WiFi?).  Lazy days began… and finally I might have time to read all your blogs and comment on your posts :-).

Sinterklaas approaching

Early morning I dressed up and ran outside. How else a perfect weekend can start? I had no plans regarding the destination or distance, just decided to follow the gracht to the river and see depending on how I would feel after a mile or so. The sun was slowly coming up and the world around me was quiet and beautiful.

From the river, I turned to ‘my road’ and followed it till Leiderdorp park where some early birds were already walking their dogs and others playing field hockey. Luckily for me, there were still more than enough quiet paths to follow.

I even spotted something rather romantic (I think?):

My body felt good – no aching, no difficulty or discomfort with my belly, breathing nor legs so I just ran further down the road,

until I reached this windmill:

Ant close to that spot it hit me: today is the day when Sinterklaas (the Dutch version of St Nicolas or Mikulas, if you wish) is coming to town. All the Zwarte Piets (Black Pete’s, his helping buddies) were waiting already along the road:    According to the tradition, he is supposed to come from Spain on a steam boat – but I guess today I saw the modern version:

And so my run was again great: totally unexpectedly I got a chance to watch this show…

9 km.

One Hour a Day

Running sucks. At least when six months pregnant.

As much as I enjoy being outside, I have to admit, the last couple of runs were a bit of a frustrating experience. When running, these days I am continuously thinking about my full bladder, my growing belly, my fading pace,… and suddenly there is much less time for enjoying the fact that I can breath the fresh air while moving.

So last night it hit me: This just might be the point when I have to start substituting running with something else. My body is probably telling me to stop and think…

Hmm. That idea sucks too. As a rather competitive person, what are my options? Well, it took me about 6 km last night to figure it out: I am actually already doing it so the kick will be continuing: Every day I will attempt to spend one hour by some kind of physical exercise. It can be running, biking, cross training, or just walking (and of course all thinkable combinations of the above), as long as it takes about an hour a day.I can still go out as much as I like, I can use gym, I can try to rediscover the train rather than using my car all the time (hint: the station is 2.5 km away which makes it a perfect 5 km walk each day I use public transport…). So at the end, there comes a relief – I still have plenty of options to keep my body burning some fat while having fun and reporting about it on RunningFreeOnline :-). And I am not limited to the treadmill in the gym!

Preggo Running V.

22-24 weeks: Yep, still running – but as I am seriously coming into the 2/3ds of the pregnancy, it does not look like it anymore. My belly grows rather fast now and the continuous pressure of my expanding womb on the bladder is getting close to unbearable (what will I do next month and the month after that?). Also, I often feel rather ‘heavy’ so anything more than 40-50 minutes running/exercising non stop (well, with pee-stop) is impossible. The idea is rather frustrating because my lungs and legs feel good enough, I hardly sweat – and yet, I am forced to stop in less than an hour to have at least a couple of minutes of a break.

On the positive end, my dependency on fresh air makes me go running outside regardless the peeing problem. The solution is of course hiding myself in the merciful darkness of early mornings and/or late evenings, with enough toilette paper in my pockets and some bushes along the way. So far so good. Except…. that the speed lost its relevance all together.

I tend to spend about an hour each day by some kind of physical activity (running about 4-5 times and week, gym, or at least walking). It definitely helps me to remain sane and not to give in to the my-baby-needs-so-many-things shopping frenzy. At least not for now. The shopping embargo has been prolonged till Christmas. Sort of.

Gain weight: did not dare to weight myself this week yet.

My new best friend:

The plan for coming days and weeks is to keep moving although my belly is growing. I sometimes wonder how much larger would I be without running… Also, according to V (I am sooo grateful to have my own physiotherapist at home!) I should start exercising my pelvic floor muscles. Or at least finally face the fact that I don’t have any so it is the highest time  to build them up! Hence the ball instead of chair while eating and/or watching TV.

Preggo running IV.

20-22 weeks: As many of you know, we have spent last week in the Alps. As V was busy with her ski instructor training (Anwarter), I had all the time to work, eat and… run. My daily routine consisted of 1-2  hours of early morning (6.30 – 8.30) running and geocaching and then working and eating and walking – until it was time to go to sleep again. This scheme did me good. I managed to run 40 km that week and until now, I actually feel very good.

Total weight gain: 7 kg

My running has reached a point where anything faster than 8.5 km per hour is not comfortable, however, maintaining the snail speed of 8 km per hour is quite nice, actually. Walking/hiking is good, too. And here it the evidence: last Saturday (when many of you ran marathons all over Europe) we took a little hike from the Hinterglemm valley to Forsthofalm:

Preggo running III.

18-20 weeks: Yesterday we crossed the magic pregnancy milestone of 20 weeks. In other words, we are half way through.

Today I was scheduled for what is called a big ultrasound check. During 30 minutes of thorough screening any major development faults should show there. The performing gynecologist  knew the wobbly history of this pregnancy very well so focused especially on the signs of correct growth of the baby. To cut a long and emotional (my mum was with me) story: all looks well and our baby girl is growing like a cabbage and looks exactly the 20 weeks she should.

Total weight gain: 5 kg (still hardly any belly visible)

So off to running: The past two weeks have found me in not too bad shape, actually. I more less managed my weekly 30 km mileage while totally stopped worrying about the speed. As the matter of fact, I started experimenting running without my Garmin. And, not surprisingly – it is a huge relieve not to check the time that frequently. Another positive point is the heartbeat: I manage to keep it under 150 at all times. However, I feel that time is coming when running will have to be substituted by other activities – at least partially.

Also, after summer outside, we have again enrolled for the gym. The reasons are:

– there is a WC next to the treadmills

– it is getting dark and cold and wet outside

– there is a WC next to the treadmills

– when not feeling like running, I can do other healthy exercises (or drink tea with fellow sport girls – have I mentioned the WC?)