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an overdue ‘life, in a nutshell’ post

an overdue ‘life, in a nutshell’ post

Had to do some searching for the last time I wrote one of these not-really-running-related posts, and yeah… it has been a while — a many month while, in fact. I’m going to break my rule and include some running-related banter in here because it’s timely, but heeeeeeere’s what’s been going on.

It’s The San Francisco Marathon race week! nope, I’m not running SF’s awesome marathon on Sunday (tear) or either of its half marathons or ultra, but I am running the 5k! Friday will be 36 weeks for me — that’s 9 months! — and most likely, as far as I can tell anyway, TSFM’s 5k will be my last “race” of this pregnancy. I’m looking forward to race weekend, seeing and spending time with Erin (coming in from Chicago!) and possibly Meredith (who left Chicago for the Bay Area earlier this year and might be doing the second half this weekend–yay!), working at the expo with all the other lovely social media ambassadors on Saturday, and oh yea, leading a community shake-out run on Saturday morning with the one and only Dean Karnazes! I last saw him during the Oakland Marathon ’14 (I think he lives in Oakland or SF… somewhere in the Bay Area), and he’s a badass. This weekend should be a lot of fun between seeing new and old friends there to race/pace the events, meeting and running with Dean, and 9-months-pregnant “racing.” And hey! come see me at the expo on Saturday, and/or come to the shakeout that morning! (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-san-francisco-marathon-shakeout-run-with-fitbit-ambassador-dean-karnazes-registration-17446880088)

excited to see Erin B again this year in SF!
excited to see Erin B again this year in SF!

 

and yay for possibly seeing Meredith again over event weekend!
and yay for possibly seeing Meredith again over event weekend!

 

1000 books before kindergarten. The little one still has another year before beginning kinder, and when we learned about this program that the SJ public libraries are sponsoring, we (mostly me, ha) were totally excited. It’s no secret that it’s critical to read to kiddos, starting as young as possible, and fortunately for us, A really likes to read; she likes to be read to, she likes to “read” her stories to whoever will listen, she likes to tell her own stories… you get the idea. Over the past few months that we’ve been participating in this program from our library, she has gotten really into it and even insists that after we read books together, C or I go write down the books’ titles on our tracking notebook 🙂  It’s very sweet, and it’s so awesome to see her so excited about reading and books. I just think it’s an awesome idea and hope that other libraries nationwide are doing something similar.

LOGO,-jpg,-horizontal---1000-Books-Before-Kindergarten

 

cord blood donation. This is more of a PSA than anything, I suppose. When I first began all this marathoning stuff with Team in Training, I learned about the Be the Match marrow registry, got on the registry, and eventually, when we got pregnant with A, C and I learned about cord blood banking. The two of us researched and eventually decided that we preferred to donate my cord blood to a public bank instead of storing it in a private bank accessible only to us. (Tangent: if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can get a little primer on the subject here. Like pretty much anything else related to health and pregnancy, how you choose to proceed is a personal decision. For many reasons, we believed [and still do] that public donation was best for us). Annyyyyyway! After we had A in Chicago, we donated the cord blood to a public bank — which was a pretty straightforward process, just one riddled with lots of paperwork — so this time around, that was our intention here in CA as well. We had to do some hoop-jumping to get the paperwork in order (just due to some hospital red-tape issues), but unfortunately, apparently in California my autoimmune disorder renders me ineligible for donating … even though I had it when I was pregnant four years ago, I’ve been medicated for it since 2010, and I publicly donated my cord blood in 2011 while being medicated/treated. Ugh. Not gonna lie, I was kinda heartbroken that we aren’t able to donate this time around; it just kills me because I know that our donation could make a huge difference to someone and, more importantly, so many pregnant women and their partners don’t realize that donating their cord blood to a public bank is an option. If you take nothing away from this little tirade, take this: if you’re pregnant — or are planning to become pregnant, or know someone who is — know that you can donate your cord blood and that it can make a difference in someone’s life. Otherwise, it’ll literally end up as medical waste … and that sucks 🙁  (and for more info on the donation process, start here).

books! Oh my, lots of books since our last little update together. I was on a fiction kick for a while but have since returned to my usual nonfiction preferences.

The “mehs” include:

  • Emma Donoghue’s Frog Music — a fun vacation read but kinda “eh” overall
  • Nick Hornby’s Funny Girl — same as above, except less fun
  • Dr. Tadashi Yoshimura’s Joyous Childbirth Changes the World — interesting point of view, good information and resources, but kinda “out there” and definitely not for everyone
  • Caitlin Moran’s How to Build a Girl — a pretty fun and easy vacation read but kinda lackluster toward the end

The “don’t bother”s include:

The “absolutely!”s (and naturally, three of the four are nonfiction):

  • Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, which could probably make for a good movie or mini-series
  • Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, which, no joke, I cried every.single.time I read, and even bought a copy for my dad to read so we could talk about it
  • Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up, which will probably make you judge me a bit, but honestly, I thought she had some really interesting stuff to say and some really good perspectives on how a tidied/in-order house can affect our moods and, honestly, how much shit we all probably have in our homes that we actually don’t need. I read a lot of scathing reviews about this book from people who thought Kondo was a little left-of-center for some of the stuff she said — and I’ll concede that her techniques can be a little weird — but again, I think the crux of her message is important and worth considering. It’s a quick read, anyway.
  • Ina May Gaskin’s Birth Matters: A Midwife’s Manifesta.  No surprise that I liked this. I mean, c’mon, captive audience.

And finally, I’m in the throes of reading Sapiens, and so far, so good. This one might take me a while.

Family outing at Levi’s Stadium. C’s work sponsored their annual summer shindig at Levi’s Stadium (where the 49ers play) this year, so we dropped a few hours there on Saturday morning so A could get her face painted (which, if it were up to her, we’d have a live-in face-painting artist), her hair braided, her arm airbrushed, and many, many opportunities to bounce to her heart’s content at one of the many bounce houses. It was a lot of fun, and the stadium is really, really nice.

19618922780_70d1dd8622_o

 

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family cheesin’

 

Ohio!! and finally, in early June, A and I ventured out to northeast Ohio to see my family for a couple weeks. It was amazing because not only did we get to see my parents, my also-pregnant sister and her family (my brother-in-law and my three nephews), but we also ended up being able to see my brother plus his family (his wife and another nephew), who had flown in from Houston; a great aunt; another aunt, uncle, and my cousin’s newborn daughter; my also-pregnant BFF; and my in-laws, who drove in from IL for a quick visit. It was all very awesome. We were in Ohio for 13 days, and while it rained probably 12.5 of those 13 days we were there — and hello, oppressive humidity! — dammit, it was just great. The photo dump can speak for itself.

pregnant for days with Shannon
pregnant for days with Shannon
my bro, SIL Lisa, and their little guy Riley
my bro, SIL Lisa, and their little guy Riley
A reading to my mom :)
A reading to my mom 🙂
cousin Brian on a boat!
cousin Brian on a boat!
Drew, Trae, and A
Drew, Trae, and A
almost all the cousins - A is the only girl!
almost all the cousins – A is the only girl!

collage

 

That’s about it these days! Hope all is well with you these days!

What I can tell you about third trimester pregnant running

What I can tell you about third trimester pregnant running

I repeat myself a lot these days, and one of my common refrains goes something along these lines:

pregnancy can be is unpredictable.

listen to your body.

take things a day at a time.

Soon enough, I’ll only have one hand’s worth of weeks left in this pregnancy, in theory — though of course, we know that due dates are more like glorified “guess dates,” since they’re +/- 2 weeks — and it’s around this time in my first pregnancy when I stopped running.

Strolling down memory lane for a second, in no small part due to the fact that I’m apparently nesting like crazy (and hey, that’s a good thing), thanks to some old-school running log books I found and some old blog posts I had written way back in the day, I (eventually) remembered that I ceased running around the 35/36 week mark of my almost 41-week pregnancy because of lower SI joint pain. If you don’t know what that is, please let me assure you that it doesn’t feel very nice. Imagine the sensation of what feels like bone-on-bone grinding every time you walk, and running, ha, yea right!, um no way.  During my first pregnancy, my final double-digit run was about 10 miles around 29 weeks pregnant. Most of my runs were at 11:xx pace (and through the winter and early spring in Chicago, so throw some nice elemental variation in there … think ice, wind, snow), and surely my mileage wasn’t anything beyond 20 mpw, if I were lucky and reeeeeeeally being a baller.

maybe the day? afternoon? after that final double-digit LR during pregnancy 1, we went to Vegas for a 'babymoon.' Pic is from Red Rock Canyon, not my LR in Chicago (obvs).
maybe the day? afternoon? after that final double-digit LR during pregnancy 1, we went to Vegas for a ‘babymoon.’ Pic is from Red Rock Canyon, not my LR in Chicago (obvs).

This time around — and I’ll provide another mileage recap in a few weeks — I’m continuing to surprise myself by still running in the 8s on average, ranging from 8:teens (shorter runs)-high 8s/low 9s (recovery), maaaaybe squeaking in a sub-8 toward the end of my run (and if I’m on a downhill, ha!), and posting volume each week between about 25-40ish miles, depending on my schedule, if I’m “racing” (note the quotes — they’re important), how I’m feeling, what my sleep has been like, all that good stuff.

I’m not documenting this to humble-brag or anything like that; really, I’m not much into that. My point is merely to remind you, dear reader who might be a runner and/or pregnant or thinking about starting/resuming running and/or thinking about getting pregnant, that, once again, pregnancy is freaking unpredictable and its effects on your running are as good as anyone’s guess. You might be able to run until the day you deliver, you might feel so horrible or disinterested that you don’t run a single step for 40ish weeks, or hey, maybe you do a little one week or day but not much the next. You really don’t know how things are going to go or how you’re going to feel, and I’d wager that it’s impossible to guess or to know until you’re in the thick of it. Pregnancy is an incredible metamorphosis; it affects literally every ounce of your being. Very few (if any?) things in life mirror this profoundly-altering process.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (I told you — broken record these days): running or not running during your pregnancy doesn’t make you any “more” or “less” of a runner than you usually are. I firmly believe it all boils down to YOU listening to YOUR body (and your practitioner’s advice) and doing what is right for YOU. It’s not about being a badass or being weak or trying to make a show of your running; you just have to do what’s right for YOU, what feels good for YOU, and what your practitioner says is advisable for, guess who? Yup, YOU! That’s it. Your pregnancy is a bit of an experiment of one, and you, amiga mia, are the lone, singular test subject.

and some days, the experiment of 1 involves seeing what a plank feels like super pregnant while your 4 year-old tries to decipher what the eff you're doing
and some days, the experiment of 1 involves seeing what a plank feels like super pregnant (and in a tiara, naturally) while your 4 year-old tries to decipher what the eff you’re doing

I thought *for sure* that my running during pregnancy dos would mirror my running during pregnancy uno, and it hasn’t: at all. It has been better — faster, higher volume, better “feel,” less perceived exertion, everything. Your guess is as good as mine. I have some theories as to why pregnant running this time around, as opposed to four years ago, has been so much better, but seeing as how I’m a) not a medical professional or b) not a coach, I’ll abstain in the interest of not putting more (possibly) unfounded garbage on the internet. If you want to know, ask.

At any rate, suffice it to say that I am fucking THRILLED that I can still do this stuff more or less as I wish to this far along. It is seriously like an unexpected present, and each day I get to re-open and re-experience this present — being just a little more pregnant than I was the day before, possibly a bit heavier, maybe a bit slower, whatever — it’s just the bee’s knees. To run without expectations while you’re pregnant, and to be SO SURPRISED and to CONTINUE to be SO SURPRISED by being able to continually enjoy the gift — because that’s what it is, kids — that is the ability to run warrants ALL THE CAPS because, at the risk of sounding hyperbolic, it’s exhilarating. Fucking exhilarating, people!!!!!!!!!!!!!

perfection
perfection [SJ style]
this is also sufficient. (Akron-in-a-soggy-and-wet-June style)
this is also sufficient. [Akron-in-a-soggy-and-wet-June style]

Being this far along in my pregnancy, and knowing the experience I had the first time around (related to the SI stuff), I actually feel like I’m getting kinda obnoxiously excited, to the tune of when I start each run, I’m a) excited that I awaken feeling great enough and rarin’ to run; b) I wonder (when I start running) if this will be my final run or one of my final runs during the pregnancy because I never know how I’ll feel once I’m actually out there, so I kinda proceed with caution until I have a good idea of how I’ll fare; and c) by the time I finish the thing, even if the run kinda blew because of XYZ reason, I’m still Cheshirin’ like a damn fool because I JUST RAN X MILES AT X PACE AT X WEEKS PREGNANT, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (again, all the caps. Told you).

With all of this in mind, then, as though it weren’t blatantly obvious, I’m happy to say that all is well in pregnancy and fetus land, though I’m beginning to wonder where exactly the fetus is going to grow for another 6ish weeks; much like the Bay Area housing market, my uterine rental space is quickly becoming increasingly difficult to secure. As far as measurements and weight gain and all those good variables go, everything is right where it should be (though I feel way bigger this time around than I did during #1), and in terms of the family, we’re all getting more excited with each passing day. A has it in her mind that she’s going to “catch” the baby when it comes out of my belly, and oh, by the way, she’s still pretty convinced that she’s going to be a big sister to a baby brother, who’s a girl, who’s named Aurora (the baby in her belly) or TinkerBell (the baby in my belly). Let that one sink in for a second … Oh, and on the subject of the baby’s sex, it has been almost unanimous — almost, in the sense of all but one single person over the past ~34 weeks has told me — that I’m having a boy, based on some cockamamie notion or another. Here’s the funny thing, though; that was my experience while pregnant with A as well. Just saying (though nope, I have no idea either)…

Anyway, my plan for the remainder of my pregnancy is to continue that which I’ve been doing for the past ~34 weeks — to listen to my body. If all’s well, I’ll continue to run, I’ll “race” the San Francisco Marathon’s 5k race here in a couple weeks (at about 36 weeks and change) and see lots of TSFM buddies over the course of the weekend (and Chicago Erin, who’s coming back this year to run one of TSFM races!), and no doubt I’ll continue to finish each run with that ridic Cheshire shit-eating grin.

standard Cheshire fare
standard fare

 

Much like during any training cycle, being flexible is critical, and this is especially even more true when you’re running while pregnant. That’s my MO — take things a day at a time and listen to my body. That’s really all I can do, so that’s all I’m gonna do; it’s really that straightforward.