If you can't take the heat, stay on the treadmill

I did it. I ran outside. It was all kinds of miserable, but all kinds of perfect too.

So I did 5 miles, and I don't know what my time ended up being because Dr. Adam's watch gave out on me a little after halfway and apparently said it was full of data and refused to create anymore, so it stopped tracking my workout. But I know the first two miles were in the 8:35-8:45 range, and I probably slowed down a little on some of those later miles with the difficult conditions, so I'm guessing I averaged just at or just under 9 minute miles for the whole thing. That might be optimistic, but that's okay.

It was a pretty difficult run for me for a number of reasons:

A. It was super hot.
B. There was ZERO shade on or near the lovely river trail I was running.
C. I am not used to gravel trail... this was all gravel... and grass, which I am also not used to.
D. I didn't have water with me or anywhere along this hot run.
E. I'm pregnant. Okay... maybe that doesn't count given the nature of this blog.

BUT... the run was awesome for me for a number of reasons:

A. I was outside!
B. The scenery here is gorgeous! River on one side, pretty hillsides and mini-mountains on the other.
C. No stroller.
D. Mostly flat course on the river walk.
E. Dr. Adam always says I look hot in sunglasses (which were very helpful in the 100% sunshine of my 10 AM run). He also told me my singlet and such made me look "legit". I'll take it. Hahaha. Love my husband.

20+ weeks... you can kinda see a bump, right? 

Anyway, I better end this so I can get up from this chair and stop being critiqued on my posture. (Another thing I am trying to fix). The joys of being married to a PT. It's all because they care.

Still alive, still pregnant, still running

So, yeah. It's been like 2 months. I know. I even faithfully wrote down most my workouts with pure intentions of posting them when I was able to make the time. But I never bothered to make the time. But yes, I am still pregnant, and yes, I am still running.

The last two months were some up and down weeks, trying to get over that ankle pain that just didn't want to go away. We think it was a sprain that just didn't want to heal while the pregnancy hormones kept loosening me up and messing up the process. So I had some days of cross-training and lower, slower miles, along with my PT stretches from Coach Adam (Now Dr. Adam) that have helped the pain all but disappear by now. I had some good weeks too... they were all anywhere between 10 and 32 miles, depending on how the ankle was doing and what else was going on.

Then Coach Adam graduated and we moved. We now live in Central VA, enjoying the small town life. I just did treadmill running this first week here. Feeling a little weary of running the crazy hills in this beautiful Shenandoah Valley. But I have plans this week to get out a little just for a change, which should be nice. And I may even be running with a cool lady my husband met at work last week. And I'm not embarrassed to say that the idea of actually having a running buddy around gets me all kinds of giddy. It's not something I've been able to find in the past, so I am hoping to find some fun people in this little town.

Anyway, the last week got me a total of 20 miles, only because I took two days off... one because we were super busy with visitors and another because I let myself get a little stress-depressed with all the moving transitions that were just not working out for me in the least. Let's just say, I strongly dislike relying on others who seem completely unable to do their jobs...

But enough of that!

Let's stay positive... I am almost 21 weeks pregnant, still running, an feeling pretty darn good. My weight gain this pregnancy has been pretty minimal and I still get the, "What?! You're pregnant? You don't look like it at all!"... which this time around, is absolutely okay with me. There will be plenty of time at the end to be huge. :)