Let's just pretend I was tapering...

Last week was a bad week in my running life. Sunday, I started to feel a cold coming on, which never got too severe, but was enough to suck the pregnant life out of me with the lack of breathing and the on-again, off-again sore throat. And whether or not it was related, I don't know, but I also had this sudden transformation into full-on pregnant mode. Like... where any movement I made resulted in a fully contracted, and fully uncomfortable, tummy. Yeah, not a fun way to try and get around, let alone exercise. I just felt down and out.

Took Monday off to continue recovering from the XC workout the previous Friday and to make sure the cold didn't attack me too hard.

Tuesday, tried to run on the treadmill, but had the extreme tummy tightness, among other discomforts, in full force. So I ended up doing a 1 lap jog, 1 lap walk deal. (Laps being the usual 1/4 mile each). And both the walking and the jogging were significantly slower than my usual. Ended up logging a total of 3 miles in 46:05. So technically 1.5 miles run.

Wednesday meant a trek to the Doc up in Fishersville for an appointment. Still wasn't feeling good. Didn't run.

Thursday, took some advice from the husband coach and tried to do a super gradual workout to try and keep the contracting discomforts at bay. And really, it pretty much worked. Walked 1/5 mi to warmup, starting at a very slow walk and settling into a pace that was just short of forcing me to lengthen my stride too much (since that makes the pelvic muscles extremely unhappy lately). Then started jogging, beginning at something way slower than I usually do, like 13:30ish or something. Then each lap, I tried to kick it up a little. Wasn't feeling great by the time I got to a 12:00 min pace, but kept pushing through it anyway, and kept speeding up each lap, finishing at 9:40 pace, which was a nice mental boost. 3 miles run.

Friday, took the kids out in the stroller, but it was CRAZY hot. I ran about a 1/2 mile, then walked 1/2 mile, then the kids were asleep and sweating, so I decided to take them back into the house so they didn't melt. Thought about getting myself on the treadmill to turn it into a real workout, but let the crappy feeling of the week take over.

Saturday, lots of things going on, and no workout motivation still, so nothing.

Sad week. Feeling depressed about the chance that maybe my running was done for this pregnancy. I know, most people don't get to run, especially for 34 weeks, but with how things have gone, I just couldn't accept the idea of it ending so suddenly. That would mean 6 pregnant weeks, plus however long the postpartum healing takes before I could even start hobbling along on any kind of run. Not wanting to think about that at all. So after letting myself feel discouraged and worried about the discomforts of last week, I talked with Adam about where I should go from here. There was a Labor Day 5k we had considered having me do for fun, but I was feeling less than excited about that idea at this point.

In then end, my decision was to pretend that last week was a taper week for this race. I was going to go out and run Monday morning, and if I still felt just as miserable as I had all week, I would consider this mostly the end, and begin limiting my running greatly and searching for other ways to get a little workout in. Or, if the magic of race day had me feeling good again, I'd try to continue the running as I have been doing and hope it was just a bad week I was having.

Pre-race... enjoying some water and my favorite Vanilla Bean Gu!

Thank heavens, the race magic was there. The adrenaline, the competitive feeling I tend to thrive on, and the fun of running with people around you (especially people you can pass and beat--told you I was too competitive), all worked in my favor. I didn't feel the pelvic pain, the tummy was tight, but not uncomfortable, and my legs were so happy to be moving at a reasonable pace. I was a little worried when I hit the first mile at 8:23 (I haven't run that fast in quite some time), and tried to tell myself it might all be downhill from here. But luckily, I was able to hold on pretty well. I finished in 26:28 (the Garmin measuring exactly. 5.00k). So my average pace was about 8:31. Amazing. I felt so good, and even had a semi-decent little kick in the last 150-200 meters.

Of course, within a few minutes of stopping, the pelvic pain kicked in, just like after the XC workout, but at least I went through that recently, and I know it just takes a day or two for that to get mostly back to normal. So yeah, verdict is that I am to keep running. Today (Tuesday), I probably won't as I am still letting the pelvic muscles recover, but tomorrow I plan to be back at it, in whatever capacity the body decides to allow. Yay for races... they are always good at motivating me when I need it most.

Post Race. Sitting, of course, since I couldn't stand incredibly well. :) But I was happy nonetheless.