Monday, December 10, 2012

Working Out While Pregnant: Week 19

The reason for my (workout-related) happiness this week.

This past week was an awesome workout week for me. Highlights included my first 45 minute ride on the bike trainer, a new swimming milestone, and my first ever brick (a bike ride followed by a run). Did I ever imagine my first brick to occur while pregnant? Not exactly.

I have to admit that I'm developing a slight addiction to working out every day. I use to love rest days, but these days - what with some newfound feelings of heaviness and a general tiredness (is that a word?), exercise is the one thing that makes me forget that my body is carrying a baby, and it also gives me a great deal of energy - for at least a little while.

Bike
First up, I am loving my bike. I know the indoor trainer can be pretty monotonous, and once I get outside it will be a totally different story, but for now, my new Trek Lexa is my number one gal pal. (Okay - in real life, I would never use the phrase "gal pal." But I'm trying to keep this blog relatively clean.)

While it took me awhile to get used to the position of my body as I ride a road bike (much different from sitting upright while riding my hybrid bike), oddly enough, I find my back to be really thriving in this new position. I originally thought that being that I'm pregnant, it would be the opposite. And who knows - I'm sure this will change.



As I'm still so new to the bike, most rides have been at a consistent speed for 30 minutes, just so I get used to it. But this week, I switched things up and tried out my new Spinervals Iron Girl 6.0 DVD and loved the interval aspect of it. Also, at 45 minutes, this was my first time using the trainer for more than a half hour. And somehow my rear end and lady parts survived. (Again, attempting to keep things clean here.) I love you, ridiculously padded bike shorts.

Swim
This week marked an increase in yardage from 1200 to 1400, and then 1500, by way of completing my first 600 yards-in-a-row. Without stopping. Granted, I'm having to throw the breast stroke in every couple hundred yards for at least one length of the pool, but for the most part, I'm all about freestyle. Can we again discuss how just over a month or so ago, I wasn't able to swim 25 yards without gasping for air?? Progress is being made, (very) slowly, but surely.

Anyway, I was supposed to do 1500 yards both days, but plain old forgot the last two sets of 50 yards when I swam on Tuesday. I completed my second swim on Friday evening, and I don't know if it's the time of day / week that I'm getting these second swims in or what, but I almost threw in the towel after the first few hundred yards. I was not feeling it that night. But then somehow I got a second wind after 900 yards, and finished relatively strong. I even managed to go home, eat dinner, and stay awake for an entire movie afterward. Now that is progress.

My ultimate short-term goal is to be able to swim 1650 yards, with my longest swim being 1200 yards within that swim, which should be achieved in the next month. Then, I'm going to take another lesson, and begin incorporating drills into my swims. I'm sure I'm going about this the complete wrong way, but for now, it's what feels right. Also, I still would like to swim three times a week, but right now my body seems to only be able to handle a two-a-week schedule. This swimming thing is so flipping hard sometimes.

Run
On Thursday, I woke up early to get in a quick ride on the trainer, which had been planned for the previous day but didn't get done, thanks to a long-winded window salesman. As soon as I was done, I met running partner Sara for our weekly run. I felt okay throughout most of the run as we were too busy talking to focus on how fast we were going, but definitely was struggling near the end. I think this also impacted my Friday night swim.

Even so, I felt pretty good during my 3-miler on Sunday and kept up a decent pace. This was one of those days where I felt ridiculously hormonal, and knew that a run would be the only way to clear my head. Running is probably the one activity that I'm not necessarily loving or feeling my best during these days, but, the mental rewards of it keeps me going.

This week's totals:

  • Monday: Biked 45 minutes
  • Tuesday: Swam 1400 yards (600, 300, 4x100, 2x50)
  • Wednesday: Rest day
  • Thursday: Biked 30 minutes, ran 5.2 miles
  • Friday: Swam 1500 yards (600, 300, 4x100, 4x50)
  • Saturday: Biked 40 minutes
  • Sunday: Ran 3 miles

Swim: 1900 yards
Bike: 1 hour, 45 minutes (One day I hope to assign this category a distance!)
Run: 8.2 miles (Looking back at some of my weekly totals this past Spring, this number is quite sad.)

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