Training for two: week 21

I'm starting to wonder, am I growing a baby or a future David Beckham in my belly? Hello kicking!

Here are the workout details from week 21...

Friday: 4 mile walk

Saturday: prenatal yoga

Sunday: 2 mile walk at Mount Vernon
(My father in law was in town, which meant brunch and sightseeing instead of a run!)

Monday: 4.5 mile walk + 0.5 mile run

Tuesday: 3 mile walk + 10 minute prenatal yoga (in my office! on my lunch break!)
Note: The cobra pose about halfway through the routine made me realize that not all workouts labeled "prenatal" are well thought out. It's my understanding that pregnant women shouldn't be laying on their bellies or doing back bends late in pregnancy. Exercise good judgement, even if the instructor claims the workout is OK for your stage pregnancy.

Wednesday: 3 mile walk  + prenatal strength routine from fitsugar

Thursday: 3 mile walk


THE TALLY:
19.5 miles walked, 0.5 miles run, yoga, and strength training.

We also had our mid-pregnancy ultrasound this morning. Baby BOY is doing just fine, but his head is  down, which would explain the running discomfort I've had for the past couple of weeks. Maybe his cardio (kickboxing!) makes up for my lack of running this week?


WHAT I LOVED READING THIS WEEK:

Seven tips to navigate the post-partum transition time provides the type of common-sense advice that we all (prenant and non-pregnant, parents and non-parents, runners and non-runners) can use from time to time.

In fact, the advice might be just as good for runners as for new parents:

1. Stop comparing yourself to others.
2. Surrender to the process.
3. It's just temporary.
4. Let go of how you thought it would be
5. There is no such thing as perfect.
6. Get support.
7. Rest and recharge.

Also... In other good reads this week... I hope my labor isn't nearly as chaotic as this woman's birth ordeal.


Public Service Message from Captain Obvious: These posts are not intended to be a set of week-by-week pregnancy workout guidelines. Every woman needs to do what's right for her and her baby, with a doctor's guidance, of course. I'd just like to keep y'all up to date on how things are going in my little world.

Weekly roundup: truth stranger than fiction

Welcome to another installment of the weekly roundup we all know and love: Friday potluck! This week's theme: You just can't make these things up...


SHOULD BE BEHIND BARS

This guy should be behind bars... and not the happy-hour kind.
The repeat DUI offender showed police a beer can, instead of identification, when pulled over for his latest arrest.


SUBWAY RAILS ARE NOT PARALLEL BARS

A naked gymnast has been harassing transit riders in San Francisco.
Enough said.

Image source

A THREE HOUR TOUR...
Just sit right back and I'll tell you a tale. A tale of a fateful trip...

How long would you survive trapped inside a sunken shipwreck?
1 minute? 2 minutes? 5?

Oh... Gilligan!

Would you last underwater for a three hour tour?

How about THREE DAYS?

When his boat capsized, Okene Harrison, of Nigeria, found an air pocket inside the ship. By staying in the trapped air bubble, he survived for more than 60 hours underwater until rescue divers saved him.


LONGEVITY AWARD

When my family drove up Mount Washington some 20 years ago, my mother wouldn't even look out the window because the road was so steep.

Yet every year a group of thrill-seeking (masochistic?) runners line up to race their way up the mountain's 12 percent incline to reach the peak at 6,288 feet in the annual Mount Washington Road Race. The weather can be fierce and has been described as the worst weather in the world.

Sounds like a difficult run, right?

Try running Mount Washington at age 93, like George Etzweiler just did. Etzweiler finished just over the official race cutoff time, in 3 hours and 15 minutes, but finish he did.


IN MY KITCHEN...

I'm not sure this counts as truth-is-stranger-than-fiction, but if you told me 6 months ago that I'd loathe leafy greens, we wouldn't be friends anymore. Them's fightin' words!

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of pregnancy is that my taste buds seem to have gone on vacation. Pre-pregnancy, if you asked my favorite vegetable, I'd have told you spinach was high on the list and swiss chard a close second. Now, sadly, every green vegetable tastes bitter and horrible. For the first time in my adult life, I emapthize with little kids who don't want to eat their broccoli.

And then I realized that if I pour enough dressing on my vegetables, it drowns out the cries of "bitter! horrible! stop!" that are coming from my hormone-addled tastebuds. (Yes... I have become that person who drowns broccoli in alfredo sauce, spinach in parmesan cheese, and salad in thousand island dressing.)

So this week has been the week of the taco salad:

Taco salad

Mix leafy greens, diced tomato, sliced bell pepper, chopped onion, sliced olives, julienne jicama, minced jalapeno, shredded cheddar. Top it all with a guacamole-and-salsa "dressing" and you have veggies even this pregnant lady can love! (Hey... it might not be the most "power foods" filled salad... No kale or quinoa. But at least I didn't break down and eat nachos for dinner!)


QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't"
Mark Twain

HAPPY FRIDAY, FRIENDS!