Pregnancy Fitness Goals...and Week 7 of 45/day

Week 28 babybison!

Again, I want to thank my friends and family for their supportive comments about my pregnancy weight gain! On further reflection both while writing my Complacency post and reading/hearing folks' comments, I realized a few things. First of all, I've never in my life been one to pay attention to or worry about a number on the scale. Maybe this is because I haven't seen a number in the one-teens since high school and had never seen a number above 129 (until now!) so figured I was a reasonable weight. Occasionally I'd calculate my BMI and all was well. I'd intermittently count calories not for weight's sake but for health and fitness reasons, not really to change the number on the scale. Sometimes, I'd get into body fat %, check that number occasionally on the scale, try to move it down a bit. But overall, my push has been to improve my running speed and endurance, improve my strength and most recently to start working towards an Ironman triathlon. In the past year or so, I've also wanted to improve my physical appearance a bit- mostly related to just a bit too much fat in a couple key places, but really my predominant focus has been fitness and athleticism. This has served me well for years- why would this change now?

I think seeing the number on the scale creep well above 130 was a shock to me. But I'm over the shock now and have no plans to look at another scale until my next OB visit in 4 weeks. And I really honestly just don't care about the number. I don't want the number to grow more than it should because to me that indicates I'm not balanced. I'm not eating healthfully and sparingly. But this post will be the last time I talk about the number!

What will I continue to talk about? Continuing to better myself and my body even as I continue to grow this little parasite. In what ways can I realistically better myself during this time? 5 main areas come to mind:

1. Healthy eating- Good goal all the way around, anytime, no matter what. So I'll keep working on this.

Week 28 babybison.....again:)

2. Strength training- Most of my current displeasure with my body has to do with my fat/muscle ratio being too high. I need let the fat be for now, babybison needs/will need it. But I think increasing my muscle mass is a good idea so I'm going to make increasing weight training from once a week to three times a week (carefully, with good pregnancy technique, don't worry!) a prime goal.
3. Swimming endurance and technique- From how I've felt so far and what I've read from other pregnant ladies, swimming remains doable right up until labor. So I'll start increasing my swimming distance and will maybe even take a lesson or two to improve my technique.
4. Training volume/consistency- Even as my intensity drops off, I don't think my training volume should. Even if I end up walking on a flat surface (god, I hope it doesn't come to that!), I will continued to work on getting in 45 minutes a day.
5. Running maintenance- Whatever this means. Certainly at least a mile a day. Beyond that, I'll leave it open-ended.

As you can see below, this weeks 45 a day went well!

Day 1: 1 mile run, hill walking (20 mins)

Day 2: 12 mile spin, 940 yd swim, 1.25 mile run (85 mins)

Day 3: 4.1 mile run (45 mins)

Day 4: 1300 yd swim, 1 mile run (50 mins)

Day 5: 1 mile run (10 mins)

Day 6: 2 mile run, prenatal training, 0.75 hill climb (80 mins)

Day 7: 14 mile spinning, 1 mile run (55 mins)



This week: 345 out of 310 minutes (35 in the BANK!)

Total deficit: 225-35= 190 min on going deficit. Chipping away at the deficit.

Now I just need to keep this up!!