Week 25

As week 25 quickly comes to an end today, I am now 2/3rds through this pregnancy.  We experienced an unseasonal heat wave this week with highs in the 90s, with heat indices over 100!  I did not run on Monday or Tuesday and I honestly did not get enough water either day.  Our Dayton Barefoot Runners group met up on Wednesday evening for our midweek group run.  We normally meet at "depot" on the trail which has very nice facilities (bonus for this pregnant lady!) but it is also the location of a 9/11 memorial.  Since Wednesday was the 12th anniversary of this tragic event, there was a memorial service starting at the same time as our group run.  In order to be respectful of the ceremony and to avoid an overfilled parking area, we met at an alternate location just down the trail a ways.  The air was thick and the temperature was still 90 degrees when we set out.  Not enough water intake and running around all day at work meant that I started out the run with swollen ankles.  I ran solo while two other group members ran ahead.  About a mile in I decided I needed to stop for a break because my ankles were just too tense to keep running.  One of the group members was running back towards me at this time and she kept me company for the rest of the run.  We ended up with just over 2 miles with some walking in between.  It was just not my day for a good run but I was out and I was moving so that is a victory in my books.

I then met up with the DBR group again on Saturday morning for our weekend group run.  The heat wave was over and it was a nice, chilly 41 degrees when we started out for our run.  I tried to keep up with the guys for about 1/10th of a mile and quickly waved them on because the pace was just too quick.  I slowed back down and ran solo for a 1/2 mile before stopping for a walking break.  I walked 1/4 mile before running again.  I ended up turning around at the one mile mark and headed back to our meeting spot.  I ran for another 1/4 mile after turning around and then decided to take a walking break for 1/4 mile.  Then I finished the last 1/2 mile running.  I probably could have done a bit more but I decided to not push it any further since it had been a rough week.  I also decided not to run on Sunday, which was the first time in a while that I had not run back-to-back on a weekend.  It seemed much more important to me to try and get some much needed rest.

The Air Force Marathon is this weekend and I still plan to run barefoot in both the 5K on Friday night and the 10K on Saturday morning.  The weather is supposed to be nice and cool so I am hoping that helps out a bit.  I also realize that I will probably need more walking breaks than I had originally planned on even 1 month ago.  I am not trying to beat any personal records because just being out there as a barefoot, 6 month pregnant woman is enough of a challenge for me.  At this point I doubt I have any local readers besides the group who already knows me, but if you do spot me out on the course this weekend I will be wearing a shirt that says "Barefoot and Pregnant and Still Running!".  Admittedly the "still running" line should probably read "still slogging" (slow jogging) but that would take too much time to explain to curious folks.  :)

Goals for Week 26:  DRINK MORE WATER!  I've had 40 ozs so far today and I want to get in at least 90 more before the day is over.

(Photo after my 6-miler on Sunday 9/9/13)

Week 24

Not a lot going on this week.  I was not able to run at all during the week so today was my first run since Sunday.  I worked on increasing my water intake and was able to get in about 90 ozs or so yesterday before the day was over.  My doctor recommends a total of 192 ozs...each day!  So I'm a long way off from the recommended amount but getting closer.  The best news is that today was a much better day for running!  My ankles still got extremely tight at 1 mile and stayed tight until 2 miles.  After that point though, they loosened up and I was able to finish another mile without any problems.  The goal for tomorrow is 6 miles so that this weekend will mimic race weekend as far as distances are concerned.  I am hoping to have another good week of drinking plenty of water and I will report next week on how that affected the swelling and ankles.

Week 23

Yet another week of painful ankle tightening.  Admittedly, I still am not getting enough water each day to keep the swelling down.  It has been extremely frustrating as I have not been able to find a good way to stretch out the tightness and have been cutting my runs shorter rather than increasing the distance.  I ran with our coach, Doug, during the group run today so we could try to problem solve and work around this little issue.  Since barefoot running while pregnant is new to everyone in the group, we just tried a few different strategies.  One thought was that maybe I needed to run more on the outside of my feet to accommodate my widening hips and ultimately running stance.  This actually made things worse for me.  I felt like I was already too far to the outside of my feet and may be the reason the tightening is occurring because it is only on the outside of my ankles.  So we took some time to walk and do some dynamic stretching rather than standing to stretch.  This helped a little but I couldn't quite stretch out completely so we turned around and Doug continued ahead with some other group members while I worked on trying to run through the tightness.  I did not get it figured out by the end of the run but I will continue on and keep at it.  I have to force myself to get more water during the work week so I can get the swelling under control.  I think this may be the biggest piece of the puzzle.