Where was I?

Oh yeah, NOT working out. Life is a workout these days!

At last the move is done. After a week of constant motion -- packing, heaving boxes, unpacking, wrangling children, cleaning, worrying, oh and entertaining the company that descended on us two days after move day! -- I spent another few days fighting and finally succumbing to paralyzing fatigue. Not the "I don't have the energy for a workout" or "I don't feel like making supper" fatigue, but the "crying on the phone until Lilly swoops in, whisks Tim away for a few hours so I can lie prone on the bed, then make everyone supper and keep the kids overnight until I can string three sentences together without crying" fatigue.

Now, all is well.

Well enough to dare a little workout today. A VERY little workout. I'm actually afraid to do to much, because of the looming threat of the above-mentioned fatigue. S

So I just jogged around the block (550 m), then did

Raised-leg split squats - three sets of 12/leg
Dumbbell shoulder press - 20 lb dbs - 3 sets of 10.

And cooled down and off with some paddling around in the pool.

Tim's at nursery school today, so we might squeeze in some tennis afterward. Or a walk down to the river for some stone-throwing. :-)

Oh, and a weight-gain update: July 4 = 153 lbs, which is the same as I weighed in two weeks before. When I check back on the records from last pregnancy, this is exactly the same as I weighed at 31 weeks with Tim. So I've actually gained less weight this time (since I started heavier)... See how the body balances itself out?

Lowering expectations

I hit the wall on the weekend, and consequently lowered my expectations about how much energy I have available to spend each day.

Last Friday, I did the usual 2 km jog, 2 km walk + hour of tennis. However, between the drop-off and pick-up, I subbed sitting with my feet up for a workout. I got through the day, but on Saturday I slept in unti l0:30 am (thanks McPie!), and STILL had an hour and a half nap that afternoon.

So, as I head toward third trimester territory, I'm rationing my resourcing to prioritize basic living. That said, I've started the week with a couple of simple workouts, just to keep my muscles from atrophying.

Monday:

The usual jog 2 km/walk 2km + tennis.

Squat 45# x 20, 95# x 10, 10, 10
Press 45# x 10
Bent-over row 30#/arm (alternating) x 10, 10, 10
Squat 45# x 15
Press 45# x 10

Today:
The usual jog 2 km/walk to school.
Mile run: on a whim, I timed it. 10:35 minutes! And I had to run through a cramp! (The running kind, not the pregnant kind.)

Walk to the mall and back (2 km) to sign some mortgage-related papers. (Yay!)

Now off for the 2 km tennis walk!

Like yesterday, but different

Again, 2 km jog (to and from nursery school), then

5 rounds of
10 deadlifts - 95 lb
10 bench dips - feet on the ball

The deadlifts were not too tough, but I don't think I'd add weight because the mechanics felt perfect. Dips... well, I grunted a lot. See yesterday's note on the 15 extra pounds I'm hoisting!

And the now-usual: walk 2 km to and from nursery school, with an hour of preschool tennis in between kms.

Every trip to the tennis court shows progress. Tim is regularly returning the ball back to me over the net, and we have occasional multi-hit volleys. I was a little bit joking when I said I might have to take lessons to keep up with him... Now I feel that it may be no joking matter.

A new routine

After an "active lifestyle" weekend (vacuumed the house, mopped the floors, jogged and walked Tim both ways to school, mowed the lawn), I tried a real, albeit brief, workout today.

Jog 2+ km - to nursery school and back. Then

4 rounds of:
20 walking lunges
10 bench push-ups

Finished with 500 m easy jog.

(Walked another 2 km to and from school, with an hour of tennis in the middle. Which is an hour of walking, essentially.)

Next day - good solid case of DOMS. Clearly am not using my muscles enough lately! Also, those 15 extra pounds add up on the walking lunges.

Testing 1-2-3

Had to do a test today to see if my muscles still work. It had been so long since I used them.

Warm-up: 2 km jog (with a break between the kms to drop Tim at school)

Squats: 45# x 10; 65# x 10; 95# x 10 + 10 + 10; 45# x 20
Push-ups (knees): 4 sets of 10
Bent-over rows: 30# db x 4 sets of 9/arm

Okay, they work. But are a bit shaky.

Cool-down: Latté with my sweetie, mango/banana/pineapple/coconut smoothie, then a 2 km walk. (With a break between kms to play tennis with Tim for 45 minutes. Tennis on the actual court, with real racquets. Dude is serious about his tennis. I might have to actually learn how to play to keep up with him. Not much running, but a lot of walking around retrieving the ball. Bending over 50+ times is no triviality with this belly.)

Easing back into it

Well. Life got in the way there for a couple of weeks. Between work, keeping the house in order, appointments, and a vacation to Maine, I didn't get a chance to exercise much at all. Barely even walked! (Even rainy weather kept us from walking to school all the time.) While in Maine, I did do a fair amount of walking: my sister and I would trail the boys down the street as they enjoyed their bike or buggy rides. (My nephew has a kid-sized four-wheeler from Grandpa, and is a pro driver.)

Yesterday I found myself back at home, and despite having plenty to do (clean the house, prep for my sweetie's birthday), after walking Tim to school I managed a very simple and low-intensity workout that also checked a chore off the list: I mowed the lawn.

I love lawn-mowing. (Or as Tim says, "mow-lawning".)

Today, McPie and I took Tim for a stroller run. Or should I say "run". It was pretty slow, and involved quite a lot of walking. A few observations on jogging at 24 weeks pregnant:

• Putting on a bit of speed (and I mean "a bit"), or jogging downhill causes a contraction.
• At 24 week-gravid uterus is a pretty big muscle, and its contraction is a bit too uncomfortable to run through.
• Running uphill is actually more comfortable and less likely to cause a contraction than flat or downhill (but my speed slow enough that running uphill isn't too difficult!)
• Running slowly while not enduring a contraction feels pretty normal, good even.
• My aerobic capacity seems fairly normal/as expected, at a low speed, anyway. That is, I can chat easily and am not really out of breath at all. The low-gear is only necessary for keeping the belly in order (not fitness related).

So, we had to walk a lot. I'd say I spent 1/3 to 1/2 of the "run" actually walking. (Dad took these opportunities -- usually on the downhills -- to take Tim for a speedy spin.) But it was 45 minutes of steady cardio, and I felt good afterward.

Upcoming: This week I have my first appointment with my midwife, and therefore the 24 week weigh-in. :-)

Spring at last?

After spending the week back indoors (rainy and sick -- Tim, not me), I made it back outside today. Walked to nursery school both ways (4.5 km in total), but with the stroller. The backpack is going to be less useful as I can't sstrap it around my middle anymore, and so it puts a lot of uncomfortable pressure on my shoulders.

During nursery school, I jogged almost 5 km, in almost 35 minutes. I tried my best, but boy it's slow going! I tried to keep the jog slow, but also had to walk a fair bit. Not too often, but for at more than a minute each time. The bigger the uterine muscle, the stronger the contraction!

Jogging doesn't feel awesome, but it's not bad, and I think the extended time of raised heart rate is probably a good antidote for all those symptoms like water retention and varicose veins and such that are supposed to happen particularly in 2nd pregnancy.

Also did three sets of 5 inclined push-ups at the park. Tried a jumping chin-up. Ha ha ha! The section of abdominal erectors that really kick in to pull you into the second half of the up are totally MIA.

No Tuesday workout because of doctor appointment. Weigh in: 21 weeks = 148 lb.

(That's a 13 lb gain in total. At this point last time, I'd gained 15 lbs -- but started skinnier so had more to gain. Apparently I should gain half a pound a week for the rest of the time... That will be at least another 10 pounds. But I suspect it will be more like 12 or so...)

Also! Got a Quebec midwife at last! I had a back-up in Ontario that I was going to have to pay for, but that midwife called in a favour of one she knew on this side of the river, and I'm in!

Taking it outside at last

With the intention of back-packing both ways to school today, I decided to try a short and intense workout today. It was surprisingly gorgeous out, so I was able to stay outdoors.

I recycled this old faithful, but scaled for pregnancy:

Five rounds:
40 squats
400 m run
= 19:25 minutes.

Normally this workout takes more like 14 minutes, and involves sets of 50 squats. I ran as fast as I could, which was about a brisk-ish jog. (Maybe a 7 - 7.5 on the treadmill? Runs took about 2:15 min rather than the typical 1:40.) It was as hard as the usual non-pregnant version, which tells me the scaling was about right for today. :-)

And I did follow up with a second (decaf) latté.

I promise I will do some push-uppy and pull-uppy things at the park today!

Quickie

Squeezed in a simple workout on Friday when I should have been prepping for our road trip to Toronto.

Five rounds:
1 min hard row
10/leg raised-leg split squats
12 push-ups (from the knees)

Followed by three sets of 20 v-sit lateral ball touches (3 kg ball).

Still was able to hit the road straight from nursery school pick-up! Excellent weekend with Susan, Paul, and the girls. Tim didn't whine once during either 5-hour car ride. The only downside was that S&P always serve up an excellent selection of beer and wine, and I was unable to partake. Boo.

Ugh, more rowing

I have no recourse: the weather is totally shitty (too awful to consider even walking to nursery school, let alone running outdoors), and I have no access to a treadmill.

So, rowing it is. And a few other things.

Row: 10+ minutes (about 2 km)

Four rounds:
10 bench dips (feet on the ball)
9/arm bent-over rows, 30 lb
30 v-sit ball tosses, 3 kg ball

Row 5 minutes (about 1 km)

And I really did tweak my knee after a million rounds of Ring Around the Rosy last night. Nothing serious (twinges a little on the stairs, should be good by tomorrow), but I avoided squatty-type things today. With the extra weight and proportions, getting up off the floor a dozen times in a row counts as a set of Turkish get-ups.

Another day, another circuit

Once again, reused from 21 weeks. What is with these circuits I was doing? They are better workouts than anything I've been doing the past six months. Oh well, better late than never.

Four rounds:

2 minute row (about 400m)
12 thrusters - 45 lb
15 good mornings - 45 lb
15/leg step-ups

Finished with 5 minutes easy rowing (about 1000 m).

My sweetie is off to China for nearly two weeks. It will be a tiring time for both of us (for different reasons), but it will be much easier than last time, when I was totally sick and parked Tim in front of the TV for hours while I lay fetal on the floor until blessed bedtime. That sucked.

Intensity

Is it cheating to be pulling out old 21 week workouts when I'm only 20 weeks pregnant? My excuse is that the 2nd time around, you get bigger sooner, so I'm definitely 21 week size, relative to my primigravida state!

So, this workout was more intense that usual. I was more red-faced, sweaty and out of breath than I have been, and I blame it on the workout, not me. Which is good, because I need to ramp things up!

Again, mostly heavier than last time, because of a limited barbell selection...

Four rounds:

Row 500 m*
15 sumo deadlift high-pulls - 45#
15/leg split squats - 20# (10# dbs)
15 push-presses - 45#

*As hard as I could sustain - my eyes were closed and teeth clenced for the 2nd half of each row.

The circuit took about 30 minutes altogether. Also, I don't think I'll be able to do SDHP's next week! Already had compromise form to get past the belly...

To the lighthouse!

Instead of reading in the wait area while Tim attended his gymnastics class, I dressed in active-wear today and struck out on a brief run while Tim hopped, skipped, jumped, and balanced his way through the morning.

20 min = 3.5 km (Starr Gymnastics to the Science museum lighthouse), plus (after checking that everything was okay indoors), three sets of 20 walking lunges.

Hi rep circuit

Drawing on previously-planned preggo workouts is really working for me. Definitely helps with motivating myself to head down to the basement when the most I have to think about is how to adapt a workout from the well-equipped Nautilus (where I used to work out), to my still-pretty-good-for-a-home-gym basement.

Today's workout brought to you by November 14, 2008.

Four rounds:
Row 500 m (more specifically "row hard for 2:25 min")
15 presses - 15# dbs
15 squats - 45#
15 good mornings - 45#

Followed by:
V-sit ball tosses - 4 sets of 30 (did laundry between sets)
(Skipped the push-ups because of painful DOMS from Sunday's bench push-ups.)

Yesterday, we went for the standard 2nd trimester ultrasound. It's so exciting to see the little runt on the big screen! What we saw was very reassuring: big, healthy, proportionate (maybe the femurs were a little long, Kelly-style), and adorable. And you'll notice that I've updated the colour of this blog appropriately. ;-)

Birthday run

The rain held off, and Dad held down the fort (sawing logs on the couch)(kidding, Ken doesn't snore)(much). So I enjoyed a little outside action.

An easy run, with 10, 6, 10, and 10 bench push-ups (the 2nd bench was really low, and it was really close to the first bench!). About 7 km in 50 minutes (including the stops for push-ups). Also, I had to stop and walk a couple of times (and once stop and just stand still) to let contractions pass. Sometimes I can run through them -- they don't hurt -- but sometimes it's just too... weird, and I have to pause.

Finished with two sets of 20 walking lunges.

Okay, I actually finished with two pieces of double-chocolate birthday cake!

Squats and more squats

Once again, inspired by a workout from last time... But what was up with 65 lb squats? I upped that a little today:

1000 m row

Alternating sets of:
95# squats - 10, 10, 10
@170# calf raises (single leg, holding a 30# db) - 8/leg x 3

Alternating sets of:
30#/arm bent-over rows - 10, 8, 8 (per arm, per set)
V-sit lateral ball touches - 20, 20, 20 (couldn't improv back extensions thanks to fetal bulge!)

And, since I don't have a treadmill, I added alternating sets of:
45# squats - 20, 20, 20
45# presses - 10, 10, 9

Finished with 1000m row.

I won't be able to get in a workout next Monday, as it's Ultrasound Day!

As promised

I based today's workout on one I did at 19 weeks while pregnant with Tim. (Hard to be believe Tim was once a thought in my belly, just as it's hard to fathom that this belly will yield a real person like Tim!)

I'm surprised that my weights today were (mostly) more than last time.

Four rounds of:
12 deadlifts - 95#
10 presses - 20# db (40# total)
40 V-sit ball tosses - 3 kg
15 ham curls (reverse bridge on the ball)(awkward - baby doesn't like being upside-down!)

Finished with five intervals on the rower of 1 min fast/1 min easy (10 minutes), and more stretching than usual (which still wasn't enough, but there was laundry to do.)

Following along with my previous gestational program might be the way to go. Would make all those blog posts worthwhile! I think the biggest challenge will be finding the time to get in as many workouts...

Easter sun(day) run

After a completely gluttonous Easter Sunday brunch and a nap (for 2/3rds of us -- the male fraction), we headed out for a family run. Thanks to Sweetie McPie for pushing the jogging stroller and going my pace.

52 min = 7.4 km

It was a very nice, easy pace, enabling us to chat the whole way. Even on the hills (which I did not have to walk). I'm pleased with the distance, because I haven't run that far since probably before Christmas. And it felt good.

I promise: weights/circuit tomorrow!

Still just jogging

With the bulk of the house stuff (hopefully) behind us, I was able to move a little more vigorously today. A combination of returning home from dropping the car off at the garage (good-bye winter tires), and some squats:

Run 1.7 km
50 squats
Run 400 m (not that fast)
50 squats
Run 400 m
= pooped. Gotta get back into this!

Saving the rest of my energy for the 2 km of walking/backpacking to nursery school and back later today.

16 weeks

A total write-off, unless you count walking up and down the stairs one hundred and thirty thousand times.

We put our house up for sale and it was A LOT of work getting it cleaned and reno-ed. But worth it as we immediately received two offers, accepted one at above our asking price, found the perfect house, and had our very-low bid accepted without counter. Now we await acceptance of inspections and financing...

Also! Pre-natal check-up. All is well, of course. Weight check: 142 lb. (That's +8 since day one. I expect to gain a pound per week over the course of the 40... but a little slower at the beginning and a little more at the end, so I feel right about on track.)

Long time ago run

I did squeeze one more workout into 15 weeks: a short-ish run (25 minutes), plus bench dips at the park (3 or 4 sets of 12). The run was cut short by my sudden need to pee, which is no laughing matter when your bladder is being slammed by a baseball-sized fetus while jostling up and down! So I had to loop back home, and then it was only a short distance to the park...

Isn't this pretty?

New kid, new look!

Summer in March

We busted out the jogging stroller and boy was I happy to see that Tim was still excited about going for a run. More excited than ever, actually. So we got back to our old routine:

5 km = 30 min

I had to walk the stroller up *some* of the hills (but I jogged the majority!). My kid's getting heavy! Also had to pause a few times to administer toddler-aid -- retrieving almonds from crevices, etc.,

Running (okay, I know, it's "jogging" at this point) still feels good. No pressure in the belly/bladder yet. (However, bladder may be the gating factor to either longer runs or lingering at the park post-run!)

At the park: 3 x 10 inclined push-ups.

All clear

The trail for running, that is! Sunday was 20-something degrees and sunny and gorgeous, so I snagged a naptime run. First time on the trails since November! It was so lovely. Pretty slow in the heat, but so nice to get out.

33 minutes = 5.6 km

I bailed on my last scheduled frisbee game because I'm feeling slow and want to avoid any pelvic trauma that might limit the types of exercises I can do as I progress. I'm hoping to be able to keep running throughout.

Let's do this again!

I kind of left this hanging three years back... In a nutshell: I had to wait five more days for the arrival of young Timothy. I didn't go back to the gym during that time; just walked and walked and walked. Tim arrived quickly, easily (by which I mean uncomplicatedly), and healthily. He remains the healthiest kid I know. (Also the tallest and best climber.) He likes to work out too.

Now, we're expecting again. I'm not in as good a shape as last time -- parenthood kind of cuts into your leisure time -- but I've continued to lift a little weight, jog 5-7 km somewhat regularly, and play frisbee. (Last game of the winter season was last week: ie: 13 weeks pg.)

My goal is to maintain as best I can by doing a workout at least three times a week (like last time), and trying to stay active on other days. Having a three-year-old helps with that last one.

So. Here was my first workout at 15 weeks:

A circuit. Five rounds of:

Row 2:20 min (about 500 m)
10 deadlifts (105 lbs) (I whipped through these, lots of grunting!)
5/arm single-arm db presses (25 lbs)
= 28 minutes

I'll also do a weigh-in, to track my pregnancy weight gain. Because that's so much fun! Weigh-ins will coincide with Dr. visits, because I don't have a scale, or a gym!

Baseline (December 13 - 1 day pregnant) = 135 lb
January 16 (10 weeks) = 136 lb

And, I'm a little behind on my check-ups, so I'm in suspense as to how much I've gone up. But I'm about a month ahead of where I was last time in terms of "showing" -- although only 3.5 months, I am very obviously preggo. This is gonna get messy...