Spin Ride Announcement

I had a lot of fun teaching my spin ride this morning.  Since I'm 15 weeks, and definitely starting to ... grow... I felt it was time to announce my pregnancy to my spin class.  But I don't know, I just feel weird bursting out things like, "By the way, I'm pregnant!" so I wanted to have a little fun with it.

I decided to make a baby themed ride, by choosing songs that have the word baby in them.  Now, they definitely have nothing more to do with babies than the use of the word, but I thought that was better than trying to put together a ride of lullabies, Raffi and Laurie Berkner songs.  So I had songs like "Hit Me Baby One More Time," and "Baby Likes to Rock It," etc.

I do theme rides pretty often, so my riders are used to my quirks.  They come back, so they can't hate them too much!  I told them that this ride did have a theme, but this time they had to guess it.  So as the ride went on, I gave little reminders about listening for the theme.  One of the riders had it in like 3 songs.

At the end of the ride, I let them shout out what they thought the theme was and they said, "You're having a baby!"  It was a fun way to announce and took the weirdness (for me) out of just putting it out there.

I let them know that I didn't plan on being affected much as an instructor by the pregnancy.  Afterall, I went to a spin class when I was in labor with Gregory thinking it would move things along.  Spoiler: it didn't! However, I did mention that getting on the bike right after labor was definitely NOT going to happen.

Now I just have to figure out a fun way to tell my 8th graders...or should I let them just figure it out on their own?

Training for Two (for Boston)

Last May, when I finally qualified for Boston, I knew actually running Boston might not be an option.  My son was turning 3 in July and our family was ready to start expanding.  I told myself that, really all I wanted to do was qualify.  And don't get me wrong, that's still an accomplish that will NOT get old.

However, as our family tried to expand, we were initially unsuccessful, I used the idea of running Boston as my consolation prize.  If ti was going to take a while for this to happen, at least I could still run Boston... Well, just as I was starting to think this way, I got back a positive result on a pregnancy test.  I couldn't believe it, so I took another the next day.  And hooray!  There it was we were finally pregnant.  In my head, I had myself at a June due date, but when I calculated it, my due date was May 9th.  I could hardly believe it! The idea of Boston was still in my head as signs ups were only 3 weeks away, but I wasn't sure what I would do. I was just too excited.

Then the sign up date for Boston came. I still hadn't been to my OB, as it was about a week too early.  I honestly didn't think too hard about it.  I've tried to qualify for 10 marathons.  I ran my whole pregnancy with Gregory.  And I know I would feel no shame in not finishing.  So, I did it, I signed up for Boston at which I will be 8+ months pregnant.  It certainly will be an adventure.

So how's running been going?  Pretty good.  Very slow.  Since getting pregnant, I've run 3 half marathons, one of them pushing Gregory.  By the way, that was super hilly and I kind of hated myself at parts of the run.

I also used this picture for our announcement.  It captioned "Family Half Marathon Tally: Carlee 12, Gregory: 7, Our Newest Running Partner, (Due May 2016): 3, Eric: 0"

 I've had some low mileage weeks where I've stuck more to strength training than running, but I've been consistent about working out about 5 days a week.  Running is starting to get more regular this week and if today goes as planned, I'll be at my first 30+ mileage week since getting pregnant.  I've been trying to keep one 10 miler or more a week and that seems to be working out.

So what's my plan for training for Boston.  Honestly,  I don't have one.  I certainly don't plan on putting in 65 mile weeks like I did last year.   I also don't plan on multiple 20 milers or speed sessions.  I want to finish Boston.  I want to get us there safely.  I don't care if I walk most of it.  Therefore, I'd like to get in some 15 milers or so leading up to the race.  Teaching keeps me on my feet almost all day and I think that actually helps with being able to stay on my feet for long enough to finish the race.  I still haven't decided if I'll come up with an actual run/walk strategy or if I just want to play it by ear.

It's certainly going to be an adventure and I look forward to sharing it with you!