Weekend Inspiration - Olympics Edition

I know the Olympics are just getting going, but there have already been so many inspiring moments.  Here are just a few.

P.S. Is anyone else exhausted from staying up too late watching the games?

1) Italy's Valentina Vezzali celebrates defeating Tunisia's Ines Boubakri during their women's Individual Foil quarterfinal fencing competition.

(Source: Time Magazine)

2) American Ryan Lochte wins gold in the 400 IM finals (favored Michael Phelps came in 4th).

(Source: International Business Times)

3) Marianne Vos of the Netherlands takes first place in the women's cycling road race...after battling pouring rain for the last part of the course.

(Source: Reuters)

4) In her FIFTH (!!!) Olympics, skeet shooter Kim Rhode took gold, becoming the first American to medal in 5 games in a row.

(Source: Sporting News)

5) American gymnast Aly Raisman is overcome with emotion after realizing that she qualified for the women's all-around.

(Source: Boston Herald)

Weeks 33 & 34

Week 33
7/16/2012 - 7/22/2012

Milestones: She's still cookin' in there.  Each week is a new milestone at this point.

Size of Meatball: Probably well over 4 pounds now.

Symptoms: The heartburn has reached a new level of hell.  Everything else is manageable and not even worth mentioning in comparison.

Exercise: It was a super busy week at work, which totally wiped me out.  So I only got in 1 spin class, 1 strength, and 1 run/walk (Lacamas Lake 4-Miler).

Weight gain: A little over a pound.
Bloating/Swelling: Still okay.  I'm so thankful that we live in the Pacific Northwest.  Anytime I get even a little overheated I swell up like a sumo wrestler, so I can't imagine being in any other part of the country right now.
Sleeping: Sleep?  Well, at least Ken's getting a lot.

Other random crap:
- During our maternity photo session (previews here) we were outside at a local park.  An old guy came up to us and stated to Ravyn (our awesome photographer) - "I think you're going to need a bigger camera".  And you sir, need to get your geriatric ass on down the trail before the pregnant lady sticks her cowboy boots up it.
- Why, oh why, do bathroom stalls open inward?

Week 34
7/23/2012 - 7/29/2012

Milestones: Just another week down.  6 weeks until my estimated due date.  The home birth window is 3 to 8 weeks from now.

Size of Meatball: Big.

Symptoms: Menstrual-type cramps have started.  I guess I can't complain since I've gone 8 months without them.

Exercise: I was sick all week, so I didn't get much in.  It is what it is at this point.  1 walk, 1 swim, and 2 strength sessions.  Good 'nuff.

Weight gain: You really don't care about this, do you?  Good.
Bloating/Swelling: Despite an epic weight gain, I was able to wear my rings most of the week.  Weird.
Sleeping: I know I'm a naive first time Mom, but I truly believe that I'll be more rested after baby arrives than I am now.  Go ahead and laugh, I stand by it.

Other random crap:
- I had to move the seat back in the Jeep.  I swore I wouldn't need to do it, but alas, the belly is out of my control.
- Climbing out of the pool is harder than the swim workout itself.  So is getting my fins on and off.  The Lifeguard deserves a gold medal for keeping a straight face the entire time.
- Two of my obsessions this week:

Race Report: Lacamas Lake 4 Miler

Lacamas Lake 4 Miler

Date: 7/22/2012

Finish time = 1:13:03 (18:16/mile pace)

Pretty speedy pace, huh?  To be fair, this isn't a very easy course and it's actually a bit longer than advertised.  And, you know, that whole being 33 weeks pregnant thing.  I first ran this race back in 2007 when it was a 5k and a totally different course.  I don't remember much about it other than the route was sort of "meh" and the hill at the end was a total bitch.  The new course is pretty awesome, but the hill at the end is still there and is definitely still a total bitch.  However, you quickly forget about the hill once you get your cute little medal and stock up on the finish line freebies (Dave's Killer Bread, Muscle Milk, and Kind bars to name a few).  This year I was joined by Nads (aka Nadine aka Louise Farmer) and my awesome hubby Ken.  Nadine had a great race, and Ken stuck with me and helped to fend off the weird looks from spectators.

The 4-miler starts at the Camas High School track, heads out on paved back roads, winds through the trails of Round Lake, and then wraps up back at the track.  The trails are nice and wide, hills keep things interesting, and I imagine that even on a hot day (today was definitely not hot) that the trees would offer quite a bit of shade.  I managed to run maybe about half of the distance, but took it easy on the hills.  Baby girl is making it a lot more difficult these days - she likes to wedge/brace herself diagonally into my hips and ribs, and my lungs are pretty much out of space - but it did feel good to move my legs and get the heart rate up a bit.

I'm pretty sure this is the last race until post-baby.  Next expected race report: labor & delivery!

Weekend Inspiration

1) Badwater was this past week.  135 miles of running through Death Valley in temperatures up to 130°F.  This years winner finished in 22 hours and 52 minutes.  The last finisher finished in 47 hours 8 minutes.  I highly recommend watching the documentary "Running on the Sun".

2) Funny.

3) An alarm clock shaped as a dumbbell that requires you to do 30 bicep curls before the alarm goes off.  It's not heavy enough to count as a workout, but I bet it wakes you up and gets you thinking about fitness first thing in the morning.

4) Hard to do, but true.

5) Wiggins for the win!  Now onward to the Olympics.

Weeks 31 & 32

I think we've established that coffee, chicken, and fast food are products of the devil.  And that I tend to crave tons of fresh fruits and carby deliciousness.  So how about we mix up the weekly update categories a bit, eh? 

Week 31

7/2/2012 - 7/8/2012

Milestones: 9 weeks left.  Single digits, baby!  This feels somewhat similar to hitting mile 17 of the Ironman marathon - still a ways to go, but sooo close after all that I've been through.

Size of Meatball: About 16-18 inches long and just over 3 pounds.  At my last midwife appointment my fundal height was only measuring ahead by 2.5 weeks (instead of 3.5....or 5), so this might actually be somewhat close to accurate.  One of my biggest curiosities is how chunkalicious baby girl will be when she's born.

Symptoms: I actually felt pretty fantastic this week.  There was of course the usual heartburn, swelling, bird bladder, etc.  But all-in-all, this might be the best I've felt the entire pregnancy.  I guess that "2nd trimester" goodness just arrived a little late for me.

Exercise: I did better this week!  1 swim, 1 bike, 2 runs/walks, and 2 strength sessions.  Plus a whole bunch of weeding, organizing/cleaning, and getting things done.

Weight gain: I'm up a total of 21 pounds now.  I was hoping to limit overall gain to 25 pounds, but unfortunately with 9 weeks left that isn't very realistic.
Bloating/Swelling: My toes and fingers get a bit pudgy by the end of the day.  But my ankles are putting up a good fight.  I also like to think that I haven't developed jowls yet.
Sleeping: Well... My hips scream if I don't wake up about every 60-90 minutes to flip over.  And when I get just about settled I'm awake enough to realize that I have to pee.  Then by the time I get back to bed I forget which side I was supposed to be sleeping on.  And then I'm wide awake so I just play on the iPad for about 45 minutes until I fall asleep.  And then wake up about a half hour later to do it all over again.  So yeah, sleep.  I'm not getting much.  And if anyone is tempted to say "it's training for when the baby comes", don't.  That's a bunch of bullshit.  You can't train your body to need less sleep.  It's just a glorious side effect of pregnancy.

Other random crap:
- You know how when you're wearing pants that are too tight, and you get home from work and the first thing you do is tear them off and put on your jammies?  If not, just play along please.  Yeah, so that happens to me all the time.  But when I take off my pants...everything is still tight.  But I still don't like to wear pants.
- We've dubbed baby's early evening activity as "The Belly Show".  We sit and stare at my belly and watch it move and jiggle and shape shift.  The other night a foot poked out about an inch and slid across my entire stomach.  It was so shocking that I actually screamed out loud.  It was JUST like Alien.
- Happy 4th of July!  This is as festive as I got this year.  We went to the local farmers market, produce stand, and then came back home.  I was in my jammies by 6pm.  Lame, I know.

Week 32

7/9/2012 - 7/15/2012

What a fun week!  Mom was in town for 5 days.  Two of my best girlfriends threw me a phenomenal baby shower (thanks Angie & Jessica!!!).  I got to see my Auntie Anne and Grandma.  We did a baby shopping spree and crossed almost everything off the list.  Diaper prepping is almost complete.  Now we just need a baby.

Milestones: Nothing monumental this week, although some women view 32 weeks as some sort of exciting milestone.  But I think making it another 7 days each week is pretty great.

Size of Meatball: Closer to 18 inches and just under 4 pounds.  She is fully formed now and is just packing on the fat for her body and brain.

Symptoms: Shortness of breath.  Despite trying to stay active I am getting horribly winded just climbing a short flight of stairs.  Is this how smokers feel?  Yuck!

Exercise: A few walks and strength sessions.  Mom was in town through the weekend, so we did a lot of house stuff, running errands, working outside, etc.  So I didn't get much structured exercise in, but damn, I worked hard!

Weight gain: 1.4 pounds for the week.  I'm up 22.4 pounds total now.
Bloating/Swelling: My rings don't fit very comfortably anymore and cellulite is popping up in places that no woman should have to deal with.  But I still have ankles!
Sleeping: I'm convinced that we need a new mattress, but I know it's crazy pregnancy logic and that our mattress is just fine.  But I can't help but wonder if one of those sleep number beds are as fabulous as they look on the commercial.

Other random crap:
- I had someone stick their finger in my belly button to see if it had popped yet.  Seriously.  That's taking "touching the belly" to a whole new level.
- Have you ever prepped prefold diapers?  It takes FOREVER!  You need to wash/dry them 10 times.  Or boil for 10 minutes and then wash/dry 4-6 times.  I'm still convinced cloth is the way to go, but I can totally see how the laundry thing is a major pain.

Weekend Inspiration

1) The Hardrock 100 Endurance Run took place this weekend.  100 miles.  Almost 34,000 feet of climbing.  Average elevation of over 11,000 feet.  I doubt I'll ever line up at the start up this one, but I would love to be in good enough shape to meet the minimum qualifications someday.

2) I had a lot of yesterdays like this.

3) Have you heard of Diana Nyad?  She has twice attempted to swim from Cuba to Florida.  That's 100 miles of swimming.  At once.  I barely covered that distance last year over the course of the entire year.  She will be making a 3rd attempt sometime in the near future.  I should also mention that she's 62 years old.  You can follow here blog here.

4) Get thyself to the gym.  It can't be any worse than this:

5) Local Portland peeps - Chrissie Wellington will be in town at the end of August.  Head on over to Athletes Lounge for a meet & greet with Chrissie.  I wonder if she'll sign my pregnant belly?  More details here.

Weekend Inspiration

While I love journaling pregnancy progress, I don't want to turn this into a baby blog.  So I think it's time to bring back the "Weekend Inspiration" posts.

1) Aside from Kona, I think the finish line at Ironman Coeur d'Alene is THE BEST EVER.  Here is a video from this year's race and it looks like it was even more awesome than the last 2 years, if that's even possible.  If you don't want to watch the whole thing, at least skip ahead to about the 3:40 mark where a woman crosses the finish line just after midnight.  Have tissues handy.

2) Who else has been glued to the NBC sports channel watching the Olympic trials and the Tour de France? If you watched the women's gymnastics last weekend, then you may have seen the heartbreaking performances from Nastia Liukin (2008 Olympic individual all-around gold medalist). She ended up having a rough couple of nights, falling multiple times off the bars. But she kept getting back on, and then even though her chances of making the team were pretty much gone, she still completed her final performance on the balance beam. She rocked it and received a standing ovation from the crowd. Check out this interview - so humble and pulled together.

3) Yep.

4) Crossfit at 37 weeks pregnant.  Freaking rockin' it!  There are more and more of these types of videos popping up.  Love that!

5) Did you hear that they added another Ironman venue?  Lake Tahoe!  Check out the website for some AH-mazing photos.  2014 baby!

Weeks 29 & 30

I forgot to mention in the last update that we're now down to appointments every 2 weeks with the midwife instead of every 4 weeks. Our home visit is in 6 weeks, and we need to have our home birth supplies in place at that time. Which means I should probably place some online orders and start gathering the items on the list.  Have I mentioned that we are planning a home birth?  More on that later.  So excited!  In just 7 weeks I will be considered full term.  Our due date is in 10 weeks.  How did that happen?  Something must have warped the space-time continuum, causing time to speed up exponentially.  Or something.

Week 29

6/18/2012 - 6/24/2012

Milestones: Colostrum production.  Sexy!

Size of Meatball: Every source says something different.  The Bump claims she is somewhere around 2.5-3.8 pounds and 15.2-16.7 inches.

Symptoms:   The BH contractions are increasing a bit (totally normal), and so is the heartburn.  Also, the stretch mark fairy has been visiting frequently.  Bitch.

Food cravings: I don't recall craving anything specific this week.  Lots of fresh fruits and liquids.  I'm super thirsty all of the time.

Food aversions: Nothing new has been added to the list this week.

Exercise:  Three strength sessions and 2 runs/walks.  My preggo running days are feeling very limited.  It certainly hasn't been comfortable for quite some time, but now running seems to spur an increased amount of BH contractions. I really need to make an effort to do more biking.  And get my ass into the pool.  Some things never change...

Weight gain: Somewhere between 17 pounds and 20 pounds.  I'm not in the mood to step on the scale, but it feels like I've packed on a bit of poundage this week.

Other random crap:

- My wedding band doesn't fit on my ring finger anymore, but the engagement band still does.  So I've moved the wedding band to my pinky finger.  I should probably just send them to our jeweler for inspection and cleaning and then put onto a necklace for the remainder of the pregnancy.  Ken would kill me if I lost them or had to have them cut off my fingers!


Week 30

6/25/2012 - 7/1/2012

Milestones: 30 weeks!  I don't know that 30 weeks is really any specific milestone, but it seems monumental for some reason.  We definitely want baby girl to stay put for at least another 7 weeks, but if she were to arrive right now, she has greater than a 95% chance of survival.  That's really reassuring.

Size of Meatball: North of 3 pounds.

Symptoms: Random pee urges that disappear.  She has been using my bladder as a little trampoline lately, which causes me to suddenly go "oh damn I'm going to wet my pants!" and start the process of frantically climbing out of the couch or bed or wherever I'm currently stuck.  And then when I'm half way up the urge totally goes away.  But then it never fails that as soon as I get settled again I almost pee myself.  And I can totally picture her cracking up at herself in there.

Food cravings: Cherries!  And dairy protein like cottage cheese and greek yogurt.  And more cherries!

Food aversions: You know the drill here.

Exercise: I was kind of a lazy ass this week.  In my defense, I haven't felt all that fantastic this week. Nothing really specific, just general "under the weather" kinda stuff.  1 walk, 1 strength session, and 2 days of marathon nesting/cleaning.  Our garage and kitchen (every single drawer and cabinet) have been purged, disinfected, and completely organized. 

Weight gain: See above referenced lazy assedness.  You don't need to know the weight details this week, I decided.

Other random crap:

- I had my first baby shower this week!  One of my awesome employees hosted a luncheon shower and I was so spoiled by all of the lovely ladies at work.  It really makes everything seem so much closer!
- If this isn't nesting yet, someone might need to come rescue Ken sometime between now and September.