Working out for two

But of course we're still going to the gym.  

Just the other day, I wasn't really feeling it but Elizabeth had been singing non-stop for three straight hours and I was seriously looking forward to an hour of peace and quiet.  I mean, if I could have downloaded the ocean onto my ipod and just had it running in a loop, I would have done it.  Anything than Wheels on the Bus or The ABC's or *shudder* Juno...

And while I readily admit that I am unable to perform at the same intensity as my before-pregnant self, I'm still able to go pretty strong in most areas...although I don't really have much of a belly yet, so I'm not that impeded.

At 13 weeks, I've already had to lower my running intensity - my max is now around a 7.0 and I can tell I'm going to need to lower that soon.  To make up for this, Scott's turned me onto the preset workouts in the treadmill that vary the incline and that really gives me a workout, although I can't run very fast.

With Elizabeth, I stopped running way too soon...close to 20 weeks almost and walked the rest.  Of course, I picked it back up around 38 weeks to try to get her to make an appearance...I'm sure my neighbor's enjoyed seeing the huge, pregnant woman sprinting (fast walking?) up and down the road in front of her house...

With Rachel, I ran to about 34 weeks at a steady, slow jog and then she wasn't having any more of it.  Walking was pretty painful with her at the end, although I made myself do it...  She, too, was a full-term baby.

Of course, my time is also thrown off from having to run to the bathroom at least twice during each cardio session!

The other big change for right now (of course) is abs.  While I don't feel comfortable anymore doing crunches or leg raises (actually, they make me want to puke), I can still do planks, which are also helping my lower back.  But I also know there will be an endpoint to these as well, as I tend to get huge in the belly area.  Although wouldn't that be a funny picture...

Lifting wise, I don't have any limitations, except to not exceed 40 lbs - which isn't really a problem for me anyway.  I can still press on a flat bench - I don't think I have to stop that until 20 weeks - so really I haven't had to alter much at all here.

It's just sometimes difficult to know your limitations, which happened to me the hard way a couple Saturdays ago with Scott.  We went through a pretty intensive workout, warming up on the Versa Climber and jumping rope and then doing the 300 Kettle bell workout, complete with mountain climbers and pushups.  

I walked in the door of the house and thought I was going to die.  I was down for the count for a good three hours, trying to recover.  So sometimes you figure things out the hard way...we'll save that one for the post-baby game plan.  :)