Running Speed And Weight

So I had another visit to the Birthing Center this morning where we did the usual weighing, blood pressure, uterus sizing and fetal heartbeat dopplering.  All is good and normal.  I have made one change from the last post regarding herbal teas– it seems the burdock was causing gas problems enough to impact my sleep.  I didn’t take any burdock yesterday or today, but I am LOVING the raspberry leaf / roasted dandelion root tea mixture.  Yum yum yum!!! 

But back to the main topics, which are running speed and weight.  My weight, over the past 4 weeks has gone up 8 pounds.  This is in comparison to the 1 pound gain for the 3 weeks previous.  It’s not body fat (I’m an athlete, I would know) and it’s not swelling, because the herbal teas and intelligent dietary choices help with that.  It’s all pretty much belly and maybe some extra blood volume, I guess.  This would explain why my biking paces have been hitting lower and lower numbers.  My run paces too, that is, until this week.

What?  Until this week?  Yeah, maybe it was the whole going hiking instead of running last Saturday or there’s something magic in the dandelion root tea, but my 4-miler Monday and 5.75-miler just a little while ago are a real improvement over the previous few weeks.  I felt great.  So great, that I actually ran faster than 9 minute miles in both cases, which is pretty impressive for someone 25 pounds over race weight.  And carrying a growing fetus.  Clarification– growing and carrying a fetus.  That fetus isn’t growing on it’s own accord, it’s piping it’s nutrients right out of me.  Which is the way it should be, but that wouldn’t typically leave one ready to run fast.  I know 8:40+’s aren’t exactly fast, but work with me here on adjusting the expectations.  I’m just pleasantly surprised and rather impressed is all. 

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