Week 9: Fatigue + nausea

I have been feeling pretty miserable for the past few weeks, totally fatigued and non-stop nausea. The past two weeks I've gone swimming, I noticed a big difference in my breathing needs. I have had to go from breathing every 3rd stroke to breathing every 2nd some of the time, and after a few laps, I can't handle flip turns and instead need to hit the wall and take an extra breath. The past two times I went running, I felt a mild urge to urinate. This will worsen.

First OB appointment

Friday: Rode 15.5 miles in a little over an hour between going to the OB's office, to campus, and for an extra loop.

Thursday: Ran a 5-4-3-2-1 fartlek workout over 5+ miles in 48 min.

Wednesday: Lifted at the gym.

Had my first OB appointment this morning. The fetus measures 0.93 cm, corresponding to exactly 7 weeks, and has a heartbeat of 120 bpm. My blood pressure was 124/70, and I weighed 136 lbs.

Week 7

I am entering Week 7 at 134 lbs.

Tuesday: I ran ~5 mi in 45 min.

Monday: I swam 1950 m (they switched the pool from yards to meters over the holiday).

My 10-year-old Polar heart rate monitor is finally dead, so I ordered a new Polar FT4 and will report heart rate data as soon as I receive it. My blood pressure is typically 135/90 but was lower during my last pregnancy until delivery, when it went sky high. Today, it's 125/85.

Back in the saddle

Sunday: I rode the usual route at home in the usual time and lifted weights.

Saturday: Travel day from SEA-ROA.

Friday: I ran a full 45 minutes, my usual amount, for the first time in 2.5 weeks since I sprained my ankle. There were sharp twinges of pain occasionally, but I was happy to be back at my usual run time, though at a slightly slower pace.

Thursday: We hiked to Talapus Lake, 4.4 miles roundtrip and 800 vertical feet. When we got back to the trailhead, I ran for 32 minutes on a Forest Service road.

Fleeting nausea has set in.

Running gingerly

Tuesday: I ran for 30 min and then hiked four miles and 1000 vertical feet to Cedar Butte outside of Seattle.

Monday: For the first time in nearly two weeks, I ran. It was just half an hour because I was starting to feel sharp pangs around my ankle. Since I purposely did not bring my running shoes on vacation, in order to discourage myself from running, I ended up going in my Salomon hiking shoes. The ankle hurt, but it was no worse the next day.

I am starting to feel breast soreness.

Still no running

Sunday: I lifted using my resistance cables (Lifeline TNT) at the playground.

Saturday: I rode the regular hilly 12-mile route and did it in a minute faster than usual. All the riding--four times a week--since the ankle injury has made me stronger on the bike. I was hoping to run, but after a quick jog across the living room, my ankle hurt a lot more. On the ride, I realized that I should probably wear my heart rate monitor and add its output to this record.

Friday: I swam 2000 yards and felt pretty strong.

The thin blue line

Last time around, we didn't bother with a pregnancy test. According to my record of basal body temperatures, my luteal phase had never extended beyond 13 days, so as soon as I hit the 14th day, I knew the deed was done. This time around, we were up against a newly irregular cycle and a possible early miscarriage or two, so as my luteal phase passed 16 days, I peed on a pregnancy test stick. A minute later, two blue lines appeared, confirming my suspicion. We conceived on 12 June 2010.

I am starting this blog to keep a record of my exercise during pregnancy. When I was pregnant with my first, I tried to find information about the topic, but there is very little out there, other than guidance that it is beneficial. Can I still run hard intervals? Can I keep leg pressing 200 pounds? What about sit-ups? Obviously, no Institutional Research Board is going to approve of research on exercise in pregnant women, so the purpose of this blog is to provide one case study. I am not a medical doctor or an exercise physiologist. For medical information, imprecise as the state-of-the-art may be, see the Mayo Clinic's Pregnancy and exercise: Baby, let's move or WebMD's Exercise During Pregnancy: Myth vs. Fact or the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologist's Exercise During Pregnancy. According to a recent NYT post, exercise scientists don't even know much about women in general.

Background
I am 35 years old, 5'3", and 134 pounds (one pound less than when I graduated from high school). My typical weekly workouts include four runs of 5 miles each with one a 5-4-3-2-1 hard/easy or 5x800 intervals (45 minutes total), one hilly ride of 12 miles with about 1000 feet of climbing (52 minutes), one swim workout of 2000 yards (40-45 minutes) adapted from the book "Swim Workouts for Triathletes," five bike commutes of 6 miles roundtrip, and two weightlifting sessions that include bench presses, seated rows, lat pull-downs, military presses, bicep curls, tricep pull-downs, leg presses, hamstring curls, leg extensions, back extensions, and abdominal work, mostly three sets of 10. Before kid #1, I was a recreational triathlete (sprint to Ironman distance), occasional century rider, and ski patroller.

Workouts to date
Up until last week, when I badly sprained my ankle, my workouts followed the above regimen. Since then, I have done the following, not including my weekday bike commute:

Wednesday - weightlifting
Thursday - 12-mile hilly bike ride
Friday - 2000 y swim
Saturday - 27-mile hilly bike ride
Sunday - 15-mile hilly bike ride and weightlifting
Monday - 2000 y swim
Tuesday - 17-mile hilly bike ride
Wednesday - weightlifting
Thursday - 20-mile hilly bike ride

I feel no obvious symptoms yet.