4th Semester of My Pregnancy: Weeks 16-20

Week 16 (August 26 - Septmeber 1): I made it to the gym once this week. School started back this week. I have to figure out my schedule. Sleep, training, work, school, homework and a social life. I made a trip to Omaha for Labor Day weekend, I didn't get a chance to run, but I got plenty of sleep.

Week 17 (September 2 - 8): I made it to the gym once. I attended the BGR National Conference in Charlotte, NC. I should have tracked my walking miles because I'm positive we walked an ultra the entire weekend. I participated in the 10K event on Sunday.  Charlotte is very hilly, but even with the missed gym times, my body still remembered my hill training. I didn't get tired until the last hill, which led to the finish line.

Week 18 (September 9 - 15): I made it to the gym, just once but I made it. Saturday I had 17 miles to complete. My running buddy Ve ran the first 6.5 miles with me, then she turned around to head back. I was doing okay until I reached mile 15, then my mind slipped. I started questioning myself as to why I set a goal that I didn't have the commonsense to give up on. By the time I finished, I had a new appreciation for my ancestors and their fight for freedom.

Week 19 (September 16 - 22): My routine is getting back on track. I just need to learn how to juggle everything. Full-time work, full-time school and full-time marathon training. I noticed that I'm losing weight. My legs are not toning as fast as the rest of my body. I made it to the gym as scheduled on Monday. Did my weight training and then I tried to ride the bike, that's where I messed up. I had 8 minutes until finish, when I began to feel dizzy. I stopped pedaling and tried to make it to the sanitation area, when my legs became really weak. So to prevent me from hitting the floor really hard, I laid it down. My vision became very blurry. I finally made it to the locker room and laid down on the bench. It took several minutes for me to recovery, so I headed to the shower. Wrong move, I should have went home. After showering, I became very dizzy. I prayed God please do not let me pass out in this shower naked. I made it to the bench again and slowly got dressed. Sunday, I ran the Love the Half Marathon. My goal was to keep my pace under 12 minutes. I was almost successful, I only went over 12 minutes twice. One was my rest and snack break. I finished with a time of 2:33.52. Pretty good!

Week 20 (September 23 - 29): I made it to the gym two days this week. I was in recovery from the half and rest before my 20 miles run on Saturday. On Saturday, my running buddy Brenda ran the first 9 miles with me. The next 11 were on my own. Again, at mile 15 I started questioning why would I do this to myself. Then the bad attitude crept in, this mess was taking too long to complete. Some older guy on a bike kept riding pass me shouting "go my friend, don't give up". After I forgot how many times he passed me, I thought about knocking him off the bike. Finally, I was finished and extremely angry, 5:09:15 later. I had to ask the members of NBMA as to why they do it. Sunday morning, I still had a nasty attitude.

3rd Semester of My Pregnancy: Weeks 11-15

Week 11 (July 22 - 28): This week was another week of missed workouts. The A/C is out at my house, it takes longer for me to fall asleep, which makes me drowsy in the morning. Plus, I still have my cold and congestion and the medicine I've been taking makes me even more tired. Saturday morning, me and the running buddies changed our run to be more of a fun run. Even though I don't like waking up early mornings on Saturday, I woke up to met 5:1 triplets at Katy Trail for a 5:30 am run. They had 12 miles, I only need 10.5 miles. What made the run so much fun, we stop to take photos in front of the Dallas B_G. Then we met up with the other ladies that were starting up at 6:45 am. Sometimes large groups take more time to organize. Along the trail, we posed for more photos with the Dallas B_G.

Week 12 (July 29 - August 4): I'm on vacation and decided to still stick to my workouts. On Monday, I added the cycling to my training on my non-run days. Since I arrived in Omaha late in the evening, I didn't go to the gym Tuesday morning. Wednesday, I headed to the local YMCA and ran my 3 miles on the treadmill. It took me a moment to figure out how to adjust it. I finally just settled for manual and it worked better for me. Thursday morning at the YMCA, my intentions were to run 30 minutes of slow pace run on the treadmill and the weights. Instead, I got trick into attending a boot camp called MOVE. And move is what we did. I don't know how many times we ran back and forth on the basketball court, I lost count. Then we had to do bear crawls and one backwards bear crawl. This was a difficult task for me because I kept losing my balance when I stood up. One time I slipped and hit my head against the brick wall, OUCH! After the floor fun, we did bench pressing, the stream and sauna rooms. I felt pretty detoxed after sitting in those rooms.

Week 13 (August 5 - 11): I blew this week off, no gym time. I'll use the sharing of my car with NeNe as my excuse. Saturday's BGR Group Run turned into a walk because of the pink running shoes that were meant for short distance miles, not long distance miles. The pink shoes didn't belong to me. Then there was the armadillo that I thought was chasing us, which caused us to sprint.

Week 14 (August 12 - 18): I blew this week of too, no gym time again. But I did some exercising at home, just some. I will be missing my Saturday run because of college orientation. I will commit to going back to the gym next week, yoga too.

Week 15 (August 19 - 25): No gym again this week, but I did pull out my running clothes. Saturday, did my first mileage passed a half marathon, 14 miles. We took our time, a little over 3 hours. I broke the clip on my Moractv and drank all my water, plus two gatorades. And once again my running buddies, Brenda and Ve, got me through. I played in the swimming pool that night which made my legs and back feel better. Sunday, I volunteered to be a cheerleader at The Hottest Half Marathon and 10K. I had the brilliant idea to walk from the finish line to the mile 10 marker, the give up spot. As I walked, I decided to use it as my recovery walk. By the time I made it to mile marker 11, I realized I made a bad decision and should have drove to mile marker 10. It was too hot to be strolling through White Rock Lake. I made it to 10 just in time for some runners and to observe the "Speed Granny". This lady walks circles around us, and I do mean walk. Speed Granny walks between a 9:30-10 minute mile, she's in her 90s. My goal is to beat her one day, just one race and I will be happy.

I Miss Him

I have been doing really well with September 17 and 18. But this year that old hurt and pain resurfaced. I still walk around happy and joyful, like I don't have an urgent care in the world. But this pain is consuming me this year. Even though he passed away 9 years ago, I still can remember the phone call from my sister and hear her voice...Nora they found Daddy in his house dead. My thought was of both hurt and praise that night. I said it out loud Thank You God my Daddy's suffering is over. I'll make it pass this moment, I always do. But at this moment I really need a good cry. But I can't because I'm sitting at my desk and it might just draw too much attention. Then as fair as my skin is, I'll have the red face which no makeup can hide.