Officially a walker

So you know those women you see walking over their lunch breaks?  There are usually 2-3 together dressed in their work clothes but with sneakers on.  If you work in any type of industrial complex, you've probably seen a few groups of them if you are out and about over lunch.

Well, I am officially one of them.  As of two weeks ago, my OB suggested told me that she felt it was time for me to stop running.  I was 35 weeks and 1 day so its been 17 days since I last ran (but whose counting!).  I was actually still feeling really great running at that point.  Logging 3-4 miles a couple days a week, which included walk breaks on the uphills and a definite slow down in my pace.  The issue??  Each time after I finished running, I'd have Braxton-Hicks contractions that were coming every 3-5 minutes, lasting about 30 seconds each, and continuing for over an hour (for those of you non-pregnant people, that's kind of a lot!).  And since I was still pre-term then, my doc was worried that it might turn into pre-term labor and none of us wanted that!

So now I'm a walker.  I still log about 3-5 miles most days each week.  Sometimes I walk over lunch (yes, I bring my sneakers into work and change into them like the ladies I referred to above), sometimes Bryan and I will walk after work (which is my favorite since we just chat about life), and sometimes we go for hikes in the foothills.  It still causes some contractions but at this point, being full term, I'm not worried about it.

Do I miss running, heck yeah!!  The first "walking only" walk that I went for after my running ban I purposely kept my jeans on so I wasn't tempted to try to run.  Since then, I have thought about throwing in some short run stretches, but have decided not too and just enjoy my walking.  I'm blessed that I was able to run, and enjoy it, for so much of my pregnancy so I think I'm handling this ban pretty well (better than my skiing ban!!).  I'm just glad it didn't happen until 35 weeks and not any sooner!!

I figure if Deena Kastor can take months off running and even walking while pregnant, then a few weeks off for me shouldn't be a big deal!  But you better believe that once I get the all-clear from my OB post-postpartum, B-Fo and I will be cruising again (my BOB Revolution with infant car seat adapter is all ready to go!)