Momentum Monday: Under (com)pression

It's Monday and 9 days until Christmas. I can't believe I just typed that, 9 days away from Christmas! Single digits people, SINGLE DIGITS!! Where has the time gone? I blame Thanksgiving being a week later this year for the sudden arrival of Christmas. We have had our tree up for over a week now, but it's still not decorated. It's got lights on it, but no decorations. Sad sight indeed. I need to remedy that today.

Along with the pressures and expectations of the quickly coming holiday, there are the changes that my body is going through for the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I am officially 34 weeks today, meaning there is only 6 more weeks until the baby is anticipated to arrive and that is just crazy talk, I tell ya! Along with the consistent movement of the pumpkin and new types of discomfort, I am now starting to experience swelling.

Oh yay.

As if I don't already feel uncomfortable in my own skin, my body has now decided to start retaining water with the main collection area being my legs, ankles and feet. Typical right? Most women that I have talked to have complained of  swollen ankles and feet through the latter part of their pregnancy. Mine becomes especially prominent due to the fact that I stand at work, so my feet and ankles definitely take a beating. So how do I combat this issue?

Compression socks!

Not just any compressions socks, but Pro Compression. I have been using these socks for over a year now for my running and recovery and they are the only compression socks that I will wear. I've tried Zensah and CEP and neither of those brands provide the same type of support and comfort as I've received from Pro Compression. Starting yesterday I've started to wear my compression socks on a more regular basis to help bring down the swelling in my legs, ankles and feet and increase the circulation that is needed for those parts.

So my Momentum Monday today is to do a lead up to Christmas with 10 Days of Compression!

Training: Am I doing it and what for?

It's been a while since I posted anything about training for a race and if I had anything on the horizon. Between dealing with my back issue and not being able to run for over a month, my focus had turned to getting better rather than concentrating on my races coming up. So to answer the statement above, yes and yes. I am training and I have several things on the horizon.

Right now I am training for two half marathons with several smaller races mixed inbetween. Lets take a look at what I'm working towards.

My next race happens to be a 10K on June 15th. It's the Fall City Days Run, I will be running the 10K to try and get a new (and fast!) time for submittal to my half marathons for good corral placement. I have never run in Fall City before, however the website touts a flat and fast course, so hopefully that will be to my advantage! It will actually be my taper run before my next BIG race!

On June 22nd I will be running the Rock n' Roll Seattle Half Marathon.

First day of May and lots of news!

Sorry it's been so quiet here the past few days.  I did not intend on missing my regular Momentum Monday posting, but I was out of the area (cell & wi-fi reception) until 5pm PST on Monday.  So a late night post didn't make much sense when you wouldn't see it until Tuesday.  I had no idea I would be unplugged for so long, but my hubby whisked me away to a remote area for the weekend to celebrate my birthday and once I was there, there was no turning back.  I literally had to use a pay phone to make a call.  A PAY PHONE!!!  I haven't seen those in so long!!!  We couldn't even dial long distance from our hotel!  Talk about remote!  But I will go over that later this week when I give my trip recap.  Until then, I have some really exciting news!

Race Recap: Princess Half Marathon

Many months ago I started a long journey with a goal in mind and an ultimate destination of this race.  Right here and right now is the culmination of all the hard work, time spent and sacrifices that I made to train.  It all comes down to this point, these series of moments, this final delivery of the prize I've been fighting so hard for.  This is it.  It's go time.

The 2:30am wake up call is an ungodly way to wake up, but the race started in three hours and there was so much still to do.  The room was already buzzing with everyone up and about getting dressed and ready to catch the first buses.  I've seen pictures and heard hellish stories about the lines to get on the buses to get to the race and if you didn't have a car to drive yourself there, the bus was your only form of transport.  The buses started transporting at 3am, so it was important to get on the first couple of buses to ensure you made it to the start on time!

I've got my take on Cinderella running outfit on and I'm ready to head to the buses!

"The Jam" Thursday - What is blowing up my iPod

Oh Thursday, you saucy wench, we meet again.

I'm SO glad that today is my Friday (LOVE three day weekends!) because I would not be able to bear one more day of work.  This week has been quite trying and I'm looking forward to my run tonight and my long run on Saturday to shake off this stress!  Woo hoo!!

Since I'm on a Princess Half Marathon recap kick this week, I wanted to share that same love with my "jam" post today!

Today's "jam" is an oldie but definitely a goodie!  Anyone who was in Corral C (C stands for Courage!) for the Princess Half Marathon will know this song, as this was our send off song.  We sang along and almost overpowered the soundtrack at the start line.  Totally brilliant.

Today's "jam" is:

Race Recap: Royal Family 5K

I woke up to a quiet room on Saturday morning to get ready to run the Royal Family 5K.  None of my roomies were running it, nor were they waking early to come and see/cheer anyone on.

3:30am was far too early for this one to be awake, but I was and I was getting ready for my first runDisney race EVER!

 

I decided not to dress like a Princess for this race, but rather let my inner Winnie the Pooh come out!

I arrived via bus to the parking lots outside of Epcot where the drop off point was and made the walk toward the bag check area.  There were tons of signs and volunteers to help us sleepy eyed runners get to where we needed to be.

 

Got my picture taken before heading towards the corrals!  This is the first time I'd ever been to a runDisney event and was pretty happy with how smoothly the transitions were between locations.

PHM Weekend Day 2: Expo and Meet-ups!

An early morning for Marcia and I as we woke up at 6am to be dressed and at Coronado Springs resort by 7am for the #RunShopEat meet-up!

First, the run!  We had a few people that were interested in meeting up with us for this, well meet-up, but by the time the morning came it was just Marcia and I.  Oh well, it was fun still!

The Coronado property is really pretty and I would consider staying here in the future.  Expansive and quiet!  These are just a few of the vantage points from our run.  After we ran and were thoroughly sweaty (it was quite hot at 7:30am, lower 70's in the sun I would say) we went inside to get in line for the expo.

 

PHM Weekend Begins! Day 1

My journey to Orlando started in the evening hours on Wednesday night.  I was taking the red eye to Orlando from Seattle, leaving at 9:45pm and arriving at 8:35am.  When you travel cross country there is always time lost and I hate losing an entire day to flying, so I gambled on losing a night of sleep instead.  Good idea or bad idea?

My pre-flight ritual is the same.  I stop off at the airport bar for a little drink and my first dose of Airborne for the flight.