I purposefully only ran a 3.5 mile loop today. My goal was to see if I could get through a short loop feeling good the whole time, rather than my usual pattern of seeing how far I can go before I get tired. While I prefer my usual pattern (a bit more of a fun little challenge), I felt pleasantly satisfied at the end of this run. Nothing special about it - just a 3.5 mile loop around the Muddy River - but to identify a goal ahead of time and accomplish it is always a nice feeling. As I shuffled around the river, with Montel Jordan telling me "this is how we do it", I reflected a bit on the past 2 weeks since I started this self-indulgent/public service blog. Daily, without fail, a handful of women have contacted me about the blog. Most of the women are friends, a few are strangers who have stumbled upon the material, and all have opinions. I did some math - of all the emails I've received in relation to the blog, 97% of them are from women who are supportive of a woman's right to exercise during pregnancy (with their doctor's approval, of course). Many of the people who have contacted me have run throughout most of their pregnancy and have great stories to share about the funny moments they never expected to experience. Some women who have contacted me have run until the day before they delivered, others have run on and off, some have had routine pregnancies, and some have had complicated pregnancies. The bottom line is (I think) that there is a growing group of women out in the world who consider it standard to continue exercising as long as they feel comfortable. The other 3%, well, allow me to provide you with some light reading material (please excuse the non-APA formatting):
There are so many research articles supporting exercising while pregnant. These 3 aren't necessarily the best I've read or the most comprehensive, but they're interesting nonetheless. I'm happy to provide more specific reading materials to anybody.
Run: 3.5 miles
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