This weekend I’ve decided to embrace the role of pregnant lady with my feet up on the couch.
I woke up yesterday morning with a cough. I didn’t think too much about it. I’ve been a little more congested my entire pregnancy. I got out of bed, ate breakfast, and headed out for a run. My poor pathetic dog made it impossible for me to leave him at home. How do you say no to a dog that is happily waiting for you at the front door ready to run. The dog plus my pregnancy made it a very interesting run.
Our neighborhood has dozens of houses with invisible fences around their entire yard. Dogs are free to roam around the entire yard. This means there are a lot of dogs waiting at the curb to say hello to Alex as we run by them. Alex is by no means the best dog on his leash. He does relatively good, but he loves to play with other dogs. He’s been going to doggy daycare since we first rescued him last year. He thinks every dog is his best friend. Once we get a mile into our run, Alex does great. It is just a battle to keep him from crying at each dog he passes. Fortunately he doesn’t pull too much.
In an attempt to avoid the first mile cries from Alex, I changed our normal running route. I headed in a direction that has fewer invisible fences. As Alex and I got to our first half-mile, two kids had their dog outside with them hanging out at a dead-end. The dog wasn’t in an invisible fence nor was he on leash. Alex was so excited to have a friend come up to greet him. Normally I would attempt to keep Alex focused but with a 7 month pregnant belly and a really hyper dog, I knew I wouldn’t win that battle. Alex got an impromptu play date in the end of the dead-end street.
A few minutes later, we looped back to our house for a quick bathroom break. I now require a bathroom break 1 mile into every run. After that I’m good to go as far as I’d like to run. We were now headed out on our normal loop. Alex did great until we crossed paths with a lady walking her dog – a long-haired version of Alex. She walked her dog right up to Alex. Once again, Alex was thrilled to have a meet and greet in the middle of the street.
Although the run was filled with doggy distractions, it was actually one of my better runs lately. I’ve quit paying attention caring about time but for those of you that are curious, I am now running about 12:00 – 12:30 minute mile. Slow and Steady. The doggy distractions were actually good for me. I ended up running majority of the 4 miles on our run. That hasn’t happened in a long time.
Cole and I spent the rest of our afternoon play our new Wii Game, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, while Christian had his final session on his Willy Wonka tattoo. Alex happily slept the afternoon away thanks to his morning running.
Around dinner time last night that cough I had Saturday morning creeped up on me. My entire body was achy – sick achy, not running achy. I had a low-grade fever. I quickly found comfort in my couch and started forcing fluids. (I always forget to drink my water on the weekends).
This morning I woke up feeling just okay. I’m spending the day doing nothing (besides a little cleaning and laundry). I’m not making soup or baking bread. I do not, do not, do not want to get sick. There is no time for that in our schedule.
I’ll be back Sunday with a new soup to try (and hopefully 100% healthy).
Kristy Maute 