Extras

You guys will have to wait for a pic of my ordered sunglasses since Nike's web page displays its products in Adobe Flash Player, so it's not a simple cut and paste job to transfer the image here to my blog. If you're extra curious, you can go to the link here. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait until they arrive and I can model them for you.

In other news, today was my first day of classes for the term. While yesterday was a work day, I didn't actually have class -- just had to be on campus for some meetings and shiz. Anyhoo, my classes went well today, and I have to say that it's nice to be back at work. I mean, vacation was great, but I like to be back to my routine, and it's always fun to start a new semester: new classes, new students, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils...Ah! It's invigorating. And for as much as I sometimes complain about my students and the massive stacks of essays I have to grade, at the start of each new semester, I'm reminded of how much I like this job and how well it suits me.

Also on the the plus side of the return to work is that my nausea has been more manageable in the last two days. And I really have to wonder if this in part due to my mental and physical pre-occupation while teaching. Granted, I have had moments in the past two days where I feel like I'm gonna blow chunks, but I have managed to keep it all down. So that's awesome. (And yes, I do constantly snack, and it does help -- most days -- and it's good that so far my cravings have generally guided me toward fresh fruit and veggies.)

So, after work today, I went for a 4 miler, and it went well. One thing I've certainly noticed about running now that I'm preggo is that I just can't keep the pace I used to, and my runs have been averaging 10 min/miles. Today, I did my 4 miler in 40:05, which is an average 10:02 pace, according to the Garmin. In part, this decrease in my speed is disappointing, but to be honest, I'm not all that concerned about my speed right now; I just want to get out there and get the miles in the best I can.

I believe that the reason for my slower pace is due to several interesting changes that my body is experiencing right now. For instance, did you know that a pregnant woman's blood production increases 30 to 50 percent during pregnancy? And that to accommodate this extra blood flow, the heart has to pump harder, so many women's resting HR increases about 15 beats per minute, on average. Getting accustomed to these changes is why most women experience fatigue in the first trimester, and why, I believe, running is a bit more laborious (slight pun intended), and why it's been more difficult for me to try and run at my former pace.

But, it's good that I have more blood now, because tomorrow I have my second doctor appointment, and I believe they are going to drain me for a series of blood tests. I'll be honest: I'm a bit scarred of that (I've never had blood drawn before!) but there's gonna be a whole lot of shit that's scarier that having blood drawn, so I'd best just suck it up!