A few snapshots

Here are a couple from my final hike and breakfast with friends at MacRitchie Reservoir. 

Drowsy toddler was lulled back to sleep.

It's quite a contrast to walking around outside in freezing temperatures! 

Here's one from just after my last outdoor run...

FLEECE TIGHTS. PRAISE BE FOR FLEECE TIGHTS.

Also in this week's news: I've...joined a local running group. (Now THIS is more my speed...well, figuratively.) It's a somewhat counter-intuitive thing to do while 31 weeks pregnant, but I really missed group workouts and having company. They do a speed workout at the indoor track on Monday nights, and the set was 3(1000, 400, 400) - so I simply ran for about the same length of time it would've taken me to do those distances before, which worked out to 3(4:45, 1:50, 1:50). I don't know how much more running there is in my near future, but I'm fine with that. 

Now it's springtime so everything is rainy and soggy. And I've only got one pair of running shoes here...the rest are on their way over in cartons! (Previous cartons held things like, oh, summer dresses and sandals. Totally useful, I know.) So yesterday it was off to stroll on the treadmill in my building's basement... expansion and increased blood flow mean even strolling is quite aerobic at this point. 

The last time I lived in this climate, I wasn't really a regular runner, and would perpetually overdress (tank top, long-sleeved shirt, fleece, woolly neck thing, hat, gloves, long underwear, shorts, wool socks) so I have to re-learn how to layer up in the cold. Trouble is, I'm certainly not going at anything approaching my usual speed right now, so I have to adjust for that (as well as the inevitable walk breaks). 

Oh yeah, and friends who run in cold climates: How often do you wash the outer layers? (eg fleece, hat, long-sleeved shirt you're wearing over a tank top)

In which we put the 'climate' in 'acclimatising'

For an entire week now I've done absolutely nothing resembling exercise. Instead I've been felled by a combination of an appalling cold, intercontinental travel, and jetlag. On Tuesday I arrived in Boston after travelling for 24 hours starting on...Tuesday, so my Tuesday was 1.5 times the normal length. (Life hack for arid plane travel: if you wear one of those little face masks, it looks dorky, but you get your very own humidity and temperature-controlled pod for your nose and mouth. No more coughing fits, no more dry throat! The Japanese and Taiwanese are on to something.) 

On Wednesday morning I even made it to a 'new and expectant mums' meetup group in our grad student housing community. ('When did you get here?' they asked. 'Last night,' I mumbled, and then was semi-conscious the rest of the day.) Actual thing someone said: cook a lot and freeze it before you deliver...or teach your husband to cook. I had to laugh; I think I'm already winning on that front. Not only does the husband cook, he has planned dinner for the week (it's my turn next week, and there will probably be curry). 

Yesterday I hit the no-longer-dripping-but-now-merely-coughing-up-yellow-crap phase of the cold, and felt well enough to walk a grand total of 40 minutes - including 15 minutes to and from the gym. It's below freezing around here, so the outdoor walk was faster than the indoor one. Oh, and it took me till the end of my treadmill segment to figure out how fast 3.5 mph is in km per hour -- not fast, but it's what I needed.

Don't panic, US readers! This is in Celsius. 

I have 10 weeks to go and I'm not sure how much running there'll be for the rest of this pregnancy; until the temperature is consistently above freezing (ok, maybe quite a lot more above freezing), there might not be a whole lot more outdoor running. I need to acclimatise properly, and I am not running fast enough to get warm!  

Today we're running a whole bunch of those moving-to-a-new-city-type errands, including getting a phone SIM card, some bank stuff, some transport stuff, and some visiting of potential childcare centres. I also want a Fitbit to see how many steps all this errand-running gets me...