Three and a half weeks. That’s all the time left before life changes in a big way. It’s just slightly longer than the time I would taper for a race. Ironically, tapering for a race has some similarities with the final stretch of pregnancy. In both cases, it feels like the journey has been long, marked with highs and lows. It feels like the final days go by slowly, which provides lots of extra time for both extreme excitement and bouts of anxiety. There are things in our control and beyond our power, and we obsess about both.

Although 2016 wasn’t marked by big running accomplishments for me, my journey this year has given me a lot of time to reflect on where I’ve been and where I want to go in the year ahead. As I enter the taper of my pregnancy, I’m sharing my latest video message at 36 weeks pregnant during my first pregnancy.

Here’s what’s in today’s short video message:

• How I’m feeling at 36 weeks pregnant and what I’m struggling with
• How my exercise and fitness has changed during the past month (see last week’s training recap below the video)
• The physical changes I’m experiencing, including weight gain
• What I’m most anxious about as I enter the home stretch
• What I’m most excited about for 2017

And in case you missed it, you can see Baby rUnladylike’s room reveal here.

Training Recap

Exercise is getting harder and harder these days. Here’s what my fitness looked like last week. You’ll notice that I had more rest days than normal. I’ve gone from about 5-6 days per week of exercise to 3-5 days per week.

• Monday: REST (I walked 5+ miles on Saturday with my mom and it really took a lot out of me physically. I needed an extra rest day to recover.)
• Tuesday: Walked 4.5 miles with two of my friends who are also pregnant (27 weeks and 8 weeks) at sunrise + 75 minutes of prenatal yoga
• Wednesday: REST
• Thursday: 1 hour of barre + walked about 8,000 steps around Disney World
• Friday: 4 miles on the elliptical machine + walked 15,000 steps around Epcot at Disney World
• Saturday: REST
• Sunday: REST

In case you missed it, you can see my video messages from 18 weeks, 21 weeks, 25 weeks and 32 weeks pregnant.

How is your training and running going? Do you have any holiday races scheduled?