I had my surgery for my miscarriage just two days before the new year, so to say that 2020 didn’t get off to a promising start would be a massive understatement. Between grief/depression/hormones from my first miscarriage that lasted WAY longer than I thought it would, a loss in my family, another early miscarriage in the summer, starting fertility treatments in the fall, and going through IVF over the fall/winter, oh and a global pandemic that effectively shut down the world for most of the year, it's probably not surprising that last year was my least active year of my entire adult life (it should also come as no surprise that I know that because of my diligent tracking and workout logs). I logged a total of 1,269 miles (809 biking/418 running/0 swimming/42 walking/hiking/other stuff), which is not nothing, but it's not even close to the 2,000-3,500 that’s been typical for me the last 5 years.
Anyway, all that doom and gloom to illustrate that by the time I got pregnant again this spring, I did not have the solid workout foundation under me that I’m used to having, which certainly did not help me establish or maintain a workout routine during the most physically difficult and demanding period of my life thus far. I actually found out I was pregnant about 3 weeks before we supposed to leave to hike the Grand Canyon from the north rim to the south rim, an approximately 24-mile hike with 8000ft of elevation gain.
Yes, despite everything I just said about spending an entire year letting my physical fitness decay until I was in the literal worst shape of entire adult life, I was, in fact, planning to attempt an extremely strenuous and potentially dangerous hike, something I have never done in a place I have never been with a climate and terrain I have never experienced. Because after a year that ravaged my mind, body, and soul, after almost a year without traveling or racing, I was feeling stubbornly determined to do…something. Anything to redeem the hellish existence that was 2020. At the end of 2020 after a second failed IVF cycle, we had decided to take an indefinite hiatus from TTC/fertility treatment, until at least after Ironman Florida in November 2021, if not longer. Maybe, probably, likely forever. And I just needed a challenge, something meaningful to give me life back after feeling like the 12+ months prior had passed me by - and I just let them go. I wanted to do something new, something outside my comfort zone, something big. And so I had the idea to check off something that has been on my bucket list for a few years: hiking the Grand Canyon.
We had planned to do this hike on our 15-year dating anniversary on May 20, so training began in February. We went on some “urban hikes” as I call them, mostly “hiking” up and down parking garages and tall bridges. It was the best we could do, but I definitely had doubts that we could truly train and prepare in coastal Virginia for such a strenuous hike in the Arizona desert. We had specifically planned this trip and this hike for the sole reason to have something to focus on and work toward because growing our family was on hold, but trying to make the heavy decision whether this hiatus would be permanent or not was still always on our minds. Rim2Rim wasn’t quite the distraction I had hoped and neither of us took our training as seriously as we should have.
So when we had a change of heart about our family plans in the middle of training and found out I was pregnant, any concerns I had about not being able to complete this crazy hike were amplified. I wasn’t so much concerned that it would be harmful for the baby, but moreso that I wouldn’t feel up for it or that, at best, it just wasn’t the smartest idea for me? There were so many unknowns and I just didn’t feel comfortable committing to it. So with a few weeks left to go, we decided that we’d still go on our trip and see what we were up for, but to cancel our BIG hike that we had planned (given the point-to-point route and remote nature of the Grand Canyon, there are certain transportation and lodging logistics that have to be arranged well ahead of time).
We were still planning to do some hiking and things on our trip, so I kept working out those first weeks of pregnancy, as I was able - a few runs, some Peloton rides, lifting at the gym on my lunch break like usual, but nothing crazy. I essentially maintained what little of a hodgepodge routine I'd had for the past few months.
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