My Drug of Choice

Man, it feels good to be running again.  I seriously feel high after a run, thanks to dopamine.  I took a week off after birthing a child and was back at it again with little discomfort.  I took it slow at first because my core muscles were still loosey goosey, but after a month of easing into it, I'm back to my 9:30 miles and loving it.

I took a lot of flack from people throughout my pregnancy because I kept up the running, but I felt confident that I was doing the right thing.  I did tons of research, talked to my doctor, and listened to my body.  Up until 8 months pregnant I was consistently running 6-9 miles at a time, usually around 15 miles a week.  I did my last race (10k) at 31 weeks pregnant and after that my motivation dropped off.  I kept running, but only about 3 miles at a time, and at a much slower pace.  I wasn't truly uncomfortable until about 37 weeks.  It was mostly my bladder that made running difficult because I felt I needed to pee every 10 minutes, but knowing they were mostly "false alarms," I'd push through and finish my runs.  My pace continued to slow, but I continued to run.  Well, at around 40 weeks it became more like jog since I was doing 12 minute miles.  My goal was to continue cardio work-outs as long as possible.  I had tried the elliptical at the gym and biking, but no other activity seemed to get my heart rate up and make me sweat as much as I wanted.  On my due date I ran 4 miles.  At almost 42 weeks I ran/walked 2 miles.

I had about 10 hours of false labor throughout the night.  Chris didn't go into work the next day.  Though we were sleep deprived, we were anxious to get labor going again, so to speed up the contractions, we ran/walked 3 miles together.  Crazy, huh?  The funny thing is that it didn't work.  My contractions ceased completely.

I feel that keeping up the running had everything to do with having a healthy pregnancy, not gaining much weight, and having a quick labor.  The best part is that I had a healthy baby!

Now that I am back at it, I am once again really enjoying running.  I've been a runner for a year and a half now and am slowly accepting this as the new me.  For the longest time I felt like I was wearing a mask and that it was a lifestyle that wasn't genuine and wouldn't last long.  I didn't really believe that I could become an active, healthy person all of the sudden in my mid-20s.  Well, I am here to say that it is possible and I love it.

I'm not sure what my goals are for the remainder of the year.  I'd love to do another half marathon, but with two kids, training is even harder.  Figuring out time for long runs in between feeding Lydia is the challenge.  I had wanted to do the Danskin Sprint Triathlon.  I almost signed up, but it was too expensive and it wouldn't have been worth the money to me since I wouldn't have had sufficient time to train for the bike and swim.  For now, I'm enjoying the alone time listening to music and zoning out from mommyhood.