Momentum Monday: Back at it

Hello and welcome to Monday! Here we are again at the beginning of another week. The weekend went too quickly, as it usually does, especially when you had a packed schedule like I did! Two birthday parties, football games to watch, family to hang out with, grocery shopping to do, get my haircut and...finally get out for a run!

Yes...you read that right, I'm back in the saddle again. And boy was it not pretty.

I got together with my friend Danielle on Saturday morning, the rain had finally stopped and it was chilly. We were out for 3 or 4 miles, depending on how we felt. The first mile was BRUTAL. My body was saying "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?!?!?! I DON'T WANT TO!!!"

It was the hardest mile I have run in a long time. My body mechanics were all off, my breathing was atrocious and I just wanted to stop. By the time we got to 1.5 miles, our turn around point for 3 miles, things were getting better and we both agreed to keep going to mile 2 for the turnaround, we were going for 4 today.

We turned at 2 and both of us were back into our strides. I was feeling better. My form was coming back and my body was finally grooving with me. It's as if it finally remembered "oh yeah, I've done this before, this isn't so bad!" 

The last 1.5 miles went by quick, before we both knew it, we were only .5 miles from our cars. Then the abdominal cramping started. That stopped me cold. We walked a bit and ran the last .2 miles back to our cars. By that time the cramping had subsided, but I was still very conscious of it as this was my first run back with my bigger baby belly, so I didn't want to overdo it. Safety first!

When we got back to the cars and stretched, I looked at my Garmin for the time and was not really happy with it. An hour...for 4 miles. Ugh...I knew I felt like molasses, but I didn't realize that I was actually running like molasses. But I kept thinking to myself that it's my first run back in 3 weeks and I didn't do too bad considering I'm 25 weeks pregnant. I'm not out to break any records or try to best my own time, I'm out for exercise and the enjoyment of running, regardless of how fast or slow I'm going. So when I saw this quote, I wanted to use it for my Momentum today, because I really needed it.

I have to remind myself that getting out there and running, no matter how slow or fast I'm going, is better than sitting on the couch and not running at all. It is infinitely better for my health and well-being to be out there, pounding the pavement and getting some sort of mileage in. Even if it's for the fresh air alone, it is great for my body and soul.

It was great to get out there and I can't wait to get out there to run again. It felt so good and I want to run for as long as my body can phyically can handle it. After that, I'll walk. I just know that I don't want to take this long of a hiatus again from being physical, some of that time I couldn't help, but there was at least a week that I could have been out there. I'm excited to be back at it again and have even considered running a race for fun.  Nothing big, just a 5k. Am I crazy? Maybe...but damn am I loving these endorphines!

Now it's your turn: How is your running going? Have you had a return from a hiatus that felt good or bad?