slow > stop

Lately, I’ve read or heard a fair number of pregnant runners lament the changes in their bodies, and subsequently, changes to their running that result. We all know and appreciate the reasons why this must happen as we build a brand new human person within us. It makes sense that hormones cause us to be tired, short of breath and injury-prone. And the added weight throws off our balance, challenges our muscles. It’s all logical.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a bitter pill to swallow. It’s easy to resent, however vaguely (and sometimes it catches us off guard), having to give up so much of who we are. But there is also a lot to say about how that is pretty much motherhood in a nutshell.

But I will say this about my own experience here: having had that (very minor by comparison) spotting scare early on, and being told for two months that I couldn’t run or really do much at all, has given me some excellent perspective. Now that I’ve gotten the green light to get back in the saddle (er, running shoes) I find that workouts that would have made me batty before are surprisingly easy to take.

It’s still not that easy for me to always keep a slow enough pace, I find myself needing to back off frequently (and find that the nike+ and treadmill are my allies in this) but because my intervals are currently only two minutes of running, before walking for a minute, it’s not the end of the world if I get a little ahead of myself.

I have always hated the whole run/walk thing, but now I’m embracing it as I ease myself back into shape. And taking nearly thirty minutes to complete two miles? It would have killed me before, but yesterday that felt like victory.

I missed running. I missed it a lot. So no matter how slow I have to go, it’s better than standing still.

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