Saturday I went on my first run since January. You might remember that I quit running about a month into my pregnancy because I was experiencing some pretty bad nausea which made any kind of movement (especially the vigorous kind) result in abject misery. (Okay, maybe I’m a little bit of a drama queen, but it really was pretty bad.) My nausea has abated over the last few weeks until it’s almost completely gone – hooray!
This past weekend our family was all up on the island to hang out together and celebrate my nephew’s first birthday. Saturday the weather was beautiful – about 50 degrees and sunny almost all day long. So we all geared up for a walk to the beach, and I suited up to jog some of it if my body felt up to it. My sister was also testing out a jogger she has had stored up on the island at my folks’ place, and I wanted to test it out, too, in preparation for ending up with one of my own for our baby!
We headed out for our walk – my sister, her husband, and 3 of their 4 kids; my cousin, his wife, and their 2 little girls, and me. I immediately took over pushing the monster boy (that’s a reference to size, not temperament!) one year old in the jogger, and my nephew was riding on his dad’s shoulders. My 5 year old niece was walking/jogging with me and she and her brother (the shoulder-riding nephew) decided they wanted to race to the beach. So we alternated between walking, jogging, and sprinting (okay, maybe it wasn’t really sprinting, but it felt like it to me, and when you’re 5’6″ trying to keep up with a 6’6″ guy, I think sprinting is an accurate description!) to the beach, which is about 3/4 of a mile from my parents’ place.
I was worried after 2 months off that I’d want to die after 2 minutes of running. Or that it would hurt. Or that I wouldn’t love it as much as I used to. And I’m not really sure why I was so worried, but I had kind of put off going out for a run for those reasons. Silly me! It was fantastic. I definitely don’t have the stamina or endurance that I had at the end of last year. But I also didn’t collapse on the ground in a heap after .1 mile, either. I left the family behind and jogged most of the way home, too.
So, nothing fancy. Nothing too impressive. 1.5 miles, I probably ran about 1 mile of it and walked the rest. I have no idea how long it took me or what my pace was, but I don’t really care. It felt awesome to “lace up” my Vibrams and just get out there and run. Not only that, but it wasn’t as hard as I feared it would be. And I wasn’t even sore the next day.
I guess this means I’ll be back to running now and then to supplement my P90X workouts. Which totally stalled last week, so I’m starting over tonight with Day 1. Oh, and my running will still be limited to the outdoors when it is not freezing cold or pouring rain. Which, since I live in Seattle, could mean that it’s weeks before you hear about another run. (Actually, our forecast is for mid-50s and sunny on Wednesday, so that’ll be my next run!)
But it feels good to be back. And you know what else? I think the baby loved it.