With the weather warming up, the daylight stretching into the evenings and the end of my pregnancy right around the corner (a max of 3 weeks away), I find myself seriously jonesing to get out and run. The other day, I was out on a walk and my legs felt the best they have in months, and it was so tempting to just break into a jog! I didn’t because I’m still carrying around this bowling ball in my belly, and I don’t think running would feel very good.
As much as I love to train for races, and have been very tempted to start looking up dates and planning things out, I’m restraining myself. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a few ideas rolling around in my head… or that I haven’t talked to a friend about doing a sprint triathlon in August. But I’m not committing to anything just yet.
My plan is to first get the all-clear from my doctor that I can start high-intensity exercise again. Then I’m just going to see where I’m at. I honestly would not be surprised if running 2 miles at a 12 minute pace is a stretch. I can definitely tell that I’ve lost muscle tone and endurance from not doing much during pregnancy other than walking. I mean, I’m pretty sure my butt has actually gotten smaller during pregnancy, from not running. You wouldn’t think that’d be a bad thing, but it’s slightly depressing because it makes me wonder how long the road will be to get back into the shape I was in before (though I can guarantee that I will not be in marathon shape again for a very long time!)
But whether I’m starting from scratch, or pleasantly surprised that I’m not as out of shape as I thought, it’ll be good to get back out there.
Life, Really Blog 
I am starting to have lots of thoughts like this as well. I was teaching TurboKick (kinda like a cardio kickboxing class) pre-pregnancy and my doctor advised me to stop during my first trimester – so I feel like such a blob as walking doesn’t really compare to the high intensity exercising i was doing before. I am so nervous about trying to get back into shape, but I guess i’ve done it before I will just have to do it again! We can do it!
I had the exact same feeling today while walking my dogs! I was like, “Running seems like it would feel so good – maybe I’ll run to the stop sign?” I had my running shoes on but no sports bra, so it wouldn’t have been good. My body is obviously also itching for that movement – hopefully by August I’ll be out there. Do you have a race in mind already?
@Angie – No, I don’t have any specific races in mind yet, though I think I’d like to do a duathlon and maybe a 10K. We’ll see. I have a bad habit of setting ridiculously high expectations and then feeling guilty that I’m only human.
OK, totally shameless plug here, but I just posted about returning to running after pregnancy 🙂