Life After Birth

When you have a child your suddenly understand that your body is an amazing thing.  You actually carried life inside of you for nine months! Amazing! I still can't comprehend everything that happened to my body during those nine months or even during delivery which is why I'm so shocked at how my body is performing now.  Even after the whole experience of the Doctor patting me on the back at my six week check up, and giving me the okay to start working out again I had no idea how what condition my body was really in.

Truthfully, I thought I was going to pick up where I left off.   I was running well into my sixth month, and turned a lot a heads when I walked a 5K a few weeks before Nolan was born.  I'm not bragging I just hope  you understand my sudden surprise when I first stepped foot in the gym and could barely run a quarter mile on the treadmill.  Everything hurt, abs, legs, lungs, head, everything.  What happened?!  I still don't know, but I do know that I am starting from ground zero.  I am going to have to retrain in every area; Pilates, Yoga, and Running.  And worst of all I'm going to have to take my own advise.

I'm always telling people who want to make running or any other exercise a habit that they have to start slow and really make it an escape instead of a chore.  Well, right now working out is really hard and almost painful. I remember enjoying it, but my lungs, my abs, how could this be fun again? Once, again I have to take my own advise.  What I say in instances like these is, "Slow and steady wins the race.". Results come slowly, but they do come if you keep at it.

Today, was the first day that I could run outside. The temperature reached 50 degrees, and after running inside on a treadmill (okay truthfully it was walk/ running on the treadmill) I was excited to run outside like I use to do.  Just like when I first stepped on the treadmill I thought, "This will be fun, and easy".  It's amazing how realistic treadmills can be. It was hard but totally worth it, and I improved! Instead of running just a quarter of a mile at first I ran an half mile, walked, and then jogged a little longer.  The round trip was a mile and an half!     More to come on my retraining experiences.