Running While Pregnant

I doubt many of you are dying to know about my very amateur running abilities since becoming pregnant, but it's been quite the opposite of what I always imaged it would be like. 

To give you insight into how I grew up, I think it's important to note that I come from one of those "running families." The ones that everyone makes fun of and fears of marrying into. My mom is the mom that got up at 5 am every morning in below freezing temps in rural Michigan to run alone or with her running partner. My dad is an Iron Man and once trained with Lance Armstrong. Looking at all of us today, you'd wouldn't look at us and think "wow, that's one fit looking family." But despite my father's very invasive back surgeries and my mother's bad hip, they run every single day without fail and likewsie my sisters and I are recreational runners of some sort. (As in we've all run a few halfs and hand full of marathons between the 4 of us). 

Now because of this, growing up I just thought everyone did this. And I thought that every woman ran/swam up until the day she gave birth, because my mom did. But as I watched some of my running friends get pregnant, I realized that is not always the case and recently found out that thats not the case for me either. 

The whole reason I got pregnant was from getting injured (in theory, haha). So finding out I was pregnant with a partial hamstring tear felt like the end of the world at first. However, it soon became a blessing as I got more and more sick and even just getting my work done each day became such a great feat. My injury gave me an excuse to everyone in my life as to why I wasn't running, and although my hamstring was pretty dang tender until about 3.5 months into pregnancy, it was nice to use that as an excuse instead of having to telling everyone I was puking my insides out all day. 

Every time I take a "break" from running, I have this subconscious fear that I am getting so out of shape and I'll never be able to run fast again. To be honest, I haven't had a real "break" in almost 4 years. I came home from my mission in February 2016 and I have been training for marathons since. Well, this hamstring and pregnancy kept me from running for about 3.5 months and of course the whole time I'm thinking, "how will I ever be fast again if I take a whole 9-10 months off?" But that is so dumb. I know that my body needs a much deserved rest. And since I've begun to run again with no pain in my hamstring, I've come to learn YET AGAIN, that my body really can't lose that much fitness and will quickly remember that this is just second nature to me. 

The first time I ran with no pain, I was at 16 weeks pregnant and I ran at an 8:15 pace. Just this last Saturday I was able to run 9.35 miles at an 8:31/mile pace. That is incredible! I think. I mean on Saturday I was half way through my pregnancy, with a previous 3.5 month break and I was still able to run nearly 10 miles at a normal, comfortable pace. Our bodies are amazing! 

So, although I haven't been running everyday and didn't get to for the first 16 weeks of my pregnancy, I am happy to be where I'm at. I know that my body, although creating life, is appreciating this much needed "break" from the last 4 years of constant training. Plus, I'll come back with newfound strength from suffering the immense pain of child birth and with about 4x's the amount of blood I am used to. Pregnancy is natural blood doping, I can't wait to see what my body and I will be able to do come next fall.