Unleashed

            When you come back from time off, whether it be from injury, pregnancy, or what have you, anxiousness has built up and you just want to jump back into it.  You have to be careful that you don’t come back too hard too fast, or you’ll end up injured or re-injured though.  But it can be tough to hold yourself back when you are chomping at the bit.

When you’ve been holding/held back for so long, all you want to be is unleashed.  The off-season training time does that to you.  It gets you physically prepared for the next step, but it also creates a hunger, a drive, a desire to go all-out in a race.  There was a rough patch with my running, but instead of continually getting worse (slower/more painful/shorter), I’ve been feeling pretty good.  Some run days I just feel REALLY good, and while I still have limitations in movement just because of pregnancy in general (not just pelvic pain which has been pretty minimal this time around), it makes me even more anxious to let loose.  While I know there is also pain and misery that comes with running really hard – there is also exhilaration and freedom that comes with being able to move like that.  My lungs don’t ache for it, but my legs do!

33 weeks!

            If you taper right for a race, that’s also how you should feel as you toe the start line – ready to unleash, to conquer the challenge, smoke the competition, to test your mettle.  You want to let the beast out of the cage.  There is a restlessness – a hunger that needs to be fed.  That’s when you know you are ready. 

            So while I have to hold back for quite a while longer before I can let loose on the run, I’m at least finding joy in it again – something I wasn’t expecting to experience so soon again (even in single digit temps on snow and ice).  It makes me glad that I pushed through the rough stretches (and even the occasional bad day still).  Everyone will experience that at some point, but you have to stick with it and push through – don’t let it beat you.  Because when you come out on the other side, it’s even more glorious.

Romans 5:3-4 “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”