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.”
Well said! Holding back is painful when your body wants to move but guess it makes you more grateful when you get to 'unleash'!
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