I feel the need ...... for speed!

Have you ever been walking (for exercise or health) and suddenly, you NEED to run.  You feel compelled and driven to suddenly bump it up and push your stroller a little faster.  Your muscles yearn for that soreness that you haven't felt in a while.  You want to feel your heart beat a little quicker and your breath to be a little harder to catch.  YOU HAVE TO RUN RIGHT NOW. RIGHT THIS SECOND.

Have you ever felt that way?

Last night I took Rocco to the park to walk and halfway through my first figure-8 lap, I'm telling you, something came over me and I felt like I could run for days!  I wanted to run.  I needed to run.  So, that's just what I did.

When I was growing up I hated to run.  I repeat, I HATED TO RUN.  After being a fitness instructor for 10 years, I look back and I realize why I hated it so much.  First, no one ever taught me how to run efficiently and comfortably; think less up and down movement and more forward motion.  Second, I never had a sports bra that was properly fitted.  I've been a D cup since I was 12; it's an issue.

After I had been teaching for about a year, I started running on the treadmill.  As with most gyms, there were mirrors everywhere.  I caught a glimpse of myself one day and thought, "Wow!  I really have bad form and look uncomfortable!"  And I was uncomfortable.  From that day forward, I started watching myself in the mirror and correcting my form.  For years, I only ran on a treadmill.  Every time I tried to run outside, for some reason I felt like I was going to heave and die. 

Until last year.

After my second miscarriage and A LOT of pounds gained and A LOT of emotional stress, I started running in the park.  I needed to feel free and the treadmill just wasn't doing it for me.  I needed to feel the sun's heat beat down on me and the wind wash over me and cleanse me of all that stress.  I was worried that I would have a slower pace than I did on the treadmill, but I didn't.  I ran just as fast, if not faster, when I ran at the park and I decided I would try to run a half marathon.  But, less than two months later I was pregnant again and that was the end of running for me.

Until yesterday.

What a freeing feeling it is to get that first little bit of running under my belt!  I felt like running a marathon, but I didn't want to overdo it, so I just did a few intervals so that I wouldn't feel like I'd been pushed through a pasta press later on.  I can't even express how amazing it felt to run.  And Rocco loved it, too.  He's so calm when we go for a walk, or even when we just sit outside.  He's going to be one of those boys that we just holler at at dark and he comes in in a ball of dirt and stink.

 

 

And we had another beautiful view of the rising moon.

So, who's ready for a run?