No longer on the run

I started this blog with the primary intent of posting ramblings about life, yoga and my journey to the 2008 Knee Knacker trail race in July. I had begun with an outline of several race goals to keep me inspired along the way to KK. Instead of a year of race adventures and accomplishments, this year so far has been about balancing work, school, injury, volunteering and trying to stay above water. As a result I have not accomplished a single event that I set out to enter this year. I believe that is a first for me! However, I am trying not to be too hard on myself - life has been busy.......and somewhat draining.

In the midst of all this busyness, somewhat of a miracle has entered our lives. My partner and I are expecting our first child in November! As a result, Knee Knacker is not in the cards for me this year. I'd really hoped that I might be able to do this race before leaving BC but as you might guess, I'm no Paula Radcliffe and doing 4 hour training runs up and down mountains is probably not the best for babe. Regardless, I had been running through this pregnancy up until the last month or so. I ran the Pacific Spirit 10km race with a friend from work - nice and easy and slow. The next day I couldn't walk - the pressure on my pubic bones was unbelievable. I had felt this a little bit after running before but nothing to this extreme. As it turns out, my pubic bones have begun to separate and upon doc's recommendations, I am not to run or do impact exercise or even walk for too long of a distance for the remainder of this pregnancy.

Normally it would be unlike me to adhere to such severe recommendations against participating in one of the few activities that keeps me sane, but of course I want to do everything I can do to keep babe healthy and strong. For as long as I've been doing it, running has been my sanity. It is also the most convenient way of fitting in time to exercise myself and my dog in the midst of a busy schedule. Right now, I just don't have time to walk the dog and exercise myself. So those of you that know how much I love my dog can probably guess that Otis gets priority. However, I have been trying to get him used to the mountain bike so we can go out together - now, that's an adventure all on its own as he is so afraid of bikes! I'll write more on this in another post.

Most runners go through withdrawal when they can not run. It's during those times of injury that you swear you'll never have a moment of being unmotivated or complain about running in the rain. I have sort of felt a bit of withdrawal but to be honest, this does not compare to anything I've felt when I've been injured and unable to run. I know I'm not running to preserve the health of this new life inside of me. That is a pretty cool feeling and I'm thankful for that. To be honest, it feels damn uncomfortable even when I try to run to the bus stop right now so I could not imagine running for any distance.

The challenge now is motivating myself to do other forms of activity (that I'm not all that crazy about) to stay active and healthy so that I can return to the trails after baby is born. I wonder how good those baby strollers would cope on the Baden Powell trail....ha ha.

So, now this chick is no longer on the run for the remainder of this pregnancy. For the next 5 or 6 months this blog will be more about the tales of a pregnant yogini chick mostly likely rambling about her growing belly.

Peace.