Born to run?

I wasn't one of those women for whom the baby weight melted off.  In fact, with my daughter now 10.5 mos old, I'm still 15lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight.  But then, my husband had to come back to Africa when our daughter was only 2 weeks old to finish up the school year.  He was gone for 6 weeks, and during that time, I gained 10lbs in chocolate covered pretzels.  I've gotten rid of those pounds now, but, am still working on the baby weight.

Before I got married, about 6 mos before, I started running.  Then, I got married and pregnant within a two week time span, and I promptly sat down on the couch and didn't get up until 9 months later when I had to push a baby out.  Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a little.  I did exercise now and then while pregnant, but I certainly did not run.

When Beni was about 4 mos old I decided it was time, and I had to get back into the swing of exercising.  I started by doing workouts at home, using my Wii and Your Shape with Jenny McCarthy.  A fairly well rounded work out, I definitely felt the burn when I worked hard, and it was EASY to do with Beni sitting right there in her Bumbo.  Still it wasn't too long (a couple months) before I got the itch to run again.

So I headed down to the treadmill.  Yeah, remember my post about going for walks?  I find running outside here just about as appealing as going for walks...not to mention that I don't feel safe going out by myself.

That first 5k I did on the treadmill felt really good mentally to achieve and was pretty hard on my body.  But once I started running, I wanted to keep going.  I enlisted the help of my brother, Mahting (who happens to be building a business of coaching these days- check him out if you're in the Boulder, CO area and want to be awesome at running or cycling! http://www.triendurance.com), to train a bit more seriously.  I was just having fun running and knew nothing of how to train to run longer or faster- but I wanted to run longer and faster!

Besides setting up a training schedule and getting me doing some different stuff (strength training, cross training and running), he also suggested that I read a book- Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.  He promised I would get through it in a couple of days, and made me promise that I wouldn't attempt to run 50 miles on my own.  Of course, I started reading the book just when Beni started napping on her own really well, so I no longer had to lie at her side reading while she napped (gee, I miss those days!).  So I only read at night again now, and frankly, the truth is, I get through a couple pages before the book (er, my Kindle) is hitting me in the face.  So, it's been weeks, and I'm still reading it, BUT, I do find it very interesting, and although I was very surprised, I have in fact really WANTED to get out there and try to run 50 miles!   I don't want to ruin the book for anyone (click on that link there and go buy it, it really is good!), but it explores an ancient tribe in Mexico whose members can, and regularly do, run incredible distances.  And, they do it without running shoes or any other special equipment, and mostly without getting hurt!  Then it goes on to discuss how humans were designed to run.  That is where I'm at now.  

I am very close to finishing the book now- have even found myself trying to go to bed a few minutes earlier the last few nights to try to get through more pages at once- and I have some hope that once I put together and figure out all the little things the book tells about, I will at least be able to run further than I can now, and do it without continually injuring my feet!  I am definitely hoping that I will find my inner runner and discover that I too, was born to run!  And who knows...maybe when it all comes together for me, I'll find a path to losing the rest of this baby weight too.  In the meantime, I am training, trying to avoid injury, and have signed up for my first 5k road race- happening in only two weeks! Wish me luck!  

So, dear reader, what about you?  Do you run?  Or feel you were born for some other exercise?  Did your baby weight melt off, or did you have to work for it?