My biggest complaint with pregnancy so far is all related to running.  I really didn’t think it would be this hard so early on.  I’m not really that big yet so I’m frustrated that my runs have become so uncomfortable.  My pace hasn’t slowed down and strangely enough, it seems like I feel better at the faster paces than the slower paces. 

 That being said, sometimes I do feel pretty good.  Sometimes my abdomen just “aches” from the pressure and I wear my belly band and sometimes this seems to help, other times it seems like the tightness of the band makes the pressure worse.  Ugh.  I just want to go for a run and feel like I did at 12 weeks!  Today I did 8 miles.  I actually went out 2.5, looped back to my house to use the bathroom (I didn’t wear my belly band and I had the sensation of having to pee the whole run) and then I went out another mile and back and was feeling good so I tacked on another mile.  I guess I may just have to play everything by ear like this on my runs, which is hard for me because I’m just such a planner.  On the plus side, since I’ve eliminated hills from my runs, scaled back my mileage a bit and been massaging/heating my calf every night, my calf pain has at least gone away.  Now if I could just figure out how to deal better with the pressure in my belly.

 Sometimes I tell myself this is good for me because its teaching me to deal with pain.  Running is something I enjoy and unless I’m doing a hard workout where I’m really pushing myself I usually feel pretty good while running.  This is completely different.  I’m just counting down the miles/minutes until my run is finally over with.  I always feel better after I’ve run but its just getting so hard to get through it.  And I have almost another 5 months to go where its likely to get worse?!  I’m just venting.  I’m so thankful for the pregnancy and for so many things.  I’m just having a hard time dealing with this.  I hope tomorrow will be a better running day and then I’m always so thankful and excited for Fridays as my day off.  So sad that I think that way but honestly I’m much less stressed on my off days because I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to feel.

Here’s my 5 month pregnancy belly shot!