It’s a funny thing running. No matter how long I’ve been doing it, it always seems to teach me a lesson. Even the ones you would think by now I should know.

You may remember from my Week 26 Pregnancy Recap that on Saturday I had a really great run of 11 miles. I had pretty much sworn off double digit runs for the rest of this pregnancy, but Saturday morning when I went out to run I just felt really great. The weather is perfect and my body felt completely recovered, which is something that happens even less often during pregnancy.

I didn’t have a set mileage in mind when I started out on the trail, which is usually on purpose to not put pressure on myself.  Running seemed to come easy and I just kept going. I knew once I hit 9 that I felt good enough to run a double digit run so I just kept going. I finished at 11 and honestly my body felt like I could have kept going. I was on cloud nine.

Have you ever heard the saying? Just because you can doesn’t mean you SHOULD.

The rest of our Saturday was spent finishing up our registry with lots of walking. My legs felt a little stiff, but that’s pretty normal for me after a longer run, especially now. After we got back home later that night my leg was ached quite a bit more. I shook it off and went to bed.

Sunday morning my leg felt better when I got up so I went for my normal 6 miles. It was stiff and tight on my right quad, but I just walked when I needed and stretched it out and felt fine. However; later that afternoon I could tell it really wasn’t going away no matter what I did. I have had this pain before during pregnancy and after a few runs it was gone.

Monday morning I woke up early and went to run. My 6 mile run was cut at 5 miles because I just couldn’t get the discomfort to go away.  I tried not to worry and focused on getting our nursery painted since that was a big task we had set for that day!

I’m still not entirely sure what is going on with my leg. It could just be super sore or it could be the start of something more serious. I really am just trying to take it day by day and see how it goes. I did get 4 miles in Tuesday morning. It felt about the same, but hadn’t gotten any worse.

The moral of this long winded story is: just because you can run more miles doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Thinking back on it now, it just wasn’t the smartest decision for me. I’m currently at least 15+ lbs more than I used to be, which means I putting much greater force down on my legs. Even though I felt great it probably wasn’t the best time to be pushing the miles, especially on a hard paved trail.

This doesn’t go for just pregnancy either. Most of us follow a training plan, and some days you will go out and you will feel awesome. Some days you will even feel like you could run forever, but does not that mean you SHOULD? Not necessarily.

We all have limits and even though you may feel good one day doesn’t necessarily mean keep going. Our bodies are pretty amazing but they aren’t perfect. I got carried away, as we all do, but the best thing you can do is pick yourself back up and learn from it!

So what exactly am I doing now?

I’m just taking running slow and praying real hard that I’m just deal with a tight quad. I am focusing on it one day at a time and seeing what happens. I can’t take it back now, but I can determine what I do from here on out especially for the next 13 weeks of my pregnancy!

Sometimes we all have to learn the hard way in order to get stronger!

Have you ever over done it and learned the hard way?