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Month: September 2015

the first couple weeks back

the first couple weeks back

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So cliche I know, but man, time flies — and especially when you have a newborn. Rationally, I know that Spike (what I’m affectionately calling the littlest one; seriously, her hair is impressive) is nearly 8 weeks now, but man… that’s hard to believe.  I just adore how much big sister loves being a big sister or a mini-mommy. It’s so sweet.

~1.5 weeks versus ~7 weeks - lots of changes in the little one already
~1.5 weeks versus ~7 weeks – lots of changes in the little one already

 

♡
♡

 

In one of my recent posts, I wrote that I got cleared to run at my 3-week check-up, ran a few times that week, then had surgery around 4 weeks postpartum and kinda laid low for a week out of pain-and-discomfort-dictated necessity. Once I got cleared at my 1 week post-op appointment, I began (or resumed) running and have been balancing that against the ancillary work that I’m committed to doing and getting into a routine on (hashtag not being a lazy-ass runner)…as well as against the whole “life with a newborn and 4 year-old” thing.  Right now, my runs have been fairly short, like 3-5 miles or so, maybe 4 or 5 times a week if I’m lucky, usually after my husband gets home from work. I’m erring on the side of caution here; I don’t want the engine to get ahead of the chassis. I know I’m more likely to injure myself or tweak something by doing too much, too fast, too soon, than I am by building gradually, so that’s my MO: all tortoise, no hare right now.

flashback to Boston '10. tortoise FTW
flashback to Boston ’10. tortoise FTW

 

I can be an extremely patient person, but I won’t lie: even though I know I’m doing the right thing right now, some days, many days, it’s tough. I want to be hitting paces and distances that I did before, but like I said, I also know that it’s really not in my best interest to… not yet, anyway. The nice thing is that it’s HIGH TIME for fall marathoning season, and with so many friends racing all over the country (and world!), I feel like I’m channeling a lot of excitement their way. That’s one of the great things about running and the greater running community; it’s a family affair because at any given time, it seems that one person might be on the top of his or her game while someone else is coming back from injury or setback or something. Sure, you can be bitter or jealous that your fitness isn’t where XYZ’s fitness is right now–but remember that comparison game thing I talked about before? Yeah, that’s shitty, and unproductive, and generally not worth engaging in. Abstain at all costs. The flip side of jealousy/embitterment is that it is so easy to be supportive of our friends in the running community and our/their endeavors — wherever we are on the healthy/injured continuum — and I personally think that the support can do wonders for our confidence going into race day (or even day-to-day training)…which is why I find dailymile and strava so awesome. Maybe that’s me though.

Anyway. Here’s how things have looked over the past couple weeks. I don’t really have a plan for how often or detailed I’ll document my postpartum running here, especially since I already basically do the same thing through dailymile and strava, but we’ll see. If it helps someone, then why not.

week of 9/14 – 16.06 running miles

Monday, 9/14: 3.36 mi @ 8:21 avg, 15 pushups as part of a challenge I’m doing with my sister :), lunge matrix stuff + foam rolling

Tuesday, 9/15: 3.42 mi @ 8:25 avg, 16 pushups, 40 minutes of family yoga (that was way more challenging than I expected for ‘family’!)

not a bad view. makes it look like we have seasons here!
not a bad view. makes it look like we have seasons here!

 

Wednesday, 9/16: 2.57 mi @ 8:19 avg, 17 pushups

Thursday, 9/17: 1.3 mi Spike-wearing walk while A was in dance; 18 pushups; 2.66 mi run @ 8:06 avg

Friday, 9/18: just 19 pushups. being lazy

Saturday, 9/19 (six weeks postpartum): 4.05 mi run @ 8:15 avg; 20 pushups

Sunday, 9/20: 21 pushups. slept in the a.m.

 

week of 9/21 – 20.8 running miles

Monday, 9/21: 2 rds of week 1 Moms Into Fitness postpartum interval circuit + pilates/yoga; rest day from pushups challenge. I used Lindsey Brin’s MIF prenatal yoga stuff pretty regularly in the third trimester, so I thought I’d try her postpartum stuff. The music is wretched, the camo attire (going with the ‘bootcamp’ theme) is obnoxious, but it’s a good workout and I feel like she knows what she’s talking about. Plus, I can do it when the girls are sleeping, so that’s a win in my book. I’m making it a habit to get into doing strength-based stuff more regularly, so this is a step in the right direction anyway… even if I am rolling my eyes the entire time.

Tuesday, 9/22: MIF (I always read that as MILF, ha) core stuff- pilates 1 + 2 routines plus floor work 1 + 2 routines; 4.35 mi @ 8:01 avg after 9:30 pm!! I haven’t run that late since the last time I did a relay!; 23 pushups

Wednesday, 9/23: 24 pushups; sore as hell from the interval stuff on Monday and felt run-down

Thursday, 9/24: 1.7 mi Spike-wearing walk during dance; 25 pushups; 4.35 mi run @ 8:27 avg; remembered to foam roll again

getting strong again is a team effort
getting strong again is a team effort

 

Friday, 9/25: core stuff again – pilates 1+2, floor work 1+2, 26 pushups

Saturday, 9/26: 12.1 mi trail run at Alum Rock with Saurabh and Kowsik, both training for 50 milers, @ 11:33 avg. Left home thinking I’d only run no more than 8 miles but felt great and just went with it. The beauty of trail running is that you’re constantly changing gears and speeds, and throwing in some good elevation also keeps your body working in a way that I don’t think you get as easily just running roads. It was GLORIOUS to be back in the foothills that I can see from my window — like legitimately see, not Sarah Palin/seeing-Russia-from-Alaska see. 2,434 of elevation gain according to Garmin, and every step was worth the work. SO HAPPY. 27 pushups in the p.m. and I remembered to roll again, too. Hello, soreness!

Saurabh (left) and Kowsik (right). Hello, drought.
Saurabh (left) and Kowsik (right). Hello, drought.

 

itty bitty Kowsik
itty bitty Kowsik

 

Saurabh on the return home
Saurabh on the return home

 

proof I was there. Up top!
proof I was there. Up top! (cred: Saurabh)

Sunday, 9/27: holy DOMS. rest day from the pushup challenge and a complete rest day otherwise from working out. Spent 6am-12pm spectating and course monitoring the RNR San Jose half marathon and 10k with Wolfpack and got to see a ton of friends and Deena Kastor (who smiled at A!) and Meb. Such a fun morning.

course monitoring like a champ
course monitoring like a champ and bringing the orange construction worker vest back into style

 

 

Overall, feeling pretty content. I wanted to run more last week (naturally) but am putting off beginning the 4am runs as long as I can. Nighttime running is too unpredictable for me and for my family’s schedule, so if I really want to begin to build my mileage and my running frequency, the predawners have to happen. Thank god for tea… and two kids who nap fairly predictably.

I’ve got one race on the calendar in October – the Let’s Go 510k (a 10k) up in Berkeley at the end of the month – which probably means I should begin incorporating some semblance of speedwork into my runs. We’ll see. I’m all about that conservative postpartum build (tortoise, not hare), so we’ll see how this all pans out. I’m taking it a day at a time.

at the starting line

at the starting line

Comments 7 comments

I’m coming up on six weeks postpartum and got the all-clear from my practitioner 3 weeks ago to run, so I’m beginning to think a little more about running and getting back into something of a routine. When I’m in the throes of marathon training, I usually run 6 days a week and hit something in the 60-75 miles per week range. If I’m not training, I typically keep around a 50 mpw base just to stay in shape and still elect to run around 5 or 6 days a week; I scale back the effort but keep the consistency there because, if nothing else, I dig routine. Hard to believe for a runner, I know.

always trainin for something
we’re runners; we’re always training for something

With a newborn and a four year-old in the house these days, I think I’m going to take some denotative license and create some alternative definitions for what ‘routine’ entails. In the past 5.5 weeks, I’ve birthed a newborn (and have subsequently kept her living and thriving solely from the liquid that my body produces … man, said in those terms, breastfeeding is downright mind-boggling); my in-laws have stayed with us for nearly 3 weeks; my parents have been here and stayed with us for a week; and I had surgery that necessitated lying low for a bit and avoiding anything that even remotely implicated my abdomen, including coughing, sneezing, or getting up from furniture like a normal 31 year-old. Somewhere in those past 5.5 weeks, I ran, too — not far, like 3 or 4 miles, twice, and comfortably-paced, if not looking a bit awkward (think: baby giraffe). Needless to say: not a whole lot of routine these days.

slide
I just think this is a great picture from the past five weeks. No tenuous connection to my blog content necessary.

 

21333947765_1b19360a6f_o
some of my favorite ladies 🙂

I’m not at all wishing away the infancy or newborn stage right now; in fact, I’m far from it. It’s a little crazy to admit, but I enjoy waking up at crazy hours (read: getting woken up) to feed the baby or tend to her. I don’t know if we’ll have any more kids — I don’t think we will — so a lot of times, I think about how this will be my last time having an infant at home and doing all the stuff that having an infant entails, including dealing with the broken sleep.

I know that her feeding needs will change as she gets older, and once that happens, it’ll make running a little more predictable and manageable and will allow me to get back to a normal schedule — whatever the hell the new normal will be. In the interim, I’ll figure out how to fit in running with A’s school and life schedule, G’s feeding times, and getting home before 6am so my husband can leave for work … agh … but right now, I’m not worried. Genuinely. It’ll all work out. Ideally, I just want to get in enough shape to complete the races on my calendar still this year.  No doubt my performances will leave something to be desired, but it’ll be nice to be back in the racing scene again. I’m really looking forward to it.

SF Marathon '14, the last time I "raced raced." gahhhh itching for that feeling!
SF Marathon ’14, the last time I “raced raced” (Dec’s 50k doesn’t count). gahhhh itching for that feeling!

 

I’m beginning to formulate some goals for my return-to-running. Postpartum running is nice in that it gives you a clean slate to start from, a place that you might not otherwise have unless you’re resuming running following injury (bad) or otherwise taking a lot of time off (potentially also bad, but not necessarily). It’s deeply gratifying to make (significant) gains (quickly), and similar to pregnant running, it’s kinda fun to celebrate each milestone, something that I typically don’t do otherwise. I can totally remember telling my training buddies in Chicago how excited I was to run my first 4, 5, 6, etc. miles at whatever paces for the first time postpartum after having A; I’m excited to get there again, whenever I do and however long it takes. Patience is a virtue with this stuff. Patience can totally blow, but it’s so important to have it and to respect the process (however the latter unfolds).

I totally subjected these gals (plus John, not pictured) to endless texts declaring my elation for posting mileage postpartum. Training buddies FTW.
throwback to Chicago, circa Aug 2010. I totally subjected these gals (plus John, not pictured) to endless texts declaring my elation for finally posting mileage during postpartum #1. Training buddies FTW for putting up with your crazy.

On the other hand, postpartum running can be something of a bitch because of the aforementioned broken sleep and the not-what-you’re-used-to-life-schedule and because it can be really easy to fall into the comparison game between yourself and other runners (who didn’t just grow and birth and are currently sustaining a child) and, perhaps more toxic, to yourself and your running pre-pregnant. The comparison game is one that you can’t win, so I am currently and plan to continue to abstain from it to the best of my ability. No fitspo necessary; no way, no how. That shit’s poison and completely unnecessary.

After my first pregnancy, I very surprisingly to me PRed in virtually every distance I raced in the first year postpartum — surprisingly, simply because I thought I had maxed out my ability at some distances, particularly 26.2. That’s not to say or even imply that I’m incredibly talented at this stuff; I’m not. I just honestly thought that after many attempts to bring my marathon PR down (and not really succeeding) that I had hit my ceiling. Seeing those ceilings shatter and having those experiences in my pocket now, I’ll admit that going into  postpartum running 2.0 that I have some big goals and high hopes that I’ll be able to do what I did the first time around and do some record destroying. I don’t expect it — I didn’t the first time — but I’ll work like hell to accomplish that which I’m after. I’m nothing if not a workhorse.

from Chicago '13, circa mile 16. This marathon PR is going to fall... and hard.
from Chicago ’13, my 26.2 PR, circa mile 16. I am so looking forward to finally going sub-3:20. [PC: Kevin]
A sweet thing about postpartum running (or the postpartum period in general) is that many women — myself included — have super high motivation to “get their bodies back.” That’s potentially an entire post in and of itself because it’s problematic and perhaps unhelpful (saving that tangent for another day), but for me, postpartum running this time around is also renewing my interest and motivation (read: desire) to become a stronger runner by doing all that ancillary stuff that’s important to do — stuff that we as runners know we really should be doing but often don’t because of some bullshit reason. I’m talking strength work, flexibility (at-home yoga FTW), and all the goodness that is NOT running but that is super important, like the core work and pre- and post-run warm-ups and cooldowns that I admittedly consistently half-ass. I should have been doing all of this stuff all along, mirroring the same consistency I have with my running, but there’s always been a bullshit reason that quote-unquote precluded me from doing it. If the postpartum period is all about setting new routines, there’s no better time to figure out a way to finally get consistent about all this “extra” stuff that really shouldn’t be that “extra” after all.

parents: this is the best $20 toy money can buy. trust me.
parents who run: this is the best $20 toy money can buy. trust me.

 

At the risk of sounding like a complete ass, big things are afoot, and it is so good — SO good — to be standing at the starting line.