Tag Archives: mother runners

Four Weeks Post Baby

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Wells is 4 weeks old! (He turned 4 weeks on Friday, which is when I started this post!)

My little cutie after bath time!

My most exciting news is: I STARTED RUNNING! The first thing I thought was, “wow! I feel 20lbs lighter than the last time I ran!” Of course I immediately realized that’s because I AM 20lbs lighter than the last time I ran! :) I’m just doing easy runs right now, and my pace is nothing to brag about, but my-oh-my does it feel good to be back at it! I was actually sore (mostly calves and some hamstring) after my first 2 runs! Feeling good now.

First run, 3.5 weeks after having Wells.

The first run was a 3 mile run, 3.5 weeks after giving birth to Wells. I waited exactly 4 weeks with Currie. I had a mental checklist of things that needed to happen before I started running:

  • Have desire to run: The first week, I really didn’t think about running. Then Twin Cities Marathon happened and so many buddies ran awesome times that weekend and I started itching to run. Check!
  • Get rid of stomach pains: After giving birth, you have stomach pains and cramping as your uterus shrinks back down to normal size. They were more intense this time than with my first. I also had soreness when pushing on my stomach. I wanted to wait until all pain in my body was gone before adding the stress of running. Check!
  • Get some sleep: I’m definitely an exhausted mama, but got some decent sleep the night before my first run. When Currie was a baby, I really did sleep when she slept. I wasn’t a tired new mom (until she stopped sleeping around 16-18 months). This time, I’m feeling the pain but am determined to start figuring out my sleep situation so I can train at the level I need to reach my goals! So sort of… check!
  • Start working on Diastasis Recti: With both pregnancies, I had a separation of my abdominal muscles. Two weeks after having Wells, when my stomach was feeling more normal, I checked the status of my abs and noticed I had a good 3.5 finger widths separation between them. I started doing 2 really basic exercises to bring them back together. First one, simply contracting abs, pulling towards spine. Second one, pelvic tilts, not even bringing bottom off the ground, just a slight tilt and flattening the arch in my back while pulling abs toward spine again. I feel like I’m making progress. Check!
  • Good weather day: Ok, this is silly, but I wanted my first run to be on a sunny, cool day-my favorite running weather. (My second run was on a rainy, cold day and I enjoyed it just as much!) Check!

Run #2, the next day. Super excited to get out there, even in the first cold rain of the season.

AND NOW FOR THE TMI PARTS OF MY CHECKLIST. Feel free to scroll down and not read the next few points, but these were things no one told me about before my first child and they came as a big surprise to me so here they are:
  • Wait for bleeding to stop: After you have a baby, you bleed for 2-6 weeks! It starts super heavy after birth, then becomes period-like, and gradually tapers down to nothing. I bled for exactly 4 weeks with Currie and started running the second it was over. I felt like that was a good indication my body was ready for activity. Check!
  • Boob pain-Get the milk supply under control: About 3 days after giving birth, your milk supply comes in, and assuming you don’t have any problems, it comes in full force. Then it slows down when your body realizes how much your child needs. I’m lucky to be a super milk producer, I always have a lot, but it causes a lot of breast tenderness and leaking. I feel like it stabilized around 2 weeks postpartum with Currie (where I wasn’t in as much pain). This time, it took 3.5 weeks. In fact, many days, I only have about an hour after each feeding before I’m full, tender, and leaking again. This doesn’t make for the most comfortable run. I’ve spaced my runs during that sweet spot, sometime within an hour after feeding Wells. Check!
I’ll wrap things up with my 4 weeks racing kit pic:

4 weeks!

 Questions for you:

Anything on your “checklist” before starting to run again either after baby or injury?

What’s your favorite running weather?

 

A Little Experiment

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29 week pregnant runner

Freshest belly pic, taken last night pre-run, at 29 weeks!

I’m 29 weeks pregnant and still “going strong” (surviving!) with running. We are currently in Seattle for three weeks and the perfect temps (60s, no humidity when I run in the morning) have really helped my running. My first Sunday here, I ran 6.5 miles with the Oiselle group and felt great the whole time. I’ve been doing more like 3 miles a day since then, plus a lot of walking and sightseeing. It’s funny how much of a tourist I become when I’m here even though I lived here for 5 years!

Let me tell you about a little experiment that took place right before we came to Seattle. I’ve had little itches here and there to do some fast running, and I mostly ignore them, other than my strides about a month ago. Still, back when I was about 23 weeks pregnant, I got this idea that I wanted to run a 90 second quarter (400 meters on the track). This has always been sort of a baseline for me no matter what running shape I’m in, I know I can always do a 90 second quarter (400 meters on the track, 6:00/mile pace). It’s like a comeback pace, a way to build confidence for track work after an injury/baby/etc.

After talking with some friends about 5k training, I got a little obsessed with running a 90 second quarter while pregnant. I just wanted to do one, to see how it felt, knowing I could back out at any point. I thought about it every day for about a month, then finally, when I was in the middle of my 27th week of pregnancy, officially in the 3rd trimester, I decided it was “now or never”.

27 week pregnant runner

27 weeks instagram pic, pre-run

27 week pregnant runner

27 week awkward front view!

27 week pregnant belly

27 weeks pregnant belly hanging with my dog nephews.

It was a warm, muggy, day in Amanda, Ohio and my baby belly was feeling pretty happy. I ran about 2.5 miles around town with my husband and told him we needed to stop at the track. My instructions to him were simple: pace me through a 90 second quarter. (He had no idea I’d been stewing over this “workout” for a month.) Within a minute of telling him the plan we were executing it. Honestly, it felt FAST from the start. I optimistically thought we were on pace for something in the low 80s. As we went through the first 100 meters, my husband said 22.5, right on pace! “Ah! Seriously? Ok, keep pushing. And the rest went like that until I finished in 89! Success!

I ran back to the little park where my car was parked, excited to still have some speed despite the growing belly and sore muscles all over that come with pregnancy. I did some good dynamic stretching (don’t skip the details!) and felt a little more proud than necessary for the rest of the day.

Speaking of running fast, did you hear about the new Oiselle Haute Volée team? You can read the blog post here. I’m so thrilled to be a part of this incredible group of speedy ladies! Reading their profiles makes me want to throw on some bunhuggers and get racing! Like I said on Twitter yesterday, I’m so excited to be growing Baby Boy Bigham, but can’t wait to start racing fast again ~ January 2014!