Second postpartum run

So my goal with these runs is to just add a mile every time until I'm back to four and then run at that for awhile before I go back up to five.  After Luke was born I ran 4 miles 5 days later at a pretty good clip and I ended up back on bedrest from all the bleeding.  So I'm trying to work it up more gradually this time.

2 miles today, started out at 12/mile and worked up to 9:40/mile by the end.  Felt great!  I did, however, make the rookie mistake of stopping immediately when I hit the 2 mile mark and not walking at all--I got really dizzy and had to sit down.  Overall pace was 10:54 a mile, including one stop at 4 minutes to pull the blanket down from Nathan's face.

catching up

Okay, here goes:

Thursday: walked 4 miles
Friday: already in labor, walked about 2.5 miles with Neil & the boys trying to regularize contractions, walked another 15-20 minutes around the circumference of the hospital parking lot, walked another 1/3 mile in the hospital halls before the contractions were too bad and Neil had to carry me back to the delivery room (he was born about an hour later).  Really, really, really rough delivery.  Like really awful.  I could barely get out of bed for the next couple of days.

Monday: walked half a mile and it totally did me in for the day.
Tuesday: walked 1.2 miles and did half an hour of yoga
Wednesday: (today, 5 days postpartum) ran a slow mile (about 11:20) to see what I would feel like later.  Didn't want to push it because I'm taking the kids to the zoo after I take baby Nathan to the pediatrician.

outside again

Treadmill is still broken (Neil is pretty sure Isaac blew the fuse but we're having trouble finding the right fuse) so I ran outside today.  It was a horrible day (all four kids are feverish and coughing) and I spent an hour and a half trying to nurse Luke so that I could leave.  Like I said--it was not a good day.  Neil practically had to push me out the door before it was too dark to go.

I ran a route that I haven't run since last October--my favorite route through the woods surrounding the bog.  There were mosquitoes and the trail was flooded out and my shoes got absolutely filthy and a white-tailed deer scared the bejeebers out of me and it was so worth it.  I felt like I was flying running down the hills in the woods, leaping over roots, dodging trees, and almost falling on my face half a dozen times (in fact, I started running so fast that I got the beginnings of a side ache, which hasn't happened in forever!).  It was completely glorious.  I'm betting that I'm going to feel this tomorrow because there were some decent hills, and I haven't run hills in forever. 

STATS:  3.99 miles, approx. 9:15/mile (going off the kitchen clock and my memory--not sure how accurate this is, since I felt like I was running really slow at some points, but crazy fast at others). 

5/27

I suppose I felt like I needed to make up for earlier in the week.  Ragged intervals (increasingly longer and faster) up to a 9:13/mile, which I ran at the very end after I finished the 5K (sidenote:  so glad my 5K is finally back under 30 minutes).  Hoping I don't have a recurrence of the issues earlier in the week after this run (excessive bleeding, so fun.  I'm looking forward to being able to push myself really hard again without worrying about things like this). 

STATS:  4.1 miles; 9:31/mile

5/20

Hopefully next week I'll be able to get back into the groove of running on specific days; this week it's just been crazy what with all the follow-up appointments. 

Ran 4.2 miles today; stopped at 2.2 to answer the phone.  My pace varied between 10/mile and 8:49/mile; average pace was 9:38.  I ran the fastest at the very end--that 8:49 was the last three minutes.  Good to know I could still do that at the end, but it means I probably need to be running faster throughout--I just don't know how hard to push right now.  This is the earliest I've ever started running post-baby, so I'm sort of fumbling my way through it.

STATS:  4.2 miles; avg. pace 9:38

first post-baby run

I've been feeling really jittery over having gone without running for so long--this is the longest I've gone in years, literally.  My last run was a week ago yesterday.

I was pretty excited to run without the baby!  I ran pretty hard today too (not hard if you're training for something, but hard considering I just gave birth five days ago), so I didn't run as far as I might have otherwise.  I started out at 10:00/mile and gradually worked up to 9:13/mile (overall pace was 9:45).  I ran most of it straight through (had to stop 2 minutes in to adjust workout gear and then at 3.3 because I was seized by sudden irrational fear that Luke had stopped breathing, so I ran to go check on him and then ran back).

STATS:  4 miles; 9:45/mile

11/8, 11/10

So here's the thing.  I stayed on bedrest through Wednesday of last week, at which point things were improved (i.e. no bleeding).  Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I took it easy, but not bedrest-easy.  Like still doing things around the house but trying to lie down for awhile in the afternoon and going to bed early.  I slept 12 hours both Friday and Saturday nights.

I felt awesome on Monday.  My sore throat was gone and my stuffed-up sinuses felt so much better.  And I thought about how the nurse said I could "gradually" work back up to more activity, including possibly running, at some point.

I know this may seem stupid, but I really feel like the bleeding was connected to the fact that I threw up and was coughing nonstop--which hasn't happened during my entire pregnancy to date--rather than my running.  You'd think that the half-marathon would have caused issues if the running was the problem. 

And then I thought about it some more and prayed about it too (yep!).  And talked to Neil about it and got his approval, and my mom, who is not a fan of running in the first place but agreed with my not running-but-sickness-inducing-bad-things reasoning. 

So...I ran.

Only two miles, and 10-minute miles rather than my normal pace.  Then I walked another 2 miles.  It felt GREAT to run again.  So, so, so great.  I had more energy the rest of the day and I slept much better that night.

So then I kind of waited to see if anything happened--no cramping, no bleeding.

So I did a prenatal yoga DVD yesterday. 

Still fine.

So I ran 4 miles today (the first two were 10-minute miles, but honestly, it was so slow that it was harder to run, so I bumped up the speed a wee bit and my overall average pace was 9:36/mile.  Still felt awesome.

Now we'll see what happens. 

I'm hoping that if I go to my doctor next week and say, look, I've been running--less than usual and slower than usual but still running--that she will okay it officially.  Whereas I think if I stayed on bedrest and THEN asked her if I could run, the answer would probably be no, because she isn't a runner and tends to be pretty conservative.  And then by the time I got cleared to run again (after the 20-week ultrasound would be the earliest date, I'm guessing?) it would be too late to start again.

So, I'm hoping that this works out and that I don't end up regretting running.  I'm not trying to outsmart the doctor, or sneak around my body's and the baby's needs, but I don't want to give up something that is beneficial if it's not causing problems.  It is still kind of nerve-wracking, however...

10/18

First post-race run today.  I wasn't very stiff after the race--at least not right away.  By about eight o'clock that night, my hips and knees were starting to feel like the bones were grinding against each other in their sockets, and I was pretty uncomfortable for awhile.  I ended up going to bed with heating pads on my knees and hips and managed to get up in the middle of the night only by walking along the wall for the first five steps.  I definitely prefer running on trails to crowned asphalt roads.

I felt a lot better today, but I still didn't want to run.  But I did in the end, mostly because I felt like I could run a shorter distance tonight and not feel guilty about it since I could play the "two days after race" card. 

STATS:  3 miles; 8:56/mile