It has been just a little over 2 months since having Bjorn, and my return to running has been very slow and cautious. I have been running for 6 weeks and have only maxed out at 3 miles so far. I have been running every other day and have been taking walk breaks as needed on every run. Just this past week I finally started running continuous with no walk breaks, but it was a slow progression to get to this point.
My first postpartum run was 2 miles with a walk break approximately every quarter mile. It felt really good to be out running, and honestly it was way easier than running during pregnancy. I was no longer carrying 25 pounds of extra weight (Actually I was only carrying about 15 pounds less at that point.), and I wasn’t nearly out of breath like I was for 90% of my pregnancy. However, I could tell my pelvic floor needed some work as it did feel like my insides maybe could have fallen out, but that was the only run that I had that sensation. Of course my fitness wasn’t where it used to be, but for the most part I felt really good!
Over the next several weeks, I built upon this first run in several different ways. The first way I worked to regain my endurance was to run farther at the start of each run before taking my first walk break. Starting with 0.25 mile, then 0.5 mile, then 0.75 mile, and so on and so forth before taking a walk break. I also worked to shorten the length of each walk break. At first my walk breaks lasted about one minute, but then I would decrease the duration of these down to about 15-20 seconds. Finally, I would also try to reduce the number of walk breaks during each run. I never had set run/walk intervals but instead always went based off how I was feeling that day. I was good about listening to my body, but I know others might benefit more from having set intervals for their workout.
From the very first postpartum run, I was having lower abdominal “pain,” which actually felt more like weak muscles, but I didn’t want to take my chances that it could turn into an injury later on down the road, so at 6 weeks postpartum, I went to see a physical therapist who specializes in the pelvic floor. She did an evaluation of my diastasis recti, asked me what my symptoms were, and then gave me some exercises to do. While she didn’t come out and tell me I couldn’t run, she said my time would be better spent doing these exercises rather than running. For my mental health, I did some shorter runs during this time, but I did want to honor her advice by not overdoing it. This was another reason I didn’t increase my mileage very much over these last few weeks.
Now at 10 weeks postpartum, I can run 3 miles comfortably with no pain and no walk breaks. I credit this to be patient and not progressing too quickly. I know my physical therapy exercises have also been helping, and I also did ART (active release technique) to loosen up the lower abdominal muscles.
Here is what my total weekly mileage has looked like since I started running:
4 weeks postpartum: 5 miles
5 weeks postpartum: 4.5 miles
6 weeks postpartum: 7.5 miles
7 weeks postpartum: 9 miles
8 weeks postpartum: 6 miles
9 weeks postpartum: 7 miles
10 postpartum: 9 miles
I finally feel like I am at the point where I feel confident enough to increase mileage now. For whatever reason, once I was able to run 3 miles continuously, that gave me the green light to ramp up my training by increasing mileage and adding in back-to-back days of running.
My postpartum running journey has been even more cautious compared to running after having Cullen. When I was two months postpartum with Cullen, I had already run 7 miles. I know I’ll get there, but I was feeling a little defeated when I saw that in my training log the other day. I have to remind myself it takes time, and I am at a different place (in life and fitness) than I was 5 years ago.
All in all, I am hopeful and optimistic that I will be running 7, 8, 9, 10+ miles soon, and I also have professionals I can go to if something doesn’t feel right. It has taken me a while to find a physical therapist, chiropractor, and pelvic floor specialist in town that I trust who can really help me. So here’s to more running these next few months!
