It is time for another postpartum update!
My last postpartum update was at 6 months postpartum, so it has been a while since I recapped my return-to-running after having a baby. I did not do a 8 month update because I was injured, and it wasn’t an accurate reflection of where I was at, so here we are at 10 months postpartum now.
The biggest and best news is that I am back on the training bandwagon. Hallelujah! My Achilles tendon bothered me for about two months, but thankfully it has been 100% since that time. The two months I was injured were not fun. I LIVE for summer running, and I wasn’t able to do a lot of it mid-May through mid-July, but I am happy that things have been going really well for several weeks now.
My mileage has been steadily increasing:
8 months postpartum
43 miles (June 1 – 7)
34 miles (June 8 – 14)
15 miles (June 15 – 21)
18 miles (June 22 – 28)
9 months postpartum
33 miles (June 29 – July 5)
32 miles (July 6 – 12)
48 miles (July 13 – 19)
49 miles (July 20 – 26)
10 months postpartum
55 miles (July 27 – August 2)
55 miles (August 3 – 9)
64 miles (This week – projected)
The biggest area of improvement I’ve seen is in my track workouts. Here is a workout I did mid-June and repeated it about 7 weeks later and made improvements in almost all of my splits.
June Workout Splits
1 mile – 6:23
600m – 2:14
1200m – 4:46
600m – 2:13
1 mile – 6:21
400m – 1:24
400m – 1:23
August Workout Splits
1 mile – 6:15
600m – 2:10
1200m – 4:40
600m – 2:08
1 mile – 6:13
400m – 1:24
400m – 1:24
Overall, things are going really well, and I’m feeling fitter each week. I have been working on my speed with my coach for the time being since there are no impending marathons to run. I am happy that things are coming back together really nicely, and I am soaking up every ounce of summer left because it will be gone far too quickly.
I am bummed there haven’t been races to run, but I am also enjoy the process of training right now, so I’m content with the situation. I did do one in-person race in July, and there are a few more coming up in August and September here in Alaska, but I’m not sure I’m going to do them.
On a side note, I curated this little post for Instagram and wanted to share it here too.
This was the caption to go along with it:
You want real?! This is reality!
I have stretch marks (probably always will), loose skin, saggy boobs, incontinence, and I pee my pants every time I have something to drink before I run. On top of that, the other week at the end of a hard workout, my lady parts went numb.
I have also gotten faster after having one baby and hope I can do it again after the second baby. Pregnancy forever changes you but being a mom does as well.
The Runner’s Plate, Instagram
There is always so much more to the pictures, and I just want to keep things real and keep reminding you that we are all at different places. If you, too, are postpartum, there shouldn’t be any pressure for you to be at a certain place with where your fitness is, what your body looks like, or what you are/aren’t doing after having a baby.
I am off to bed now to rest up for a double run tomorrow. Shh. . .don’t tell my coach, but they are some of my favorite days. (But only in the summer.) 😉
