Welcome!
Seeing as how I have not been very consistent with my blog posts these days, I suspect there’s likely not too many new readers out there. However, I could be wrong about that assumption so let’s get started with a brief introduction. Brevity is not one of my strengths by the way, so buckle up.
I gave birth to a baby boy in February and am currently working on my postpartum return to running. I have been running for over 15 years at this point. What started as a casual hobby turned into a little bit of a more serious hobby as the years went by and I was running at a “semi” competitive level before I got pregnant. I had breakthrough seasons in the fall of 2019, running a personal best in the marathon (2:49) and in the spring of 2020, running personal bests in the mile, the 5k and the 10k (5:02, 5:19 and 35:45 respectively). I took a break from structured training in the fall of 2020 and in the spring of 2021. I stayed active throughout my pregnancy (from May 2021 through February of 2022), but didn’t do any sort of “quality” running sessions and wasn’t running much period by the end of things. The elliptical was (and in some ways continues to be) my best friend!
As far as current goals are concerned, the main goal is to build back up gradually and not get injured. Once we start adding back in some quality sessions, I think I’d like to find a 5k to race. After that, I am thinking that I’d like to find a fall or winter half marathon (depending on how things are going). I don’t think I’ve raced to my potential in the half and it would be fun to chase a faster time there!
I am working with Coach Brendon O’Leary for the comeback. He has worked with several mothers in the postpartum comeback phase and comes highly recommended by several of these women. I gave him a rundown of a few things pertinent to my life and training before we got started and it seems like it might make sense to share those things here as well!
- I have a treadmill and an elliptical at home. I also have a gym membership with access to other cardio machines for cross training and whatever weights or strength training things I might need.
- When I run from home, the first and last mile are on an unpaved dirt road that is sandy in spots, muddy depending on the day, rocky in other areas and very hilly. I have to drive somewhere else if we need just a purely flat or a purely pavement run.
- I have access to a track when needed (it would be easiest to do that on a weekend day). It is a bit tricky to get over there before school starts, especially now that it is so dark in the mornings. It will be more doable in the summer months when school is out.
- As far as previous coaches:
- I worked with a coach for several years (circa 2015 – 2018). He was an extremely knowledgeable coach, but I didn’t really respond well to the super high mileage and high intensity training that he had me doing. It was not uncommon for me to be running 80 miles per week (or more if marathon training) with three quality sessions. Granted, I didn’t get injured doing this, but I also didn’t get any faster. I basically ended up getting burned out physically.
- I worked with another coach for several years as well (circa 2018 – 2020). I responded very well to this training program, which was less mileage and one to two quality sessions per week. When I broke three hours in the marathon for the first time, I did that on a long run of 16 miles and a weekly mileage of right at or under 60 miles per week. That’s also similar to what I was doing when I ran 2:49 in Indy. Unfortunately, I feel like my coach was always giving me goals that weren’t super attainable. For example, I took an entire minute off of my 5k time while working with him, but because I never ran what he thought I was capable of (< 17), I was never really completely satisfied with my performances. The same was true for the marathon as well. I was thankful that he believed in me as much as he did, but I think I would’ve responded a bit better to smaller goals that I can meet along the way and work on in chunks. I basically ended up getting burned out mentally.
- I am currently still home on maternity leave through the middle of May. After that I will go back to work full time. I work from home 4 days a week and commute 45 minutes to the office one day a week.
- I live way, way down in Alabama (basically in the Gulf of Mexico), where it gets hotter than blue blazes and the dew point makes running feel more like swimming in the summertime. Pace adjustments are typically needed!
Now that you have some context, let’s jump into seeing what the first week of my “comeback” training looked like! I’ve been alternating days of running with days of cross training for the last couple weeks and the current plan is to continue that while slowly adding in a few back-to-back days of running as we progress.
Monday –
Plan: 6.0 – 6.5 mile run
Actual: 6.25 mile run (8:55 pace)
I went back to my old stomping grounds on Monday evening and got in a good old fashioned “olde towne” loop. My mom watched Ward while I ran, which was much appreciated! While I can run with him in the stroller, it’s nice to get out and have some alone time to just run and clear my head after spending all day with the little man. The run was okay, but I wouldn’t say it was great by any means. I still have a very “heavy” feeling while running. Heavy might not even be the right word, but it’s just a sluggish kinda blah feeling. I feel like it likely has something to do with breastfeeding, both because of the extra “volume” I am carrying around at any given time and because I have to eat so. much. food. all. day. long. I’ve never been this hungry in my entire life! It would likely be better to run in the morning immediately after a pumping session and before eating too much, but that doesn’t always work out. On the plus side, I am training my stomach to run with more fuel in it! That was always a bit of a struggle for me in the past as I would much rather run on an empty stomach, but when you are racing longer distances your stomach absolutely needs to be able to handle gels and other fuel throughout the race.
Even though I didn’t feel fabulous, it was a beautiful evening for a run and I was happy to be out there regardless! I had forgotten how hilly my old route was. Calling a route “hilly” is a fairly subjective thing. This run had about 300 feet of elevation gain over the 6 miles, so nothing too crazy I suppose, but also not “flat.” It took me about two miles to settle into a good rhythm, the middle two miles felt pretty good and then I started to feel pretty tired during the last two miles. It’s very humbling for me to struggle through a six mile run continually having to talk myself down off of a ledge of wanting to stop and walk every few minutes. My coach thinks that somewhere around 8 to 10 weeks the heavy feeling will likely go away and things will *hopefully* feel more normal. In the meantime, this is a good reminder to be patient and take things slowly as my body is telling me that it isn’t quite ready for full-fledged training yet.
Tuesday –
Plan: 70 – 80 minute elliptical
Actual: 74 minutes (13.1 miles)
I got some work done Tuesday morning and went to the gym shortly after lunch. I am working on tax returns for family members while I am home on maternity leave. Side note: while not planned this way, I am not complaining one single bit about missing out on tax season this year!
Tuesday was an elliptical day. Woo to the hoo! Basically the elliptical currently feels like what I remember running feeling like in the past. I just pretend like I am running when I am ellipticalling and all feels right with the world. Ha! I typically do the elliptical at the gym on level 10 and choose the “random” setting that varies the intensity throughout. To keep things interesting, I also change directions from forward to backward every 5k throughout the workout. I use the first and last 5ks as a warm up and a cool down and push harder during the middle 10k. I’ve also found that keeping track of my “splits” throughout the workout challenges me, keeps me mentally engaged and makes me feel like I am replicating a running workout. My splits were:
5k: 18:24 (total time 18:24)
10k: 15:20 (total time 33:44)
15k: 15:03 (total time 48:47)
20k: 18:30 (total time 67:17)
Wednesday –
Plan: 5.0 – 6.0 mile run
Actual: 6.0 mile run (9:05 pace)
I got out the door at a decent time Wednesday morning. Thank goodness I went when I did because it was already 75℉ w/ 85% humidity at 9 a.m. Oh summer, please play nice (and also please maybe stay away for another month or two). A huge line of storms blew through Wednesday evening and it was very windy all day. The wind was over 20 miles per hour when I was out there! Even though the conditions were a bit challenging, I felt pretty good … better than Monday at least. Phew!
I ran from home and did an out and back route twice. Sometimes when I am not feeling as good, I run out one mile and then go back and forth on the flat, paved portion of our road several times before making the one mile trek back to the house. As I mentioned earlier, the first and last mile of every run I do from home is on a HILLY (> 100 feet of gain per mile), non-paved portion of road that is a combination of sand, dirt, gravel and rock. That road and those hills have definitely made me stronger over the years, but it’s a bit of a rude awakening when you are trying to get back in shape! Oof.
Thursday –
Plan: 85 – 90 minute elliptical
Actual: 87 minutes (16.0 miles)
My schedule called for 85 – 90 minutes on the elliptical on Thursday “if I could stand it.” Challenge accepted! I made it 87 minutes and 16 miles. Boom! The idea is that these longer efforts will build endurance that will translate back over to running once I am a bit further along in the postpartum journey. For now, it’s really nice to be able to work on my endurance without pounding the pavement.
On Thursday I did level 10 on the “rolling hills” setting for the first hour and then took it down to level 5 on the “random” setting for the last part. I changed directions on the machine every 15 minutes instead of every 5k like I typically do. I didn’t keep up with my splits as I wasn’t really trying to push the pace as much as I was just trying to complete the “distance.” I felt a bit tired at about 45 minutes in, but caught some sort of second wind by the time I got to the one hour mark. The machine shuts down automatically after an hour, so you have to make a conscious decision to keep going. I thought I was going to be tempted to stop, but when push came to shove I restarted the thing and got it done. I had lots of endorphins after that workout! Who knew you could get endorphins from things other than running?!
Friday –
Plan: 40 – 45 minute elliptical or go for a walk
Actual: 43 minutes (4.0 miles)
Friday was a bit of a recovery day after Thursday’s long workout. I did 4 miles on my elliptical at home and called it a day! We were headed out of town for the weekend (our first family trip with Ward!) and I had plenty of things to do around the house to get ready. Traveling with a baby can be pretty complicated and while I was on a mission to keep it as simple as possible, I think that perhaps I complicated things in the process. Oh the irony!
Saturday –
Plan: 7.5 – 8.0 mile run
Actual: 8.0 mile run (8:45 pace)
I got to run eight whole miles Saturday! Not gonna lie, I was looking forward to this one all week. We spent the weekend with Richard’s family, which was really nice (and not just because I had plenty of people to watch the baby while I ran :)). I didn’t have to rush to get out the door to run and I actually wanted it to warm up a little bit anyway. I ran so few times this winter that I have zero tolerance to cold weather running at the moment. I’m all about soaking up some good Vitamin D during my runs!
The first mile at my in-law’s house is basically straight up hill. While typically not one to back down from a challenge, I really just wanted to feel good and enjoy my eight mile run so I decided to walk up the hill as a “warm up” and to start my run from the top. I ran 4 miles out and 4 miles back on a half paved road, half dirt road route. The dirt road by their house is WAY more compacted and WAY less hilly than our driveway though, so the run was actually much less challenging than what I am used to.
I listened to episode 503 of the Ali on the Run podcast with Dom Scott. I don’t recall hearing her on a podcast before, but she seems super friendly and very down to earth. It was a very enjoyable listen! The miles went by very quickly and before I knew it, I was back to my starting point. Thankfully, I didn’t feel heavy or sluggish during this run! I can tell that my running fitness is lacking, but that is absolutely to be expected!
Sunday –
Plan: 40 – 45 minute elliptical or go for a walk
Actual: 6.0 mile walk
After travelling back home and getting caught up on the household chores, I was more than ready to get out and get some fresh air! I opted for the walk option over the elliptical option. By the time I got out there, it was fairly late in the evening, but it felt absolutely wonderful out. I threw in a couple of spurts of light “jogging,” mainly in the interest of time and getting back before the sun went down.
Totals –
Running: 20.25 miles
Elliptical: 33 miles (204 minutes)
Walking: 8.25 miles
All in all, I am VERY pleased with how the first week of training went. After a solid year and a half with no desire to really train for anything or follow a set schedule, the fire is definitely back and I’m stoked (get it?!).
Thanks for following along with the comeback journey!