Comeback Training Log – 04/24/22 (Week 4)

Hey friends!

Here is what the fourth week of my “comeback” training looked like. The plan is still to basically just alternate days of running with days of cross training while slowly adding in a few back-to-back days of running as we go. By next week, I will be back up to 5 days of running!

When I first started documenting my training again, I had thoughts of posting my daily workouts to Instagram and then writing my weekly training recaps here on the blog. I don’t know why, but every now and then the *idea* of posting to Instagram really appeals to me, until I try it for a few days and I realize that feels both exhausting and entirely too forced. I had a follow up appointment with my doctor last week and he actually suggested staying off social media in general during the newborn phase. He wasn’t saying that I was on social media too much (he has no idea if I am or am not on what platforms), but rather just offered that as some solid advice that he gives to all new mothers.

Admittedly, I told him that I was feeling a little bit isolated and very overwhelmed with my new role as a mother. Being a mom is very hard work and I never fully understood that until now. I don’t think you can understand it until you’ve experienced it (and isn’t that the truth about so many things). He told me a story a mom who was crying one day, complaining about how her baby seemed to be feeding around the clock and wouldn’t sleep and then the very next day posted on social media about how she loved being a mom and that the baby slept through the night. Perhaps her baby did sleep through the night that night, but the point is that it is so easy to get discouraged if you are always comparing your normal days to someone else’s best days. I try to take social media at face value, knowing that people only post their highlights, but I appreciated and took this advice nonetheless.

He also told me that it was a great thing that I was being open about the fact that I was struggling. He said that a lot of the time, he doesn’t even know a mom was struggling until way after the fact and everything has gotten “better.” All those years of therapy must’ve paid off, because I can certainly let you know when I am not okay. Contrary to what you are currently reading, I try to keep that personal stuff off of the internet these days … but here we are … it’s part of my postpartum comeback journey and I’d be remiss not to mention it. I think that’s partly why I am so thankful to have running again right now. I feel like I *need* it in order to feel like myself again. Perhaps that isn’t necessarily a good thing, but there have also been times when I haven’t felt like I needed it, so I think that might just be part of the normal ebb and flow of my life.

Monday –
Plan: 5.0 mile run
Actual: 5.0 mile run (8:50 pace)

I started the week off with an easy 5 mile run on Monday. Since we switched some things up at the end of last week, this made Monday a back-to-back run day! My legs were sore from Sunday’s quality session, but it was a good sore, the kind where you can tell that you’ve put in some solid work, not a hurting type of sore.

Tuesday –
Plan: 75 minute elliptical (10 X 2 minutes “hard” w/ 1 minute “easy”)
Actual: 72 minutes (12.25 miles)

Tuesday’s elliptical session was a tough one! The workout was written as 20 minutes easy, 5 X 2:00 hard with 1:00 easy, 3 minutes easy, 5 X 2:00 hard with 1:00 easy and a 20 minute cool down. The workout seemed way more than twice as hard as the one minute pickups than I have done the last few weeks. I haven’t done very much work recently where my heart rate gets up for over a minute at a time and I could definitely feel that during this workout.

Wednesday –
Plan: 7.0 mile run w/ 6 X 30 second strides
Actual: 7.3 mile run (9:30 pace)

I was a little bit tired on Wednesday, probably from that doozy of an elliptical session the day before. I got the miles in and ended up doing the strides on the driveway in the sand. They are supposed to be done at the very end of the run, meaning that if I run from home, I do them in sand. I wasn’t expecting them to be super fast (they weren’t), but I got them done and the effort was there.

Thursday –
Plan: 6.0 mile run
Actual: 6.0 mile run (8:40 pace)

My legs felt much better by Thursday and I got a nice six mile run in. Nothing major to report here except that all was well!

Friday –
Plan: Walk
Actual: Rest Day!

It had been a few weeks since I have had a complete rest day. I like to take rest days when they are needed and not necessarily “plan” them into my week. This week worked out pretty well though, as nothing was planned except for an easy walk. I have been getting a lot of easy walks with the stroller in the late afternoons during the week. It seems as if I have a baby that very much likes to be moving. Go figure!

Saturday –
Plan: 9.0 mile progression run with fast finish
Actual: 9.0 mile run (7:35 pace)

I got a second chance to work on the easy run with a fast finish that I botched last weekend. My coach broke this one up into three sections. The first three miles were supposed to be truly easy (8:00 – 8:30 range), the next three were supposed to be a bit quicker (7:30 – 8:00 range) and the last three were supposed to be a bit quicker (close to 7:00 or just under). It is already starting to get a bit warm out there. It was 78° with a dew point of 63° when I ran, which made the run a little bit more challenging than it probably otherwise would have been. I’m so glad that I got to try this one again though, because it went really well and gave me a much needed confidence boost! I averaged 8:13 for the first three miles, 7:38 for the middle three miles and 6:50 for the last three miles. Just what the doctor ordered!

Sunday –
Plan: 80 – 90 minute elliptical
Actual: 40 minutes (6.5 miles)

I bailed on my elliptical “long run” on Sunday. Once I got started I realized that my body was tired and I figured that I needed more of a recovery session than an endurance session. I don’t think we will have too many more of these “marathon” elliptical sessions to begin with. They served a good purpose for the first few weeks of this comeback plan, but thankfully my weekly long run mileage is steadily increasing now. I loved the elliptical when it was basically my only option (i.e., during the end of pregnancy and early on postpartum), but now that I can comfortably run, I am not loving the elliptical nearly as much.

Totals –
Running: 27.3 miles
Elliptical: 18.75 miles (112 minutes)
Walking: 11.6 miles

Thanks for following along with me on the comeback journey!