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On swimming, running, and observations

On swimming, running, and observations

In the absence of a PA USATF cross-country meet over the weekend, the girls and I ventured down to Morgan Hill for my big one’s swim meet, the second of the season. If you’ve never been to a swim meet, they remind me a lot of track meets — a lot of down time and lots of hurrying up to wait, punctuated by quick bursts of action — and it makes me appreciate how much my parents moved earth, wind, and water to try to attend as many of my own (track) meets as possible to watch me run very short distances, for very short periods of time, when I was growing up. 

Most people wouldn’t choose to sit around outdoors for 8 hours on a Saturday, and then again on Sunday, to watch someone swim for less than 10 total minutes each day… until it’s your kid, and your kid’s team, and suddenly, you can’t get there early enough, and you’re the last one out the door each day, too. 

Love propels us to do many things.  

#1 fan (can’t go wrong with butt paste on the face, or so the story goes)

As I’ve watched A grow and develop in the year or so that she’s been on the swim team — and since she began swimming with me, in a parent/tot class when she was about 8 months old — I’ve realized that watching her swim has taught me a lot: and not just in the obvious ways. Suffice it to say that before she joined a swim team, I knew very little about swimming; I was one of those fools who would pantomime different strokes because I could never keep them all (all 4 of them, wowwwwwwww) straight. I can’t tell you how to avoid a DQ in most strokes, but I can generally explain how to read a meet sheet and how to not miss your event. (We all have our strengths).

Instead, as I’ve witnessed my eldest daughter’s trajectory with her swimming and have watched her come into her own in the water, I’ve realized that her athletic experience has been teaching me a lot about my own, but with running. In no particular order: 

Keep showing up. Desi said it wonderfully. We all know that sometimes, the hardest step to take is the first. When my daughter first began with her team, she was typically pretty happy to go to practice (90 minutes, 3 times a week, minimum), but of course, as a then 7-year-old, there were times when she didn’t want to because of (insert whatever valid or invalid reason here). In these moments, I’ve often reminded her that sometimes, just getting out there to do your thing is the hardest part (and have recounted timeless occasions when I’ve not particularly “felt” like going for a run during a particularly grueling training block but went anyway and was ultimately happy about it). Even if she didn’t feel like going initially, it’s rare that she has regretted her choice later. The same has been true with me and my running; even if I’d rather spend the time I have to run doing (insert whatever else I could be doing instead), more often than not, I know I’ll ultimately be (happier, in a better mood, sleeping better that night, insert a myriad of characteristics here) if I get out there. Don’t rob yourself of an opportunity simply because your mood or motivation is falling short of your commitment. 

showing up (PC: Janet)

Comparison really is the thief of joy. This is a big one and a routine topic of conversation. For most of the past year, my eldest has been the youngest on her team, which has been both awesome and sometimes challenging. She periodically has days when she finishes practice feeling discouraged or bothered, and it’s not until I practically apply the Jaws of Life to our conversation that I can extract the ultimate reason for her woe: she’s upset she’s the slowest. Or doesn’t have as long a break between sets. Or can’t always finish the full set as prescribed. Or whatever. It’s often not until we have the conversation, wherein I remind her that she’s swimming with her teammates who have a good couple years-plus on her, that I can encourage her to put her doubts at bay, at least moderately. Don’t worry about what others are doing in surrounding (literal and figurative) lanes; keep your eyes facing forward, and focus on your own effort. It’s easier said than done for sure, but believe me, when I have gotten in my own head about my running of late and what it is versus what I think it should be, I have the same conversation that I’ve had with my eight year-old with myself. The only two things we can control are our attitude and effort, so simply worry about those. Nothing else is relevant, and no one is going to do your work for you.  

eyes forward, heart open (with lungs heaving)

Learn, be patient, and enjoy the process. Learning how to do something for the first time can be seriously intimidating but also exquisitely fun. Progress can come in leaps and bounds, but if you’re accustomed to picking up things fast or “naturally,” whatever that means, when things become slow-going, it can be hard to not let the minutiae consume you. As my daughter has become a stronger swimmer, she’s naturally beginning to break-down everything to its component parts — to the positioning of her hands, where (and how many) hands should make contact with the wall, all that stuff — and it can sometimes be tempting to want to bulldoze through this process because it’s so.much.tedium. This stuff takes time. Progress may be really fast initially, but then it’ll seem like you have to fight tooth and nail for every half-second or second’s worth of progress. With running, much of the same applies. We may have the loftiest goals ever, but in order to realize them, or even work toward realizing them, we have to be patient and understand that it’s a process or journey to be enjoyed, not something to hastily mow over. There are always more aspects to learn, more material to master, and when we feel like we already know all there is to know, we probably couldn’t be more wrong. 

trusting and processing

Helping others is intrinsically rewarding and motivating. It wasn’t until recently that another swimmer closer in age to A joined the team, and perhaps naturally, they’ve taken a liking to each other and try to work together as much as possible during practice. My daughter has been on the team longer and has more competitive experience than her peer, and I see her interacting with her teammate in what I could probably comfortably call a mentorship. My daughter obviously doesn’t know everything there is to know about swimming, but she knows enough to acknowledge that there’s a delta between her knowledge and that of her teammate, and she’s trying to correct it because she wants her to succeed. As running (and the long endurance stuff, in particular) has exploded in popularity over the past decade, marathons, halfs, and arguably even some ultra distances have become accessible and intriguing to the masses; “normal,” “everyday” people are figuring out that those big, scary distances really may not be as big and scary as they seem. You don’t have to be an RRCA certified coach to give new runners pointers as they begin their journeys, and you’ll likely find that doing so brings you at least a modicum of joy and helps reinvigorate your own training. Your experiences don’t need to dictate those of others, but if you’re lucky, you’ll be able to prevent someone else from making the same asinine mistakes that you made. 

teamwork, a la cheering for a teammate swimming 1,000 for the first time and counting laps; even G was yelling, “pull! pull! pull!”

I don’t know enough from a physiological standpoint to argue whether running and swimming are similar, and honestly, I don’t particularly care. As a parent who has been watching her child grow in the sport of swimming, I can safely argue that much of what my 8-year-old has been learning are lessons that I, too, have experienced (or continue to experience) as a runner — just with a different backdrop. 

I couldn’t be prouder of my girl and her commitment to her team and to herself, and honestly, she has been a huge source of inspiration to up my own running game. 

It’s somewhat mind-blowing that sport can have such a transformative effect on a person’s life — especially when you consider the actions at their basest parts– but here again, as both a witness and as a participant, it’s so completely obvious that that’s the case. 

marathon training and breastfeeding

marathon training and breastfeeding

Greetings from the land of the taper! It is a nice place to be, though I’m currently saddled with strep throat… not ideal, gah. I look forward to having a voice and to being able to swallow foods and liquids without pain very soon.

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from a recent run in Anaheim, probably in the throes of strep

Anyway… there’s a lot of information out there about breastfeeding, but perhaps understandably, I haven’t encountered much in the way of women who have breastfed  while training for an endurance event. While I’m not a medical professional or a lactation consultant, I thought I’d at least describe my own experiences with the subject. It’s all anecdotal, but maybe it’ll help contribute something to the conversation.

I’ve heard breastfeeding described before as being one of the most “natural” things a woman can do but also one of the most complicated. At its core, as one ped in Chicago told our childbirth class, you only need two things: a baby and a boob. Simpler still, you can say that BF ultimately boils down to the old economic law of supply (the lactating mother) and demand (the hungry and growing child). Of course, there can be externalities that might affect a woman’s ability to BF her child (should she so choose), but in its most basic state, I believe that thinking of BF in terms of economics makes sense. The baby demands; you, the lactating mother, supply.

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so clever

It can be a little tricky when you throw endurance training into the mix. Among other questions I’ve heard or encountered: how do you keep your supply up? How do you account for your child’s demand if you’re not always there to satiate him or her? Can training affect your supply? What about if you have a tough training session; does your milk become saturated with lactic acid (and therefore become unpalatable to your child)? Is it even comfortable to BF and train?

I breastfed my first for 18 months and have been breastfeeding my youngest for nearly 7 months. With my first, I began running again at 6 weeks postpartum (after stopping at about 35 weeks pregnant) and didn’t run my first HM until about 5 months postpartum and my first marathon nearly 1 year postpartum. With my youngest, I ran for the entirety of my 38 week pregnancy and began running again at 3 weeks postpartum, with my first HM at about 3.5 weeks postpartum and my first marathon here in a couple weeks, when she’ll be about 7.5 months old. Again: I’m by no means an expert, but I thought I’d at least throw some anecdotal experiences into the internet because there’s just not a lot out there about BF and endurance training. I don’t know that it’s necessarily that there aren’t a lot of BF endurance athletes out there; I think we’re just not talking about it.

Maintaining supply

What seems to be one of the most important aspects related to BF and endurance training is nutrition. While BF, your body burns additional calories each day (perhaps even up to 500/day), and if you’re training for an endurance event like a marathon, you better believe that you can easily work yourself into a caloric deficit if you’re not careful. Sure, it would be easy and effortless to replace the calories you’re torching from training and BF on shitty stuff like sweets, and while that’s okay (and human!) periodically, you’ve gotta remember to give both yourself and your child quality, nutrient-dense foods. I personally don’t restrict my caloric consumption or count calories, and especially not while I’m BF and training, so I try to just ensure that most of the foods I eat serve some nutritional (and delicious, duh) purpose. Carbs, fats, protein, staying super hydrated – all that stuff matters all the time and especially when you’re balancing BF and training.

I’ve heard/read of some women who say that if they try to restrict their calories while BF, their supply drops. You might find that your body holds on to a few final pregnancy pounds while BF – which apparently serves a biological function – but this might also vary from woman to woman. I’m down to the same weight/clothing size now as I was before I was pregnant, even with the BF and training mix, but I can assure you that I protect my milk supply like it’s gold. Honest to god, I probably eat and drink more than anyone else in my household combined on any given day. My never-ending appetite aside, what matters most here is that my baby is growing and thriving (she’s been 90th+ percentile from the get-go), and I’m consuming enough to be able to fuel my workouts and day-to-day life. My strict-vegetarian-almost-vegan lifestyle sometimes challenges me to create nutrient-dense meals and snacks, but honestly, more often than not, if I’m having trouble piecing together a meal, it means that I need to go to the store. I don’t talk a lot about being an endurance athlete and a vegetarian/vegan because I think people tend to unnecessarily complicate it, and I think the same goes for being a vegetarian/vegan BF endurance athlete. Basically: an overwhelming majority of the time, eat stuff that you know is good for you. Eat enough for you, but also keep in mind your training volume and your growing child.

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nom nom nom

Anticipating demand

A staple of marathon training is, of course, the weekly long run (and sometimes even a weekly medium long run or two), so while the majority of your runs will be fairly short, there will be at least one run a week wherein you’ll find yourself separated from your BF child for possibly three or more hours. Before I leave for my LR, I’ll usually pump in the morning (if she’s asleep) and/or feed her before I leave. If my baby is still sleeping, then my husband will have milk readily available, should she wake up while I’m gone. Even if my baby sleeps the entire time I’m gone, pumping sends a message to my body that it needs to continue to produce that same amount of milk for my child (again, that economic principle of s&d); basically, my body made milk + I pumped it out (and/or fed it to my child) = my body hears the message that it needs to make more milk to compensate for what I just expelled.

Furthermore, you might find that you simply can’t run without pumping first, just because you need to slough off the extra weight and pressure. If I don’t pump before a morning run, I honestly think that engorgement would prevent me from even getting down the street. Engorged, milk-heavy boobs basically feel like small weights on your chest. Think of really “full” breast implants, and you’ll kinda get an idea of where I’m going. Hell, when my boobs get too full at night, they wake me up because I get so uncomfortable! Anyway. I read somewhere that the worst thing you can do is to let milk just pool in your boobs because your body interprets that as a decreasing demand signal, so if you’re going to be separated from your child for long, pumping might be in your best interest. The flip side of this, too, is to feed as soon as you arrive home from your run.

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and if you find yourself with a ton of frozen milk that you can’t use, you can always donate it to a local milk bank

Can training affect supply?

So far, my experiences with BF both times make me think that my training hasn’t affected my supply – but that’s me. When my first was little, I was training at a much lower volume (maybe 20-40 mpw) than what I’m doing now (50-65 mpw). I think ultimately this ties into my earlier point about ensuring that you’re satisfying your caloric and hydration needs while simultaneously BF and training. In other words, if your supply is low, that might not necessarily mean that training is diminishing your milk; it might simply mean that you’re not supplying your body with sufficient energy (from the foods and beverages you’re consuming). If you suspect your supply is lessening, I suppose you could always BF your child (and/or pump) more frequently, too – again, the laws of supply and demand. Definitely talk to a lactation consultant though.

Post-exercise milk

Remember when people used to think that women’s uteruses would fall out if they ran? Or what about when people were sure that the best thing a pregnant woman could do was to stay in bed for the duration of her pregnancy? Yeah – times have changed. Similarly, for a while, many people thought that if a lactating woman trained very hard, her body would produce copious amounts of lactic acid that would seep into her milk and thus produce rancid-tasting, inedible nutrition for her baby. Not so. If anything, my experience has been that my milk following a tough training run is a little more salty than usual (sportsbra boob sweat… yum). Towel down, and I bet you’ll be good to go. Your milk will be fine.

Comfort measures

Finally, especially when you first begin BF, your breasts can be super uncomfortable and feel heavy or even hard as your milk is coming in. My experiences have been that the initial discomfort passes and that as your body and your baby “connect” (for lack of a better word), your supply will as well. Even now, if I am separated from my baby for many hours, milk pools and ultimately results in some discomfort and engorgement-like feelings, but it’s nothing like what it was in the very early weeks of BF. If you want to run/train while you’re BF, do what you need to do to make yourself comfortable and to (obviously) meet your child’s nutritional needs. Aside from feeding before or after runs, pumping before or after runs, or even hand-expressing milk in the shower (to instigate a let-down) before or after a run, you might find that investing in a good sports bra can make all the difference in the world or that even doubling-up on bras is the way to go. This is basically an experiment of one, so anticipate some trial-and-error before finding your groove.

Phew – this is a lot of information. More than anything, it’s important to give yourself some perspective. How you decide to feed your child is up to you; if it’s important to you to both BF and train for an endurance event, more power to you. Flexibility is critical during the postpartum stage for all the obvious reasons, and some days you might find that you have to cut a run short because you can feel your milk coming in and want to get back before you get too uncomfortable (been there, done that). Other days, you might not be able to get out at all because your child is going through a growth spurt and is feeding seemingly all the time, pretty much throwing your running window out the door (been there, done that, too). Give yourself permission to take things a day at a time and adjust accordingly. Your BF days will make up such a tiny percentage of your child’s life, whereas in comparison, you will probably be training for endurance events for far longer. It’s not impossible to BF and train for an endurance event, but some planning on your part – and a superior support network at home – I bet you’ll be a-okay.

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support!