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the first couple weeks back

the first couple weeks back

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So cliche I know, but man, time flies — and especially when you have a newborn. Rationally, I know that Spike (what I’m affectionately calling the littlest one; seriously, her hair is impressive) is nearly 8 weeks now, but man… that’s hard to believe.  I just adore how much big sister loves being a big sister or a mini-mommy. It’s so sweet.

~1.5 weeks versus ~7 weeks - lots of changes in the little one already
~1.5 weeks versus ~7 weeks – lots of changes in the little one already

 

♡
♡

 

In one of my recent posts, I wrote that I got cleared to run at my 3-week check-up, ran a few times that week, then had surgery around 4 weeks postpartum and kinda laid low for a week out of pain-and-discomfort-dictated necessity. Once I got cleared at my 1 week post-op appointment, I began (or resumed) running and have been balancing that against the ancillary work that I’m committed to doing and getting into a routine on (hashtag not being a lazy-ass runner)…as well as against the whole “life with a newborn and 4 year-old” thing.  Right now, my runs have been fairly short, like 3-5 miles or so, maybe 4 or 5 times a week if I’m lucky, usually after my husband gets home from work. I’m erring on the side of caution here; I don’t want the engine to get ahead of the chassis. I know I’m more likely to injure myself or tweak something by doing too much, too fast, too soon, than I am by building gradually, so that’s my MO: all tortoise, no hare right now.

flashback to Boston '10. tortoise FTW
flashback to Boston ’10. tortoise FTW

 

I can be an extremely patient person, but I won’t lie: even though I know I’m doing the right thing right now, some days, many days, it’s tough. I want to be hitting paces and distances that I did before, but like I said, I also know that it’s really not in my best interest to… not yet, anyway. The nice thing is that it’s HIGH TIME for fall marathoning season, and with so many friends racing all over the country (and world!), I feel like I’m channeling a lot of excitement their way. That’s one of the great things about running and the greater running community; it’s a family affair because at any given time, it seems that one person might be on the top of his or her game while someone else is coming back from injury or setback or something. Sure, you can be bitter or jealous that your fitness isn’t where XYZ’s fitness is right now–but remember that comparison game thing I talked about before? Yeah, that’s shitty, and unproductive, and generally not worth engaging in. Abstain at all costs. The flip side of jealousy/embitterment is that it is so easy to be supportive of our friends in the running community and our/their endeavors — wherever we are on the healthy/injured continuum — and I personally think that the support can do wonders for our confidence going into race day (or even day-to-day training)…which is why I find dailymile and strava so awesome. Maybe that’s me though.

Anyway. Here’s how things have looked over the past couple weeks. I don’t really have a plan for how often or detailed I’ll document my postpartum running here, especially since I already basically do the same thing through dailymile and strava, but we’ll see. If it helps someone, then why not.

week of 9/14 – 16.06 running miles

Monday, 9/14: 3.36 mi @ 8:21 avg, 15 pushups as part of a challenge I’m doing with my sister :), lunge matrix stuff + foam rolling

Tuesday, 9/15: 3.42 mi @ 8:25 avg, 16 pushups, 40 minutes of family yoga (that was way more challenging than I expected for ‘family’!)

not a bad view. makes it look like we have seasons here!
not a bad view. makes it look like we have seasons here!

 

Wednesday, 9/16: 2.57 mi @ 8:19 avg, 17 pushups

Thursday, 9/17: 1.3 mi Spike-wearing walk while A was in dance; 18 pushups; 2.66 mi run @ 8:06 avg

Friday, 9/18: just 19 pushups. being lazy

Saturday, 9/19 (six weeks postpartum): 4.05 mi run @ 8:15 avg; 20 pushups

Sunday, 9/20: 21 pushups. slept in the a.m.

 

week of 9/21 – 20.8 running miles

Monday, 9/21: 2 rds of week 1 Moms Into Fitness postpartum interval circuit + pilates/yoga; rest day from pushups challenge. I used Lindsey Brin’s MIF prenatal yoga stuff pretty regularly in the third trimester, so I thought I’d try her postpartum stuff. The music is wretched, the camo attire (going with the ‘bootcamp’ theme) is obnoxious, but it’s a good workout and I feel like she knows what she’s talking about. Plus, I can do it when the girls are sleeping, so that’s a win in my book. I’m making it a habit to get into doing strength-based stuff more regularly, so this is a step in the right direction anyway… even if I am rolling my eyes the entire time.

Tuesday, 9/22: MIF (I always read that as MILF, ha) core stuff- pilates 1 + 2 routines plus floor work 1 + 2 routines; 4.35 mi @ 8:01 avg after 9:30 pm!! I haven’t run that late since the last time I did a relay!; 23 pushups

Wednesday, 9/23: 24 pushups; sore as hell from the interval stuff on Monday and felt run-down

Thursday, 9/24: 1.7 mi Spike-wearing walk during dance; 25 pushups; 4.35 mi run @ 8:27 avg; remembered to foam roll again

getting strong again is a team effort
getting strong again is a team effort

 

Friday, 9/25: core stuff again – pilates 1+2, floor work 1+2, 26 pushups

Saturday, 9/26: 12.1 mi trail run at Alum Rock with Saurabh and Kowsik, both training for 50 milers, @ 11:33 avg. Left home thinking I’d only run no more than 8 miles but felt great and just went with it. The beauty of trail running is that you’re constantly changing gears and speeds, and throwing in some good elevation also keeps your body working in a way that I don’t think you get as easily just running roads. It was GLORIOUS to be back in the foothills that I can see from my window — like legitimately see, not Sarah Palin/seeing-Russia-from-Alaska see. 2,434 of elevation gain according to Garmin, and every step was worth the work. SO HAPPY. 27 pushups in the p.m. and I remembered to roll again, too. Hello, soreness!

Saurabh (left) and Kowsik (right). Hello, drought.
Saurabh (left) and Kowsik (right). Hello, drought.

 

itty bitty Kowsik
itty bitty Kowsik

 

Saurabh on the return home
Saurabh on the return home

 

proof I was there. Up top!
proof I was there. Up top! (cred: Saurabh)

Sunday, 9/27: holy DOMS. rest day from the pushup challenge and a complete rest day otherwise from working out. Spent 6am-12pm spectating and course monitoring the RNR San Jose half marathon and 10k with Wolfpack and got to see a ton of friends and Deena Kastor (who smiled at A!) and Meb. Such a fun morning.

course monitoring like a champ
course monitoring like a champ and bringing the orange construction worker vest back into style

 

 

Overall, feeling pretty content. I wanted to run more last week (naturally) but am putting off beginning the 4am runs as long as I can. Nighttime running is too unpredictable for me and for my family’s schedule, so if I really want to begin to build my mileage and my running frequency, the predawners have to happen. Thank god for tea… and two kids who nap fairly predictably.

I’ve got one race on the calendar in October – the Let’s Go 510k (a 10k) up in Berkeley at the end of the month – which probably means I should begin incorporating some semblance of speedwork into my runs. We’ll see. I’m all about that conservative postpartum build (tortoise, not hare), so we’ll see how this all pans out. I’m taking it a day at a time.

It’s race week – the 408k Race to the Row

It’s race week – the 408k Race to the Row

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The kinda weird 8k distance–4.97 miles–is probably my second preferred distance to race after the marathon. I don’t know what it is about it, but I find it somewhat refreshing. An 8k isn’t really the soul-crushing effort of a 5k, nor is it as necessarily calculated as a 10k or half marathon… hard to say. For lack of a better description, I just find the distance “nice.” That description is useless… suffice it to say that I just dig the distance.

Really, I think the thing that endears me to the 8k is my positive associations with the race distance. Chicago’s Shamrock Shuffle 8k, organized by the same folks (Bank of America) who run the Chicago Marathon, is allegedly the world’s largest 8k, with something like over 30,000 runners, and in Chicago, the Shuffle marks the unofficial beginning of the Chicago marathon and “running” season… though plenty people will remind you that, ahem, people run in Chicago year-round.  🙂  When I lived in Chicago, I ran the Shuffle a handful of times, and that’s where my current 8k PR is. The course cuts through sections of the marathon course, which is super fun, and for many people, it’s just a huge party, kinda like Bay to Breakers is here. If you want to run fast–and plenty of people do–you can. Most are just in it for the party, though.  Each time I shuffled, I’d inevitably see tons of people I knew–either out running the race as well or lining the course–and it just always made for a really fun morning. The weather could be wonderful (sunshine and rainbows and 40s+) or terrible (ankle-deep snow, slush, freezing rain), but whatever. That comes with the territory; it’s Chicago weather.

post-shuffle. A looks so tiny!
post-shuffle in 2013. A looks so tiny!

 

Of course, once we moved to SJ in late 2013, running the Shuffle each spring in Chi was no longer in the cards. Instead, last January, I serendipitously got hooked up with Represent Running, a group here who organizes a series of races run in and throughout the Bay Area. Each race has its area code affixed to the race name somehow, and for me, for SJ’s area code, “our” race is the 408k, the Race to the Row (describing the course, which begins at the SAP Center [where the Sharks hockey team plays] and ends at Santana Row [kinda an upscale shopping area exactly 4.97 miles away].  Kinda funny how the universe works, right? My somewhat annual springtime 8k tradition in Chicago got replaced by a new somewhat annual springtime (wintertime?) 8k in San Jose that had only been around for a handful of years. Last year’s race was especially cool because on the course, probably in the final mile, a World War II vet was sitting outside his house greeting the runners, and tons of runners ran over to greet him and salute him. Really cool. The veteran, Mr. Joe Bell,  just recently passed away, and this year, the 408k has added an additional event, the Memorial Mile, to honor all local military. Really, really cool.

 

 

Last year’s 408k was my first time sporting orange for Wolfpack, and it was awesome; there was Wolfpack orange everywhere, both in the race and lining the streets, volunteering. The 408k is a huge event for us, in terms of our opportunity to promote the club and enlist other people, and people really seemed to dig the support last year.

 

orange for days! [PC: Lisa/Wolfpack]
just a handful of the orange for days! [PC: Lisa/Wolfpack]

 

I’m really stoked for the 8k on Sunday because not only is racing fun (duh) and running while pregnant a blast (hello, no expectations), but my kiddo is running a kids’ race as well–something she hasn’t done since a little PBS-themed race back in Chicago a few years ago. I’m really excited and can guarantee that I’ll be counting down the minutes til she toes the line at 10am 🙂 truth be told, I might be more excited for her race than I am for mine!

Promoting the 408k for the past few months has been a blast, and I’m so looking forward to running slogging the streets of SJ for 4.97 miles! It will be aweeeeeeeeeeesome.