3 Months Postpartum

Written June 21st

This month I've felt like I'm starting to catch up on my sleep. Carter, Elise, and I are so in a groove during the day. We go on a play date or outing every morning because it's summer and there's too much going on not to! Then we try to stay home in the afternoon to play, clean, and make dinner. I'm feeling more rested now that Elise is sleeping better which makes a huge difference in my mood. My mood swings have definitely started to curb and I don't randomly feel like crying nearly as often. Not that I cried much before, but I'd be doing something and just all the sudden feel like I needed to cry for no reason at all.

How can you want to cry looking at this cuteness!?!

I'm still 10 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. My thighs still rub together and my belly still jiggles. Some days I get down about it but then I just drown my sorrows in an ice cream cone so it's counterproductive. I'm definitely holding onto more weight and having a harder time losing it this time. The crazy thing is it's not like I'm overeating. I feel hungry all the time! I will admit I have a dessert every day after dinner, but nothing too crazy typically just an ice cream cone (it's the best way to moderate how much I eat). I know I'll get there so I try not to focus too much on the scale. I came up with a great trick with clothing this month. I can fit into and even zip my jean shorts but I just don't feel good about myself in them. They are tighter than usual and make me feel chubby. Instead of wearing them every day and feeling gross, I've been wearing dresses because no waist band and they're cooler in this crazy heat! I still wear my jeans every now and then because I feel like I need that motivation to keep dropping weight even if it's tortoise style slow!

It's easier to live with the stagnant weight loss, I mean 2 pounds in a month really?!!?, because my running is going really well. Running shape-wise I'm rocking it! I ran a 23:33 5k this month. I've also been rocking some speed work and my long run is up to 7 miles. I feel awesome running and regardless of how I look, feel sleek and strong. I've been focusing on that instead of the numbers on the scale because I need to feel good about myself! I keep meaning to add yoga back into my routine but just haven't done it yet. Hopefully soon! After I dropped yoga I stopped bleeding, finally, so I'm  a little hesitant to add it back in. Every once in a while I'll have light spotting for a day or two. My doctor acted like that's normal but if it's still going on next month I'll call to make sure.

My running buddies!

I had Carter's shield up to block the sun.  He asked where sissy was and I told him beside you.  He said he couldn't see her so I pushed his shield down.  He looked over at her and reached across to hold her hand.  Talk about precious!

I still need a decent amount of recovery time after a hard run such as speed work or long runs. My body still isn't feeling fully healed and needs more rest so I like to give myself at least 2 easy days in between hard efforts. This is what a week of training looks like for me right now:

Monday- 2 miles easy (10-10:30 pace with the stroller)

Tuesday- 3 miles speed work (0.25 mile warm up, 8x0.25 repeats with 0.1 jog between at anywhere from 7:20-7:50 pace with the double stroller, 7:00-7:20 pace without it, 0.25 cool down)

Wednesday- 2 miles easy (again around 10-10:30 pace)

Thursday- 2 miles easy (same pace, some days a little faster)

Friday- Off

Saturday- long run (up to 7 miles now, started at 3 and added a mile a week, continuing to add one mile per week)

One of my goals for this next month is to add in a tempo run during the week. Probably just starting with a mile warm up, one mile at 5k pace and a mile cool down. Then lengthening the run and switching to half marathon pace. I'd also like to work up to a 10-12 mile long run and if my body can handle it fewer recovery days between hard efforts. I'd also like to lengthen my recovery runs to a minimum of 3 miles. Which would bump up my weekly mileage. I used to track my weekly mileage and try to hit certain numbers in college and marathon training, but now I'm more focused on recovering fully and getting those hard work outs in. My thought for what a week might look like:

Monday: easy

Tuesday: speed work

Wednesday: easy

Thursday: tempo

Friday: off/walk

Saturday: long run

Sunday: off/walk

I'll tweak and adjust distances as I feel my body is ready. Obviously I'd like to lose more weight this next month. Ideally I'd like to lose more than 2 pounds but as long as I'm losing I consider it a win. We have a couple of races scheduled for July so I'm looking forward to shaving more time off my 5k as well. I'm looking forward to continuing to improve and feel stronger with my running! 

Originally I thought I'd focus on the half-marathon for the fall and gun for a postpartum PR at that distance. Now that I'm back into training and have had time to run with double stroller, I've changed my mind. I've set my focus on the 5k and will just run the half-marathons in the fall for fun. It's not realistic for me to be able to put the training in that I'd like to in order to PR. When I was training for the half with Carter he was younger and willing to sit in the stroller for longer. Now he's so much more active and doesn't want to be sitting in the stroller while I run for an hour and a half. Since Ty is also training for the half marathons I don't have the luxury of going for a long run every Saturday morning while he stays home. Now we're juggling both trying to get a long run in. It means we're either taking turns running on Saturday or one of us is running Saturday while the other runs Sunday. It eats up a lot of our precious family time and I hate that! So to me it makes more sense to do a long run every other week. It will give us more time together as a family and will allow me to be fully prepared for a half-marathon, just not in fighting shape so to speak!