And so here I am again, starting a blog about running while being a new mama. How hard it has been to get back into shape after being on bed rest and not working out for 6 months. How hard it is to find the time (and sometimes the motivation) to work out with a new baby. It's been quite an adventure, and I'm looking to conquer some new things this year. I'll blog about running and recipes and adventures. Hopefully I can keep it interesting.
I'll start by telling you a little bit about my life right now. I had my baby boy 3.5 months ago. He was born in July and he's my first child. I've loved every minute of his life. Every difficult, tired, crazy, wonderful, amazing minute. He's amazing. I never imagined it would feel so great to be a mom. But it's hard! HARD work to raise a healthy, happy, smart little dude. And it's even harder to find time to workout. After K was born I was supposed to wait 4 weeks to go for walks. FOUR WEEKS PEOPLE! To go for a WALK! Well. I was walking around the park by my house after 5 days. I mean it was summer and I needed to get out of that house. It didn't hurt that my baby LOVED being outside. I started walking 2 - 3 miles every morning with K. He would nap and I would walk. It was good for me. It was good for K to get the fresh air. And my golden retriever sure wasn't complaining. 3.5 weeks after K was born I decided to go for my first run. It was so liberating to strap on my running shoes and leave dad in charge of baby. The weather was amazing and I was so excited. I knew it was going to be tough, but I was ready. And so I started out. And WOW was my cardio completely GONE! Being on bed rest really depleted the muscles in my legs and my cardio was nonexistent. I took my time and ran 1.5 miles. I wasn't discouraged. I knew it was going to be a long road. I worked my way from 1.5 mile runs to 2 mile runs to finally 3 mile runs in the next two weeks. It felt good to be back at 3 miles, but my runs were still REALLY hard. I was struggling to not stop and walk. it was discouraging. Before being pregnant I was racing half marathons. I stuck with it and increased my mileage and my pace. Little K is 3.5 months old which means I've been running for over 2 months now. I'm up to 6 miles now - the only reason I'm not running further is mostly due to time. I don't have much of that these days.
I'm feeling good and working on my pace. I'm challenging myself to be the runner I used to be. I am challenging myself to be healthy for my son, for my family, for myself. I'm enjoying the challenge and the motivation is there.
Maybe I'll sign up for a Turkey Trot 10K just to test out the old running spirit. We'll see. I'm happy to be back running and hopefully I'll find a community of you out there ready to support me on my journey. I'm heading to the gym to do some lifting over my lunch break at work - it's the optimal time to get in a workout these days. I'll focus on abs since those got sabbotaged completely by being pregnant and some squats to help me with my faster runs. I'll leave you with a picture of my dude.... and check in again soon :)
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