One of the biggest surprises during pregnancy was how good I felt when I was running. I had always hoped to continue running while pregnant, but I assumed it’d be a horrible chore, something I’d have to force myself to do. Instead, I felt most myself while running. Instead of tired,achy and huge I felt strong and healthy (of course, it helped that I had running partners that didn’t mind slowing down when I needed to, but the point remains). I ran until I was 37 weeks pregnant. My rule was that I’d keep it up until running no longer felt good. At 37 weeks running most certainly did not feel good, so I hung up my running shoes.
Back when I was about 13 weeks pregnant and still under some delusion that pregnancy/child birth wouldn’t change my body/life that much I had a goal to run the Richmond Half-Marathon November 12 (that’s less than 3 months post-partum, y’all. Seriously. Delusional.) That said, I have a better grip on reality, but I’d still like to get back to running as soon as possible. David’s only five weeks old (today!) so I still have some recovery time. Plus, adding something to my day that makes me more tired sort of sounds like lunacy right now.
The other day I took David for a walk and I wanted to try running just a few steps. Ya know, just to see how horrible it’d feel (secretly hoping it’d feel awesome). Welp. It felt horrible. Horrible in a ohmigosh-gasp-for-breath way. In short, running feels a long way away.
When I got home, I immediately googled “post-partum running” and guess what came up? Hardly anything. In fact, the top hit was a blog that said, “I decided to blog about post-partum running because there’s no info on the Internet.” Awesome. The only other articles I could find were stories by women who said things like “I started running 4 days after a c-section.” Great, that’s really helpful.
If anyone has experience, I’m all ears.
How does running work when you’re nursing? How do you deal with the body changes? Schedule? Lack of sleep?
I sort of can’t believe how much info there is out there about exercising while pregnant, but nothing about post-baby. Come on, world wide web, get it together.
Remember that half-marathon? Well there’s an 8K the same day, and there’s still the chance that I could maybe handle that distance. If not, Tom’s running the marathon, and cheering for daddy would be more than enough excitement for one day.
hey, girl! i have still not gotten to start running b/c of pain (not from pregnancy – don’t worry!), but am thinking about trying again soon. if i get there, and when you start running, i would love to join up sometime to go together!
Trying to exercise when you are low on sleep is really, really hard. Really. Hard. The lack of sleep combined with the energy drain of nursing means you have no stamina and zero reserves to draw from. Honestly, I think you should wait until he is giving you a good 5 to 6 hour stretch at night and perhaps is a few months older. Until then you could walk and maybe do something a bit more low intensity like yoga to build strength and just be thankful for the 500 plus calories a day (whoop, whoop!) you are burning by nursing. The biggest shock to me about the entire pregnancy/child birth process was how long it took me to feel strong again. Don’t rush it, it’s just not worth it. Give your body good time to heal, get some good sleep and know that waiting to get your exercise groove back doesn’t mean you never will.
I’m impressed you kept up running that long into pregnancy. ::awe:: My big exercise, there towards the end, was walking around the block! I agree, it’s really weird there’s no postpartum information. Craziness. I can’t help you much either, I’m afraid, since I’m not a runner. But sleep DOES get better, I promise! And then you’ll feel better.
Hey, I had a difficult time running while nursing because I couldn’t find a proper sports bra. ( I know too much Info) but I was eventually able to get back to running at least a few miles when she was 4 or 5 months. I know not much hope.
hey becky — this DOES help. i just bought a bra recommended by a friend, so hopefully that’ll help. so far that’s been my main problem :)<br>I’m going to try to run/walk a little next week, hopefully it’ll be better than my maiden voyage!
[…] I wanted to get back to running soon after David was born and I was shocked at how little information was out there about postpartum running, especially for those of us who […]