My new wheels
Now that the safety committee members are happy, for those in the health department branch, I should also point out that I have only began running with said pram following full medical clearance from my doctor, physio, and the maternal health nurse to return slowly and gently to normal exercise. I should also make the disclaimer that this has followed an easy recovery period following an emergency c-section, without any complications, a fast healing rate, and all round smooth sailing. I have also been doing physio guided exercises that are safe to do within the first 6 weeks postpartum to help build up to a level to now be able to tolerate starting impact exercise.
My training program said to do 12 minutes of running amongst walking periods. Old habits die hard. Once I had reached 13 minutes of jogging, as I was feeling good, I almost kept running further on. Normally this tendency to over train on days that you are feeling good or feel that you need to 'catch up' on missed training would be considered a rookie mistake. For me it is a long established error that I have made time and time again. Fortunately I remembered this & forced myself to stop, take a drink and remind myself that the slower-paced walk back would still be beneficial.
Water bottle break
I reveled in the concept of pushing around the combined weight of nearly 6kg of baby, the pram & the weight of anything else in it. The added weight resistance, in combination with some of the crazy hills around my house should help build my strength, endurance and aerobic capacity. Interestingly, the next day, whilst bubba was hanging out with dad, I ran along the same route without the pram, thinking that surely I would run it quicker and when unimpeded, feel like I was running like the wind... Nope, my legs still felt like I was running through a lake of custard and I certainly did not run it any faster. I was tired and still sore from the day before however, so quickly made a note to myself to reserve new and difficult training for days other than Friday's, as I will rely on the weekends when hubby is not working and able to hang with bubs while I churn out my solo longer runs.
Hello again to my "Post run tomato-face" look!
As I normally think more clearly whilst running, in fact I often half-write a blog post in my head, plan the next week, and have made some important life decisions during a plodding session, I was quietly hoping that returning to running would help lift some of the fog that having a baby causes your brain to be engulfed by. Putting my sports watch in the fridge instead of back on the charger when I got home is probably evidence that this is not the case just yet.
My training program said to do 12 minutes of running amongst walking periods. Old habits die hard. Once I had reached 13 minutes of jogging, as I was feeling good, I almost kept running further on. Normally this tendency to over train on days that you are feeling good or feel that you need to 'catch up' on missed training would be considered a rookie mistake. For me it is a long established error that I have made time and time again. Fortunately I remembered this & forced myself to stop, take a drink and remind myself that the slower-paced walk back would still be beneficial.
I reveled in the concept of pushing around the combined weight of nearly 6kg of baby, the pram & the weight of anything else in it. The added weight resistance, in combination with some of the crazy hills around my house should help build my strength, endurance and aerobic capacity. Interestingly, the next day, whilst bubba was hanging out with dad, I ran along the same route without the pram, thinking that surely I would run it quicker and when unimpeded, feel like I was running like the wind... Nope, my legs still felt like I was running through a lake of custard and I certainly did not run it any faster. I was tired and still sore from the day before however, so quickly made a note to myself to reserve new and difficult training for days other than Friday's, as I will rely on the weekends when hubby is not working and able to hang with bubs while I churn out my solo longer runs.
An experienced beginner
I am running SLOW. I am not exactly a land speed record breaker any way, but currently running over 7 minute/kilometre is snail paced even for me. I have to remind myself that I am absolutely & completely starting from scratch and to reduce my expectations regarding my current physical prowess. The only way is up. Not only have I recently grown a human, whilst being deathly sick for the entire 9 months, I have also really had a now really long period of time with the poorest health, reduced fitness, and steady weight gain that I've ever had in my 36 years of life. A downward spiral that began nearly 2 years ago now, firstly with my last beer-fuelled, calorie laden trip to Kenya, ending in a stress triggering gunpoint robbery, closely followed by a fractured sacrum (lower spine) thanks to a heavy car park gate that wouldn't stay put. It was all down hill from there really. Which means that the only way is up now and at least each gain and improvement is good motivation for regaining the days when feeling good physically was something that I could once take for granted.
Kenyan feast! Nyama choma, ugali & kachumburi... Yum!!
Clear as mud
Kenyan village life 2 years ago
Cooking Kenyan style
Clear as mud
As I normally think more clearly whilst running, in fact I often half-write a blog post in my head, plan the next week, and have made some important life decisions during a plodding session, I was quietly hoping that returning to running would help lift some of the fog that having a baby causes your brain to be engulfed by. Putting my sports watch in the fridge instead of back on the charger when I got home is probably evidence that this is not the case just yet.
I think that it is the broken and reduced sleep that does the most damage. I believe that this is largely responsible for both the pregnancy brain and baby brain phenomenon. The reason for the sleep deprivation just switches from the 580 nocturnal pee trips, heartburn, and elephant belly sized discomforts of pregnancy to the much more pleasant feeding of baby sessions of new motherhood. The delirious haze of wakefulness between 2-4am sometimes brings with it a slightly weird head space. For example, last week, night after night, I happily watched a little spider living in the corner of the ceiling of our toilet, despite normally being massively phobic of spiders. I also took it upon myself to name him Rupert. I named him Rupert the arachnid, which also highlights how dim my brain power is considering I mostly name animals with a name that has the same letter as the type of animal they are (e.g kevin the koala, doug the dolphin etc). Arachnid obviously doesnt start with R, and I also failed to go with a simpler option like Steve the Spider or something slightly more logical.
Anyhoo, Rupert has recently made his escape out of our toilet. Gods speed to you Rupert, please do not come back to visit when you are bigger and scarier and I am no longer in a sleep deprived delusion or your days might be numbered. Even the amount of time I have spent thinking about this & enough to write about it tells me that I either need more sleep, to get my brain working harder again, something more interesting to get involved with, or all of the above. What I really need is to go for a run more often which as luck would have it, is something I can now do.
