It's been two years...

It's been two years since my last post, and for good reason. I haven't run! I haven't trained or worked out at all, really. I've had occasional two week stretches where I would work out for 15-30 minutes a day, but nothing intense and never consistently past two weeks.

I found out I was pregnant in early February 2016 and I wasn't one of the lucky ones who can train thru it. I had pre-existing labral tears on both hips and the pregnancy hormones made them act-up like crazy. I actually had to go to physical therapy three days a week and a chiropractor twice a week. I attempted walking every day up until around June, but by then it got so bad I couldn't even roll over in bed or stand up out of chair without grimacing, so I stopped that too. Basically from February to June I walked, and from June to February 2017 I did NOTHING. Surprisingly, I weighed less than I did before pregnancy when I went to my 6-week postpartum appointment and I still do today (bye-bye muscle!).

Our little man Will is now walking (and running) all over the place and it's getting much easier to do things for myself. Plus, my body is finally starting to get back to normal. I am still breastfeeding, so my hormones won't go back to normal for much longer, but for the most part everything feels like pre-baby Rachel. Minus the fitness. ;) Seriously, 5 minutes of running has me out of breath.

Anyways, I'm starting to think I should take better care of myself and running is still my preferred method! I don't have to drive anywhere, I don't have to sit uncomfortably on a bike, I don't have to worry about the nanny watching me fail miserably at T25 from the next room, yada yada yada. So running it is!

I am not expecting to be fast again and I'm not expecting to have a real training routine. I'm sure days will be missed, runs will be cut short, cross training will be hit or miss, and so on. But a little bit here and there is better than nothing.

Since I've literally done nothing for two years, I'm going to start by following my very conservative return to running from 2010. 5 minutes on day one, adding one minute per day, then jumping by half miles, etc.

Sunday, March 4th
5' run - I tried to run this decently hard, but since I didn't warm up first, it was probably somewhere around 8:30 pace. No garmin though, so that's a total stab in the dark. NOTHING HURT! Also, I don't feel awkward or stiff. Running feels very natural right now.
30' bike in the neighborhood

Monday, March 5th
30' bike in the neighborhood - OMG my butttttt. Oh, and I am definitely out of shape. Biking into wind on a gradual incline actually had me gritting my teeth and trying desperately to catch my breath. I was glad when I got to 30 minutes.

Tuesday, March 6th
6' run - No warm up again, but I used the Map my Run app today (for the first time) and it says I covered 0.81M averaging 7:26 pace. Whoa! Two reactions to that. 1. I think I can break 7:30 for the mile right now, which makes me feel like it wouldn't be totally humiliating to run in the Luke's Locker meets this spring for fun! And 2. I was definitely faster than 8:30 pace on Sunday. Now, I'm not saying this run was easy. It was hard and for the first 4 minutes or so it felt like I was running a race. So yes, I'm significantly out of shape, but also yes, my body still knows how to do it. My mind still knows how to turn off my muscles saying "wait, we're going to hard" and my muscles still know how to keep going when my lungs don't want to. :D
30' bike in the neighborhood - I still don't understand how this is so hard.

Wednesday, March 7th
30' elliptical bike in the neighborhood - I was going to give my butt a break today, but I just couldn't work up the motivation to exercise indoors. I was craving the sun and fresh air.

Thursday, March 8th
30' bike - I biked first today because I had just eaten a ton of food and wanted to give my stomach more time for it to go down. It was good that I did because I still spent the whole run burping it up. So gross.
7' run - Mixed feelings about this one. My legs felt super flat from doing the bike first, and the indigestion was really uncomfortable, but my effort level felt easier than last time even though the pace ended up being faster. 7:21 avg pace for 0.91M.

Friday, March 9th
30' elliptical bike in the neighborhood - I was planning to be home all day, but my afternoon nanny was sick so we left a day early for my parent's house. Slipped in the bike just before we headed out since I won't have it at all next week.

Saturday, March 10th
8' run - OH WOW. First run with the stroller in a while, AND it was on my parent's insanely hilly road. I know 8 minutes is so short that nothing should be considered hard, but this was hard. I felt like I was running uphill the whole time and when you have a heavy stroller with flat tires on a gravel road, that's not easy. 8:26 avg pace for 0.95M.
30' bike 25' T25 Beta Cardio