Running These Days
Thanks to everyone who left a comment, e-mailed or texted about my last post. Clearly, I'm not alone. Body image and postpartum, changing bodies can be challenging for so many.
I want to get back to writing here regularly, so I need to figure that out, but I was thinking this week about this post as I worked on stretching my hamstrings. I was thinking about how so many things, but running in particular is more than just going for a run (although it can be that simple).
It's about setting your clothes out the night before, making a date with a running buddy, doing a little dynamic warm up before you head out, easing into your run, hitting your stride, walking when you're finished, hopefully taking 5 minutes to stretch and eating something nutritious afterward. It's more than just those 3 (or 5 or 10) miles.
These days, I'm running about 25 miles a week, trying to keep my body strong and ready to start ramping up for an upcoming trail half marathon Pete and I are both signed up for. But running that much also means I have tightness and soreness that needs to be dealt with to keep me healthy and able to do decent mileage.
So while I'm not taking my training as seriously as I did with marathon training, I'm trying to force myself to do the foam rolling, stretching and strength training that will make all these training miles and the 13.1 hilly trail miles more manageable.
Stretching and foam rolling feel like meal planning - it's a nice idea that reaps big rewards, but it isn't always fun and takes a lot of time. But on the other hand, once you do it, it saves you time and agony later on because you aren't scrambling to swing by the grocery store and invent a meal when you need food on the table ASAP.
Anyway, earlier this week I opted to do 30 minutes of Jasyoga while Pete did bedtime to take care of my cranky hamstring. Too often in the evenings, I park myself on the couch rather than spending 5-10 minutes on some much needed yoga. I keep telling myself I'm going to try and start going to yoga once a week in the evenings, but evenings are just hard with young kids. And the guilt of leaving your partner to go do something fun while they have to do the dinner, bath, bedtime routine solo, is real.
With all the wildfires happening in Oregon over the past month, we have seen a LOT of smoky air here in Eugene. So much so that most of us were unable to do much of anything outdoors for several days at a time when the air quality was "very unhealthy" and even "hazardous." Even walking to the car or driving places sometimes made it a little painful to breathe.
Not being able to run for 4-5 days isn't the biggest deal, but it did make me so thankful for clear skies and the ability to run when I want. I made do with a few good living room sweat sessions via dumbbells and HIIT workouts (Sarah Fit has had some great ones lately).
Thankfully, the rain showed up this week, so our air is nice and clean at the moment. But the rain... I have mixed feelings on that. There is so much to love about fall (namely pumpkins, apples, leaves and crisp mornings), but the unending rain we get here can wear on you. But walks with colors like these? I'd take a million of them.
Overall, I'm taking a more relaxed approach to fitness and my body. Honestly, since writing that post on my postpartum body struggles, I have given so much less time to those negative, critical thoughts. And when I do have them, I try to frame them as I would when I see 100+ different mom bodies at the public pool: "Oh look, there's a body shape and isn't it unique." So, I'm moving forward and focusing on creating a strong body to keep doing the things I want to do.
How is your week going? Speaking of meal planning... do you do it? What are your tips?
I want to get back to writing here regularly, so I need to figure that out, but I was thinking this week about this post as I worked on stretching my hamstrings. I was thinking about how so many things, but running in particular is more than just going for a run (although it can be that simple).
These days, I'm running about 25 miles a week, trying to keep my body strong and ready to start ramping up for an upcoming trail half marathon Pete and I are both signed up for. But running that much also means I have tightness and soreness that needs to be dealt with to keep me healthy and able to do decent mileage.
So while I'm not taking my training as seriously as I did with marathon training, I'm trying to force myself to do the foam rolling, stretching and strength training that will make all these training miles and the 13.1 hilly trail miles more manageable.
Stretching and foam rolling feel like meal planning - it's a nice idea that reaps big rewards, but it isn't always fun and takes a lot of time. But on the other hand, once you do it, it saves you time and agony later on because you aren't scrambling to swing by the grocery store and invent a meal when you need food on the table ASAP.
Anyway, earlier this week I opted to do 30 minutes of Jasyoga while Pete did bedtime to take care of my cranky hamstring. Too often in the evenings, I park myself on the couch rather than spending 5-10 minutes on some much needed yoga. I keep telling myself I'm going to try and start going to yoga once a week in the evenings, but evenings are just hard with young kids. And the guilt of leaving your partner to go do something fun while they have to do the dinner, bath, bedtime routine solo, is real.
With all the wildfires happening in Oregon over the past month, we have seen a LOT of smoky air here in Eugene. So much so that most of us were unable to do much of anything outdoors for several days at a time when the air quality was "very unhealthy" and even "hazardous." Even walking to the car or driving places sometimes made it a little painful to breathe.
Not being able to run for 4-5 days isn't the biggest deal, but it did make me so thankful for clear skies and the ability to run when I want. I made do with a few good living room sweat sessions via dumbbells and HIIT workouts (Sarah Fit has had some great ones lately).
Thankfully, the rain showed up this week, so our air is nice and clean at the moment. But the rain... I have mixed feelings on that. There is so much to love about fall (namely pumpkins, apples, leaves and crisp mornings), but the unending rain we get here can wear on you. But walks with colors like these? I'd take a million of them.
A little walk in the woods with my guy yesterday 😍
Overall, I'm taking a more relaxed approach to fitness and my body. Honestly, since writing that post on my postpartum body struggles, I have given so much less time to those negative, critical thoughts. And when I do have them, I try to frame them as I would when I see 100+ different mom bodies at the public pool: "Oh look, there's a body shape and isn't it unique." So, I'm moving forward and focusing on creating a strong body to keep doing the things I want to do.
How is your week going? Speaking of meal planning... do you do it? What are your tips?
Comments
My week has felt really busy... work has been busy and then we looked at 2 houses last night (starting to search for a house but are doubtful we will find something before the baby arrives). Add in another RA flare and it's not my favorite week but it should get better now that I had a steroid injection.
I'm just not working out at all these days. It's sad but it's out of my hands as I can't work out when I am flaring. And I've been flaring on and off since early July. I was waiting for a 2 week break from flares to start a 21 day fix routine and then I flared on the 2 week anniversary of my last flare. So now I want to have another 2 weeks of no flares before starting to add in strength training. I'm trying to get 10k steps a day but that doesn't always happen depending on what I have going on. So basically this pregnancy looks totally different than I anticipated. I thought I'd continue to run. I thought I'd work out 3-5 days a week. Instead all I can do is walk. But I am reminding myself I have a long way to go and things could improve. I feel guilty that I am not working out more because I know it's better to stay active when it comes to labor but it's so out of my hands right now. :/
I do meal plan but it looks so different in our house than others because we are not big eaters (Phil eats the same amount as me whereas most men eat more than their wives). So I plan a lunch to bring to work 4 out of 5 days and treat myself to a lunch out on that other day. And then I plan 2 week night meals and one weekend meal, assuming we aren't busy both Fri and Sat nights. So this week I made a ragu pasta sauce from iowa girl eats for dinner last night (I actually made it on Friday when I was making a batch to bring to my cousin who just had a baby). And then tonight I am roasting a chicken with some veggies. I won't make any meals this weekend because we have dinner plans on Friday and Saturday night - which is pretty rare for us! I spend a lot of time looking at what is in our freezer (we split a meat share with another friend so usually have a protein to choose from) and I try to balance that with what sounds good or is seasonal. I do 100% of the meal planning because Phil does not value food as much as I do. But that also means he's totally ok eating a bowl of cereal for dinner if I don't have anything planned.