I wish I could tell you that getting speed back postpartum for me has been easy so far. It hasn’t. I wish I could tell you that I’m seeing drastic improvements. I’m not. BUT I can tell you that little by little I am gaining mental strength, learning how to push through, and seeing small improvements! That’s a win in my book!

Sometimes it’s simply about the small improvements that eventually add up to BIG improvements that make this running thing so much fun!

If you are enjoying following along with my training – let me know! I’m not sure if these posts are what people want to keep reading, but I want to make sure i’m sharing if you enjoy it!

 

Here is a recap of week 3 of 5k training:

Monday – 7.07 miles

Tough start to Monday after a bad night of sleep. I woke up not wanting to run, but knew I would feel better afterwards. I kept telling myself – don’t overthink it just do it.

12 minute warm up, 35 minutes moderate (7:58 average), 10 x 15 seconds FAST, and a short cool down.

Dreading something doesn’t change anything. When you are struggling with motivation just get up, go out there, and start your warm up as slow as possible. Then your body begins to get into it a bit more and you can get the workout done.

 

Tuesday – 4.5 miles

I felt much stronger Tuesday for my 40 minutes easy. I always think easy is a pretty relative word when I’m pushing the stroller but I was really happy with how I had bounced back from Monday and still on little sleep.

Some days my easy pace is anywhere from 9:00-10:00 min/mile. Today it was 8:54. Listen to your body and it will help dictate what is easy for you.

 

Wednesday – 7.07 miles

I was looking forward to this workout all week because I knew my Mom was in town so I’d be able to run solo.

12 minute warm up, 3 x (4 x 2 minutes with 1 minute recovery and 3 minutes between sets), and 12 minute cool down.

This was a tougher workout than I had imagined but it felt so nice to be free of the stroller for a day. I was definietly able to hold quicker paces on my own, but I really had to work for those last 2-3 intervals.

 

Thursday – 4.4 miles

Easy pace was slower on Thursday because my legs were definietly feeling my Wednesday workout. Even with my glutatmine regiment I was still sore and tired.

I stuck to the roads by my house since I was able to run solo again. The hills caused me to slow down which was a good thing for my recovery day!

 

Friday – Off

 

Saturday – 6.65 miles

My last workout of the week and I can say 3 workouts a week are no joke! I told Wes as I was leaving “I really wish I only had 2 workouts this week.”

Just like with Monday I focused on taking my warm up really slow to help wake up my body and my legs before beginning the workout.

12 minutes easy, 3 x 8 minutes steady effort (3 minutes recovery), and 12 minute cool down.

I focused on maintaining a consistent effort throughout this workout instead of slowing down. Did you know that one common mistake many runners make is going too hard on their workouts? Your workouts are NOT meant to kill you. I focused on consistency and ended up running my intervals: 7:40, 7:37, and 7:37 pace. Perfect!

 

Sunday – 8.43 miles (75 minutes)

The goal for Sunday is to get a nice long easy run in. One thing that always slows me down on easy days it the reminder that on Monday I have another workout. I can’t go too fast and still expect to be able to hit my workout the very next day.

The fun thing about Sunday’s run was getting to run a few miles with my husband. Due to his schedule we don’t get a chance to run much but it was so nice to have him tag along for a bit!

My legs felt pretty tired on this one but I pushed through and finished out my 75 minutes. I still haven’t hit double digits and probably won’t for another several weeks, but that’s okay. I know in 5k training the double digit runs aren’t important, instead it’s the workouts that help get me where I want to be!

 

How did your running go this week?

 

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