What I Will Be Working on Postpartum…
Happy happy Monday! And let’s talk about RUNNING. Because this week (most likely) I will be cleared to run! Woohoo.
Thinking about coming back to running, postpartum makes me SO excited. I am really looking forward to working toward some big running goals and eager to put in the effort. One big, overall goal I want to focus on this postpartum, not pregnant running season is to adopt and be really good at ‘The Runner’s Lifestyle.’ Basically, not only being good about getting the daily miles in, but also practicing all the little, daily habits that eventually impact the overall big goal of becoming a ‘good’ runner.
I really do enjoy running and love getting the every day miles in, but there are certain aspects of training that are harder for me to love and commit too (stretching, I am looking at you…) So, I am going to put this out there for 1. My own accountability – please help me do this guys and 2. For your encouragement if you are a runner too!
These are the areas I will be focusing on and really making sure I am doing a good job at each…
- Sleep: sleep is SO important, in general, but with athletes this is the time the secret sauce happens. This is when muscles recover and fitness gains take place. This is the time to not skimp out on.
- Nutrition: Quality and quantity of nutrition, as an athlete matter. When I was my thinnest – I also struggled with the most injuries. Surprising? Because I wasn’t fueling enough, my body was literally breaking down. The right amount of fuel matters and the kind of food matters. Yes, since runners burn a lot, we can ‘afford’ to eat food that isn’t as nutritionally dense as others, but we also don’t reap the amazing benefits that quality nutrition gives us.
- Strength training: Runners are notorious for only running and neglecting strength work. When we do this, we become two dimensional – strong in only one way, running. Yes, we may be good at running but we may be weak and imbalanced in other areas, possibly resaulitng in injury. Implementing runner specific strength training is KEY to gaining strength and speed as a runner, while also avoiding injury.
- Recovery (i.e. foam roling, stretching, etc.) Another thing runners aren’t generally good at (preaching to the choir here) is recovery. Yes, we can run all the miles but stretching for 10 minutes seems like a big deal. Again, if we want to grow as runners and really tap into that next level, we need to be willing to do the uncomfortable or inconvenient things. Proper recovery means we can do more volume of training and more volume of training means more growth and more growth means better results. Don’t neglect the recovery piece of training!
I know that as I implement these principles into my training, I will only help my running grow at a faster rate, and that’s what we all want right?
Here’s to this next week of running! Ahh, seriously can’t wait. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited to do run/walking, hhaha. Perspective is good, my friends.
Hope your Monday is great!