Morning friends! Popping in for a running update because I officially have my first postpartum race on the calendar! Plus, check out the end of this post for an awesome giveaway. 🙂
I took advantage of a break in the rain on Sunday morning and met my friend Sarah for a run date! We did a run/walk and enjoyed the sights and catching up. Nothing like a run with a good friend – always such a treat to have that dedicated time to chat. It was a pretty morning, too – storms were on their way but hadn’t yet arrived and the sky looked really cool. There were a ton of people out and about taking advantage of the break in the rain!
I’m curious to see if I get the urge to run more often or farther as the weather cools down, but for now given the heat/humidity and the fact that I’m still easing back into running postpartum (both physically and logistically) it has felt good to run about once a week, occasionally twice if they are shorter runs or run/walks. I don’t have the energy to do more than that and that’s totally fine! I’m just listening to my body and usually my body says that yoga would feel better. 🙂 If/when I feel like I’m ready to ramp things up again, I will, and until then, I’ll keep it casual.
I’m excited though because I officially have a race on the calendar: the Marine Corps 10k in late October! Unless a race inspires me before then, it will be my first postpartum race – and my first race in well over a year. I haven’t done a race since the April 2017 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, which I ran while 8 weeks pregnant! I can’t believe how long it has been – wow. For awhile I was doing a race practically every couple months! It will be fun to get back out there.
The Marine Corps 10k is part of the Marine Corps Marathon weekend festivities and my friends at The Watermelon Board have kindly given me and Matt bibs for the race as part of my ongoing sponsorship with them. We were actually supposed to run the 10k with them last year (I ran the full marathon with them the year before – here’s the recap: Marine Corps Marathon 2016 race recap) but, considering I was about 35 weeks pregnant by race day last year the 10k didn’t seem like the smartest idea. 😉 I’m already excited about that post-race watermelon!
Over the past few months I’ve slowly been building back up my endurance and confidence with running. I’ve made it back up to 5 miles, although usually with some breaks. Some runs have felt better than others – obviously how much sleep I’m getting is a big factor, but so is the weather – the humidity wears me out even more than it used to nowadays! I’ve also noticed that I tend to not have as much milk for Riese right after I go running – I don’t know if I’m not fueling or hydrating enough, or if it’s just because my body is busy doing other things vs. producing milk, but that has been an interesting observation, and is another reason I’m not looking to seriously train for anything right now. Nursing/pumping mama readers who are runners – has anyone else noticed this? Maybe it’s just me!
I’m not planning to follow an official training plan for Marine Corps 10k training, but will instead just make sure to continue to run at least once per week for now, and probably closer to twice per week as I approach race day. I also want to make sure to do at least one 6 miler without breaks/stops before race day so I’m comfortable at that distance. I don’t have any time goals for the race – just looking to have fun out there!
Since Matt and I will both be doing the race, I see a lot of stroller runs in our future as we train together! I figure the stroller resistance is good extra training for Matt… and it will help slow him down to a comfortable pace for me. 😉
And now for something exciting: I have two FULL MARATHON (not 10k!) Marine Corps Marathon bibs to give away courtesy of my partnership with The Watermelon Board! I’ll be selecting one lucky blog reader to win both, so the winner will get a bib for themselves and one for their training partner. 🙂 Details:
- Travel + lodging are not included, and you must obviously be available/able to make it to DC for race day, which is October 28! You don’t have to live in the U.S. so long as you are willing to pay your way to get here for the race.
- I will randomly select the winner on Tuesday, July 31, and will notify them directly via email.
To enter to win, head over to the Watermelon Board’s recipe page, then come back and comment on this blog post letting me know 1) why you want to run the Marine Corps Marathon and who you’d invite to run it with you, and 2) which recipe from the Watermelon Board’s website you’d most like to try!
Training for a race? Check out these tips:
- How to fuel a long run
- What to eat before and after a long run
- Check out my Nutrition for Runners Program – you can get started for free!
