Not feeling athletic...yet!

Before giving birth I'd bought some new running shorts and t-shirt as something to look forward to through the tough early days new born days. I tried them on today and felt so out of shape physically and mentally I took them off again. I wonder how long it will take to feel like a runner?

My 6th run was my longest, time-wise, so far at 31 mins. It felt tough; I'd eaten a lot of lunch and not run last week so felt out of it mentally. True to the title of my blog, I fed the newborn and then slipped out for the run. It was nice to be out and really reassuring that my husband looked more relaxed than the first time I went out. It feels like things are settling down as we're closing in on the 3 month milestone. I'm still feeding through the night though and I worry that I've gotten into bad habits - feeding him to sleep because it's the quick. I could just not feed him but hate to hear him cry.

My 7th and 8th run felt hard as well - my limbs felt like they don't know what they're doing and my back feels weak. However, the silver lining in my 7th run was meeting an old running friend. She was walking her dog and we got chatting about getting back to feeling 'normal' after having time out from running. I felt so humbled as she described feeling self conscious when running after a mastectomy. My self consciousness about by wider midriff put me to shame. To top it off I then ran past an older lady, struggling to lower herself into a chair on her porch and she yelled "You're fit!". I was bowled over and so appreciative of the positive heckle that I immediately called back "Thank you!" and felt really proud of myself for making the effort to get out the door. I had my mum to thank too for looking after both my children.

My marathon plan is finally started - it will be a work in progress as I adapt to how my body feels throughout the next 8 months. I aim for my long run to be 4 miles (once per week) for the whole of August and work up to 6 miles throughout September. I've been working on getting my transverse abs (the muscles that separate to let the baby grow) using a 10 minute post natal pilates you tube video . I like it because I feel like I can spare 10 minutes and the exercises are really suited to my current muscle ability. I've also factored in dynamic warm up exercises before and stretching after.