Post Birth Exercising

 he's doing a lot of this these days

Ocean was born last Monday morning and we went home around lunchtime on Wednesday. That afternoon I felt a slight urge to get moving. Even with all the sore muscles my body feels so much less ungainly and awkward now that Ocean's no longer in my uterus. The feeling of wanting to exercise passed quickly since I know it's way too early and it wouldn't actually feel good.

This was reinforced on Friday when I stopped by the grocery store and Target after Ocean's checkup. It took longer than I expected because it turns out that I can't actually walk that fast- there's too much residual soreness. When I got home I could tell I was just not ready for that much walking. It's a good reminder to take things slow and listen to my body and not push too hard.

While I know I need to be careful, I'm also already looking forward to my August race. Ever since getting pregnant I knew it would have to be at the end of the month to allow maximum healing time. A race on the 29th of August will be two days short of 6 weeks after Ocean's birth. Since we're really not supposed to start being active again until 6 weeks postpartum this race will be done with minimal training. I'm going to try to get some walking in but I'm not sure how much I'll be able to do; it depends on how long my healing process is and how busy our schedule ends up being. We're taking breaks from most of our activities this semester, but there's still schoolwork for Sunshine while wrangling a toddler and a newborn. It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

In any case, I'm not planning on doing much running in the race- only on the downhills, and only if it feels good, otherwise I'll walk the whole thing. I walked a 5k three weeks after having River, and while I was sore, it felt pretty good. Hopefully this will be a similar experience.

I haven't signed up for the race yet because I'm still debating between a 4 mile prep run for the 4 mile race I've done in the past (I'm not running it this year) or a 3 mile fundraiser. I've never done either, but I suspect the 4 mile race will be more low-key and walker friendly, so I'm leaning that direction. After my experience of being one of just a couple walkers in the Fourth of July race I want to make sure that the race is walker friendly and I won't be the only one walking the whole thing.