Weekly workouts: Postpartum week 8

Weekly Recap

19 Aug

Eight weeks postpartum (holy crap - I have a two month old!) and entering the final week of the 21 Day Challenge for Change, and my re-entry into working out is still going well. I missed my Sunday run again this week because we had family in town and by the time we were done doing all kinds of fun things around Charleston with them, I was beat and it was time to relax with Baby B.

The 21 Day Challenge for Change ends this Thursday and I am definitely feeling stronger and healthier - pushups and burpees suck don't suck as much as they did when I started two and half weeks ago and running is getting easier. Not to mention my pre-pregnancy workout gear is starting to fit a little better. I went to both BodyFlow and CXWORX again this week, and I'm hooked. I will most certainly be going to these these after this challenge is over, whether at Fleet Feet or at East Shore Athletic Club (my gym).

During my runs this week, I didn't really worry about gaining speed. Instead, I worked on running farther and just finishing the run and ended up with negative splits both times. As much as I hate seeing slower paces, I know I need to build back up to my previous endurance before I can think about regaining my speed.

And speaking of building endurance...I made a decision about which race distance I'm training for this fall. My head is just not in it for a half marathon yet, so I'm going to go with training for a 10K. I've never officially trained for that distance before. I've just run it as part of training for another race and I've only run two 10Ks total, so I'm really interested to see how I do with targeted training.

The race I'm doing is the James Island Connector Run on November 1, so I've got plenty of time. I'm not expecting a PR (my current PR is 49:25 (7:57 pace), done in September 2013), but I do want to beat my first 10K time, which was 54:22 (8:45 pace), done in September 2012. I'd love to PR, but I'm not sure my body will agree with that yet.

So as far as training goes, I'll be doing the 10K training in the fall and by the time I'm done with that, I think I'll be ready for half training with my target race being the Charleston Half in January. I've also got my eye on several other half marathons in the winter/spring, including the inaugural Savannah Women's Half in March (mostly because I really want to visit Savannah and a race is a good excuse). There is a possibility that I may be training for my second full marathon next fall, but we'll see. I'm starting to get the itch again and I'd really love to see how I do when I have more miles under my legs and I've been running for longer than six months. But let's just get through this training season first and then I'll get back to you about that marathon.

The week in workouts: