Weekly workouts: 10K race (10/26-11/1) + postpartum week 19

This week marked the end of my first official postpartum training cycle, culminating with the James Island Connector Run on Saturday. And overall, it went really well. Over the past few weeks, I have regained a lot of confidence in my running, which I needed because it's definitely not been easy coming back from pregnancy.

But now that I've started to bounce back, I feel it coming back pretty quickly, and I'm almost feeling like the runner I was before B (not completely, but she's in there, I can feel it). One of the best things I've done is to get a combination of core and strength work in five days a week most weeks. I think that's really helped whip me back into shape since those core muscles are really important for running. I'm hoping I continue my trend of picking up speed and that by the end of the year, my 5K pace will be back down to sub-25, which is right around where I was in my second trimester.

Since I was nervous about how I would do at the 10K on Saturday, I took it pretty easy this week. I still worked out, but didn't run as much, mostly because when I ran on Wednesday I had some chest tightness that freaked me out and I wanted to give my lungs a break. Fortunately that was all gone by Saturday and I think it was just the last remnants of the three-week sickness making its way out of my body. I'm feeling totally back to normal now and my cough is completely gone (finally!).

So now, I have a one week break from training and then I'm back at it training for the Charleston Half. I'm running a 5K this Saturday just because I thought it would be fun, and next Tuesday I kick off half training with speed work. Hopefully it will actually be sort of speedy.

The week in workouts

Sunday: OFF

Monday