Running after baby - Week 1

First, I need to do a little celebratory dance, I made it through week one! Yay!!
If you are just starting out, please read my before baby running prep post here . And, please remember that your body used to look like this:

.... or something similar to this. So be kind to it, it needs some time to get back to where it was. Don't forget to listen to it!

Starting out I knew that I wouldn't be able to run as far, or as fast as I did before. What I didn't expect was that  I would not be in control of my own body. My legs refused to listen to what my brain was trying to tell it to do.  I guess this is expected, I mean my muscles have probably all disappeared during the last few months of recuperation.  Consider yourself warned. It will not be pretty, or easy, but at this point I figure doing anything is a step in the right direction.

Here is how I tackled week 1:
1. I planned to get my butt out the door every other day. This left my body one day to recover.
2. I planned to go at least 30 minutes (anything over was a bonus).
3. I let myself off the hook with running the entire time. I gave myself permission to walk some and run some.
4. Every day I tried to run/walk a little further or sustain my running for a little longer. I used driveways, or trees as markers and pushed myself to get to one further the next day.
5. I quickly realized that I needed to make sure to stretch after every "run." I tend to be lazy with stretching, but I could barely walk down my stairs after day one.
6. I promised myself to listen to my body. If the day after running, my body gave me any indication that I was doing too much, I decided that I would give myself an extra day to recover, and if that didn't work I would do a little less.
7. I made sure to feed the baby right before I headed out the door. That way my boobs would be empty of milk.

The results:
I ran three days and made it up to 2 miles sustained running by the third day. This was a huge accomplishment considering that it took me over a month to get to this point with my last son. I think this is a result of exercising so much while I was pregnant.

By my second running day I was considerably less sore. I no longer felt that my legs would collapse underneath me causing me to fall down the stairs (bonus!).

After day three my body gave me a clear message that I needed to dial it back a little. Even though I waited six weeks, got the okay from my doctor, and had stopped bleeding for over two weeks, it started again. So, I am taking an extra day off to see if that is enough.

If you are starting running good luck! If you are planning to, you can do it! Believe me, if I can, you can!