Third Postpartum Run

Today is 6 weeks since Baby Sophie was born, which is also therefore 6 weeks since my C-section and so the date I was allowed to start running again.  In my continued effort to reset my running pace to something faster than pre-pregnancy, my third postpartum run was tonight... in 27 degree weather.  And boy was it cold.  My legs felt like lead, and let me say that I don't run well in the cold anyway - give me a good 60 degree day for a run.

• The first run managed 0.10 mile intervals at 8:00-9:00 min pace for 0.60 miles total.
• The second run managed 0.10-0.20 mile intervals at 8:00-9:00 min pace for 0.80 miles total.
• Today's third run managed 0.10-0.25 mile intervals at roughly 9:00 min pace for 1.01 miles total.

Yes, that's a quarter-mile at 9:04 pace.  Considering I'm just coming back from nothing for the past few months and restricted heart rate training for months before that, and that before that I had a 9:04 PR for the one-mile, I'll take it!

Interval distances and paces:

0.25 mi : 9:04 pace
0.10 mi : 9:13 pace (just couldn't hold onto sub-9!)
0.12 mi : 9:22 pace
0.12 mi : 8:50 pace
0.10 mi : 9:05 pace
0.10 mi : 8:45 pace
0.11 mi : 8:29 pace
0.11 mi : 8:53 pace
That's 1.01 miles total at a few seconds over a 9 minute per mile pace.

So I ran for longer at the desired pace and maintaining the same or slightly shorter walk breaks between intervals.  I'm keeping an eye on heart rate on these intervals and look forward in the next couple weeks to hopefully watching max heart rate on these run paces drop over time.

A little panic hit me today about how long this recovery is going to take, but I'm not going to worry about it.  I think this reset is more important than hitting a 100-mile month right away, or doing a half marathon 3 weeks from now.  I just have to be able to comfortably do 15-20 miles over two days for Texas Independence Relay 7 1/2 weeks from now.  That's totally doable.

Happy Running!