So Saturday was my first day back to running after my ankle injury. We had a Team in Training group run, and I figured I would hang out with the run/walkers and give it a good trial to see how it felt. My running coach though had different plans: hill repeats! Up this hill that overlooks downtown. Fortunately, the ankle feels fine, but oh my aching quads and hamstrings now. That's probably not the best way to "ease back into" running.
Then today our karate sensei hammered us with an abdominal workout from hell, somewhere over 300 reps of various ab exercises. I know really strong abs are imperative for karate, and I actually try to do ab work about 5x a week anyways. But taking a class that's used to doing 30 - 50 reps and ramping them up to 300 in one day is a bit of a shock.
Still, I am impressed with what my body can now do. I was remembering how with both of my pregnancies my abdominal muscles split apart right down the middle. You could lay a chalkboard eraser in the trench down the middle of my stomach where they're supposed to meet up after each of my babies was born. I have a very short torso, so my babies just stuck straight out when I was pregnant, and the ab muscles just separated to accomodate that. I had to start with very slow crunches - one or two only - supporting and holding together my abs with both hands. To come from there to being able to knock off 300 reps with the young people in the karate class feels just great.
I was also reminiscing with our Team in Training crew about how I couldn't run a mile after my 2nd kid was born. It really is true that with incremental improvement, we can do amazing things. Just running a bit farther each time, walking a bit less - it really does all add up. I just know our whole team will do great on race day, because I know they can do it. I've been from there to here, and I know they can too.
4 comments:
Hope your Team In Training crew realize how lucky they are to have you as a coach.
And good gosh, that pregnancy ab splitting story is amazing!
you iron mom story is inspirational! just curious why you would travel to Florida to do Ironman rather than Idaho or something closer.. good luck with your training!
When I picked which Ironman I wanted to do, I was mostly concerned with avoiding very hot courses. I don't sweat much, and running in the heat is always difficult for me because of that. Also, IM Florida was appealing because of the very challenging ocean swim. I would love to do IM Canada or Coeur d'Alane, but would hate to have to DQ due to heat. There's some years it would be very doable for me, but others it would not, and you have to sign up a year in advance! Next time I do an IM, I have no idea which one I'll do.
Wow! Had no idea about your ab muscles...it must have been both physically and emotionally difficult to have been an athlete prior to pregnancy and then endure the pregnancy pregnancy itself with the loss of activity and then the experience the recovery. Would love to see a photo of you swollen with child. :)
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