Adaptive Running
The more I train and run postpartum, the more I am learning about my body and how it handles stress. One of the biggest changes I’ve made coming back this time around, postpartum vs. last time is slowing down before speeding up. Last time, I made the mistake of plowing through runs and suffered an injury almost right away. This time, before I did anything I worked on my pelvic floor strength training. Then, instead of plowing into one mile runs as fast as I could go (lol) I started with run/walking. This felt like it was slowing me down, but in reality, it only sped up my healing and comeback.
(Throwback photo from my last half marathon at 22 weeks pregnant!)
I am now convinced that one of the biggest things you can do for your running is to practice adaptation. Running and training is really a big experiment. Especially when you are coming back from having a baby or an injury it is really important to add stress slowly and then let the body adapt. Part of the key with adaption is paying attention!
If you aren’t paying attention some things may fall through the cracks.
How did you feel after your last track workout?
What are your paces like consistently?
How is your perceived effort feeling on each run?
How quickly are you recovering from long runs or harder effort workouts?
All these things are indicators of fitness and give you an idea of what to tweak and adjust as you move forward in your training/running. By giving yourself mini tests (i.e. 2 mile time test, a race, harder workouts, longer runs, added volume, etc.) you are able to see 1. where you are at, 2. what you can adjust and 3. what trajectory your next weeks of training should have in them.
A good couple ideas of how to do this.
- Invest in a watch. I love my Garmin, because it tracks everything. I have all the data from my watch and I can look over everything after my workouts.
- Keep a journal. I will be the first to admit, I have not been super faithful with this, but love it when I do (new goal for 2020. stay faithful with this!) but writing your thoughts, feelings, and performances in workouts and races is HUGE and really helpful!
- Hire a coach. This is one of the big things a coach does for you. A coach monitors your progress, listens to how your body is responding to training and makes adaptions when necessary (i.e. you don’t to think about it as much!)
- Be fully present while running. It is so easy to put the earbuds in and just escape and not think about it. But, I have found recently that I am really enjoying and learning more about my own running and mental strength as I try to wean myself off of my distraction techniques and embrace what my body is feeling/telling me. remember, pain/discomfort is only your body’s way of communicating with you. As I’ve listened to my body lately, running is becoming even more interesting and I am feeling more in tune with my body than ever before. Try it out! (full disclosure / I still listen to music/audio books but doing this on certain runs has been fun and helpful!)
Any or all of these techniques are going to be SO helpful and are so important as you work to progress as an athlete.
I am so excited to see what is ahead this year for running for me, even if all the races are canceled. I just love to run, so that works out 😉