Boston Marathon Training (4 Weeks Postpartum)

This was my first official “step back” week of my Boston Marathon training cycle. I have always been a big fan of step back weeks because after several hard weeks they help your body recover. They are even more important to me now that I am training postpartum. My number one focus is to stay healthy and things such as step back weeks are key to that.

I am truly learning so much from this postpartum training and am slowly beginning to see some great progress which is encouraging after some tough weeks.

Monday – 6 x 800 meters

My week started out with a bang with a workout. I usually have to time my workouts around when E is going to nap, especially if it is a longer one. I fed E and then headed down to the treadmill to get in the run.

I started with a 1 mile warm up, 6 x 800 with 400 recovery, and a 1 mile cool down. I ran the 800’s at around a 7:30 pace which was comfortably hard but not all out by any means. The goal of these workouts is just to keep my legs going quicker not to completely tax my body.

The workout went well and my sweet boy even slept right up until 60 minutes when it was over. 6.75 miles total for the day.

Tuesday – 4 miles easy

Tuesday I really wanted to get away from the treadmill. I love it but sometimes I just want to get outside and with the wonderful weather we have been having lately I knew it was the perfect time. I took E out with me and we ran 4 miles easy with my Thule Urban Glide.

I don’t do that many stroller runs yet, but this was nice to have the time together and enjoy the nice quiet morning trails.

Wednesday – 4 miles easy with 6 x 10 second hill sprints

I am really enjoying hill sprint days. They give me a small workout without being over taxing and are perfect the day before my long run.

I always start my run with 3 miles and then do my hill sprints. This time it was 6 x 10 seconds at a 9% incline. I finished it off with another mile for 4 miles total for the day.

Thursday – 10 mile long run

The only real change in my step back week was my long run day. I’ve been increasing my long run by 2 miles each week and after 3 weeks of that I went back down to 10. They will pick back up next week with another 3 weeks increasing by 2 – 16, 18, and 20. Eek!

I went out on my 10 miles and just focused on taking it one mile at a time. I was tired but was excited to just go outside and enjoy. I didn’t look at my Garmin the entire time and instead just ran whatever felt comfortable to me. I always make sure to start out slower. To my surprise, when I finished I had averaged an 8:50!

It is still a far cry from where I used to be but it was wonderful to see some progress since usually long runs are my weakest. While 10 miles is still longer for me it is feeling easier than it did just 3 weeks ago.

Friday – Rest Day

Per usual, I took Friday off to recover and relax.

Saturday – 20 minutes hard effort

I had to adjust my Saturday workout a bit because I was crunched for time. I wanted to help play support crew for my husband who had a 26 mile training run and we ended up getting back a little later than I had planned. We had a birthday dinner to go to.

I had exactly 45 minutes to get in a workout. I started with a 10 minute warm up, did 20 minutes moderately hard, and then a 15 minute cool down. It took my body a bit to get into the idea of running later in the day but I ended up having a pretty great run!

Sunday – 4 miles easy

The week will end with an easy 4 miles.

In my step week I totaled 34 miles. It was a good week and a nice break from a few hard weeks. Though some of the upcoming weeks look intimidating, just like I always I focus on each run one day at a time.