Running Fat, Post-Pregnancy



Go faster!  Ruuuuun!

 Ello, lovies!  Yes, that's right, the title isn't Running Fast, it's Running Fat.  Ah, the joy.

Some of you are svelte, elite runners.  Some of you were svelte, elite runners.  That is, until pregnancy hit you.  I fall into the latter category at present.

I put on a dress today that I was contemplating wearing.  

UNTIL.

Until I looked at myself and wondered what those floppy grossies were that were seemingly hanging from the saddlebag region of my leg.  SO GROSS.

Who ARE you?  I wondered to myself.  I am the Flabmaster, my self answered.

Me and Flabmaster scheduled a run post-lunch today.

I have been doing a few runs here and there (combined with swimming thrice weekly and a bike ride once a week) and it was just recently that I have felt a bit more human while doing so.  When I first tried running, I could not even get through a one mile run without stopping.  I didn't know why - I thought that it was because I was so horridly out of shape (which I'm not denying), but there was another component there that I failed to realize: blood loss.



Ew, ew, ew, ew, ewwww!

 I lost quite a bit of blood and I was reading up on it at first.  Some people were saying that it took them four weeks or so to come back to normal levels.  I was so desperate and weak at first that I even made myself eat liver.  Some of you are like, "Wha?  Liver is delicious!"  Yeah, no.  Not so much.  It was my first time eating liver and I consumed it as if it were medicine (I actually think I just started swallowing pieces whole without tasting them after four or five bites).  

My legs would not lift up off of the ground.  They burned like I had been doing thousand pound squats after running for a city block.  I remembered about the blood loss and thought through what could possibly be happening.  What I think was going on was that I didn't have enough blood to carry oxygen to my muscles, thus the burning.  I could be wrong, but I was trying to piece it together.

Lately I've been able to (hopefully) get back up to normal levels and run like a human again (albeit a wimpy human).  I was working on one mile runs at first, and a couple weeks ago I went up to a 5K (or just above a 3 mile run).  Today I took the Flabmaster out for the first (almost) 5 miler post-pregnancy.

Flabmaster was working on all cylinders and my times were not where they used to be.  I did hit my 3 block mark at 2:07 (which I usually do), but then it dropped off after that.  At my halfway point, I am usually around 18 minutes.  Today was closer to 20.  The whole (almost) 5 miles had me home around the 40 minute mark, 4 minutes above what I'd consider a good time for myself.

Yes, it's pathetic, but the truth is that all these little pathetic-isms are the building blocks for excellence.  You've got to get out there and build the foundation so that you can get back to where you once were.  You've got to fast forward in your mind to your future fit self and cheer yourself on.  You tell yourself to keep going.  You tell yourself to c'mon over here, keep working - every step is money in the bank.

So push it.  Even though you know you aren't at top shape yet, you're on the path and going in the right direction.  Don't give up.  

If you're feeling uninspired, put on that tight dress so you can scream in horror in the mirror.  Works every time!

Peace, love and maybe Flabmaster can be my new rapper name,
Ms. Daisy