back to the gym
Matt came home early yesterday and gave me the best gift ever. He told me to go to the gym! Of course, I had to take MacKenna with me, but I happily obliged since I knew after 2 days of being cooped up in the house that she really needed to run off some extra energy and have some type of kid interaction. (Of course, upon picking her up at the gym daycare, she promptly told me that she hurt/hit a girl because the girl told her no. *sigh* What am I going to do with this child?!)
Thought you could use a baby fix, and because I really missed him while I was at the gym today. Oh, and the fact that he is my favorite child right now, even though he has been sleeping terribly lately...
I still haven't been cleared by my doctor to actually start working out again, but I knew that I really do need to be moving a lot more than I am at home in order to start to really start feeling "normal" again. And actually, yesterday was the first day I actually felt normal - no pain, no pulling, and I was moving around great! But, even though I was feeling much more like myself, I knew that I still needed to take it fairly easy at the gym.I decided to start on the elliptical just to see how I felt and because that's about as close to running as I'm going to get right now. I kept the intensity low and ended up going 1.5 miles in 20 minutes.
I was still feeling pretty good, so I ended up walking for another 20 minutes on the treadmill too. I had the speed at 3.5 mph (which is what I used throughout my pregnancy) but probably could've gone a little slower, just to be safe. I wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but that was pushing it a little bit. I'm actually surprised that the elliptical felt better, but maybe it's because that was the first thing I did.
When I was done, I was warm but not sweaty and felt pretty good. My organs are still shifting back into place, so I definitely felt some nasty gas pains and bloating, but those quickly diminished by the time I got home.I know I have a loooooong way to go before I am running consistently again... Shoot, I have a long way to go before I'm working out on a daily basis again, so I'm really just focusing on doing something. I head back to the doctor this afternoon, so I'll be picking her brain about what is OK to do and what I should avoid doing. I would love to add PiYo back in starting next week, since it's a little less intense than other workouts, but we shall see. I'm just happy that I was able to get out of the house for an hour and do something for me. I needed the mental break more than anything! It's been a loooooong week!I'm hoping to share a "return to running" plan with you all soon, but just waiting to get that clearance from the doctor first! It's in my head, just gotta get it down on paper too!