Spouse is home for three days in a row, hooray! I took advantage of having an extra pair of hands during the day yesterday to go to the grocery store and pharmacy by myself. Before that, I took my inaugural postpartum run. And by the time I was done with all that, I found myself missing my baby like I’d been gone for a week. Thank goodness I had plenty of time during the night last night to make up for the time I was gone. Someone did not want to sleep more than 3 hours in a row, and wanted to take her sweet time getting back to sleep after being awake. We didn’t roll out of bed for good until after 10 this morning, and I still feel like I got about 15 minutes of sleep last night.
Anyway, that first run? I over-optimistically expected to try 2.5 or 3 miles, but figured I should start out nice and easy, so I did the 2-mile loop. Slowly. Very slowly. So slowly, in fact, that I had to remind myself that if I could get through 19 hours of back labor, I could certainly get through 25 minutes of moderately intense exercise. And that’s what I did: two 11- to 12-minute miles. Pitiful, yes, but not so bad considering that my running muscles have been on vacation for several months, and really haven’t gotten a good workout in over a year (I got too busy biking to and fro all over town last summer to put some foot mileage on top of it). Sweet mother, are my thighs sore this morning. I’m considering installing a lift chair to get me up and down the stairs. I think Nuala would like it.
So today and tomorrow we’re going to see some friends and putter around cooing at the baby and trying to get the house into shape for what’s to come. Spouse starts his class this week, making Tuesdays and Thursdays all-Mom-all-the-time days. Shouldn’t be so bad, really, since Nuala’s getting pretty good about letting us set her in the bouncy seat for long enough to either prepare dinner or eat it, and I’ve gotten pretty good at doing damn near anything with one hand and in increments when I pass by on laps around the house trying to soothe a fussy baby. Seriously, you should see the upper arms I’m developing hauling this little chunker around.
Go easy on the 11 minute miles. For some of us that is blazing.
Oh, that was my blazing 10k pace last year, but I’d worked down to a 9:30 or so pace for 2-mile runs. And I didn’t even feel like passing out afterwards…can’t say that for yesterday’s.