Friday, December 7, 2012

Comeback delayed

While I was in the later stages of pregnancy, the only thing that would makes me feel better about not being able to run was telling myself that shortly after I had the baby, I would be able to get back out there. I had pretty bad pain in my pelvis (that my doctor assured me was from the weight of the baby pushing on it and after I delivered, it would go away), so the last couple of months I had no desire to run anyway. Walking would leave me really sore at night and even just mundane tasks like putting on my pants hurt - which I was told was normal.

Naturally, the first couple of weeks after Darby was born the last thing I wanted to do was walk, let alone run. But, I started getting the urge around the 3 week mark and started walking, a little at first, building up to long walks, but was still feeling a lot of pain, so didn't push it harder than walking. Fast forward to 8 weeks postpartum and I'm still not running. I'm walking a ton and swimming when I can, but running still eludes me because that pain in my pelvis hasn't gone away. I went to my doctor to see if I had done something to my pelvis...I was honestly thinking I had fractured it, it hurts so badly. She told me that my pubic bones are separated (diastasis symphysis pubis is the medical term), and there's not much you can do for them other than let them fuse back together on their own. For some women it takes 3 months, for some 8. Ughh. Running is my stress reliever, my me time and it's hard to get the same endorphin high from walking.

The good news is, the other day I got on my road bike just to see how it would feel and for some crazy reason, it didn't hurt at all! Something about the impact of running hurts the bones like no other, but sitting on a narrow bike seat didn't at all...bizarre. So, I enlisted my mother in law to watch Darby for a couple of hours and went on a bike ride...the first in a long time! Sure, it's not running, but I covered some ground, sweat like crazy and was breathing like a maniac! (Maybe I was a little too excited to be out again, because I pushed it too hard and ended up throwing up at the half way point...clearly my physical fitness is not where it once was.) I came back a whole new person. So, while I may not get to reclaim my running anytime soon, I can hang out on my trainer all winter and hope that all this time on my bike actually pays off comes tri season.

"It's a good thing I'm so cute and fun to hang out with!"

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