Muddling Through

It has been quite awhile since I have posted a new blog!  I know it is hard to believe, but I really did not have much to say!  I have been muddling through getting back to some semblance of fitness. So I will get you up to date on what has been going on!   My last race was the Olympic Trials in FEBRUARY!  I really can not believe we are half way through May! Coming back from the trials has been a long experience, yet somehow the months have flown by.

My abs pre babies, were strong, and kept me moving forward fast, and pain free. 

A few months later they started stretching a bit. 

Then this happened...Wowza. 

They were followed by this...Ok, worth it! 

Then this, they were still saggy and stretched, but way different than just a year prior. 

By the Olympic Trials, I felt that this was about as good as things would get. 

But as it turned out, just because the skin was going back, did not mean things were in working order. 

I ended up taking about 5 weeks completely off running due to back/butt/hip pain. In that time I was working my arse off getting my transverse abdominus back to firing, and then building on strengthening it back up to handle the rigors of training. You can see my blog here on the fun and super exciting exercises I started doing to get back.  If that workout isn't muddling, I am not sure what is!  I missed running desperately in this time, but my elliptigo kept me sane. 

Finally mid April I was able to start doing workouts.  Despite them being kinda slow, and short in duration.  I was on the path back to fitness. A month later, I am still doing painfully boring exercises, but seeing a huge difference in the way I feel, and seeing significant improvements in my fitness from week to week.  I am going to test the waters soon at the Columbus 10k!  I can not wait to put on my red, white, and blue Oiselle kit and hit downtown for a fun test of where my fitness is! I am still slowly ramping things up, hitting just over 50 miles a week, and doing workouts by "feel", so it should be fun to see where I am!   If you live close, come cheer on June 5th!