Age Is Just A Number and Programming Works

Here I am.  Approaching eight months postpartum from baby number three.  I’m turning thirty four this year.  I talked to one of my best friends from college on the phone last week and we reminisced on how much our lives have changed since graduating.  Did people ever expect us to grow up?  Anyways, she is expecting her first child in July.  As I walked off the stage upon receiving my graduate degree in accounting, if you would have asked me what my life would be like ten years later, I would not say this.

Lo and behold, I am no longer an accountant (unless I am reconciling my own bank account or working on my business expenses).  In college, my max run distance was about eighty feet down a flat runway.  When my coach asked us to run easy for ten minutes, I pondered if I could go slow enough that I would only have to run two laps in that period (I called it “the bounce”).

I always thought I would have a stay at home husband.  Seriously.  I left college with a great job and every intention of climbing my way to the top of the business world.  When my first daughter was born that changed.  I stuck around corporate America until my second daughter was born, but something about me changed when I became a mom.  I found a new empathy for every human being.  I guess I figured out through my pre and postpartum fitness journey that I was capable of a lot more than I gave myself credit for (and so are others).

Here goes nothing.  I hear all the time from people in my peer group that I am so fit.  I must workout all the time.  They will never be an athlete like me.  They could never do Flywheel, a Spartan Race, a Flybarre class.  You name it.  It’s not that you can’t do it.  It’s that you don’t give yourself credit.  Everyone has to start somewhere.  So, here I am to show you some of my stats (because ultimately this is the easiest way to prove that you can get better if you commit).

I went back to my Athlinks account and found my pre-marriage race results!  Who knew you could even do that.  Why didn’t I think of it before.  I graduated from Virginia Tech in 2007.  I did a handful of races from 2008-2012 (most of them actually longer distances).  The Charlotte RaceFest half marathon was my “pre-wedding” race.

I found out I was pregnant with my first daughter in 2013 and my second daughter in 2014, so I didn’t do much racing.  As you can see, I participated in two Thanksgiving Day races (one while I was pregnant) in a matter of two years.

My time commitment shifted in 2015 when my second daughter was born.  I was now 31 years old, and I realized the importance of strength training.  I went all in.  Instead of just doing workouts when I could, I decided to actually program my training towards specific goals.  I wanted to be faster.  I wanted to be stronger.  Instead of jumping in workouts because they seemed “fun”, I decided to be deliberate about what days I would run.  What days I would lift.  What days I wold ride.  I saw a SIGNIFICANT drop in my mile times at road races.  Somehow, I went from running mid 8:30 miles to less than 7:30 miles.  Okay!

We always knew we wanted to have three kids, so I knew at some point all of this would scale back and I would have to go through the whole postpartum fitness journey again.  That I did, and here I sit.  Almost ten years from my first post collegiate road race.

Last weekend, my husband and I had the privilege of starting the Cooper River Bridge Run together (he ran much faster than me).  I say privilege because I am thankful every day that I have the ability to go for a run.  Much less see improvement as I age.  I crossed the finish line four seconds faster than my previous Bridge Run time in 2016.  Would you believe I was disappointed?  I have been spoiled with seeing results.  Quick results at that.  When I took a trip down memory lane, I almost laughed at myself.

Through the process of seeing what I am capable of in an entirely different way, I have made myself believe that all of that hard work actually worked.  Programming works.  Whether it is Crossfit, running, riding, bootcamp.  Having a trainer/mentor who knows what they are doing makes a difference. As I close on this post, I want to remind you that setting benchmarks can be such a positive tool.   Not doing something because you feel to old, you wouldn’t  fit in or it’s too hard is so relative.   The day I decided to try new things is the day I started to see a change in my performance as well as my self image.