I never thought I would run again… But I just ran my first Half-Marathon!

That’s right! There was a time when I never thought I would run any sort of distance again… but I did and here is my story!

Just so you are aware - this is not a blog about a training program for a half-marathon. I do speak to that, so if you don’t want to hear my story about challenges along the way, then scroll down till you see the heading for my 10K and Half-Marathon Training Plan (heads up, they are not super detailed!).

I didn’t grow up a runner. I think I did some long-distance race in elementary school. I probably placed last or close to that. I played a lot of sports growing up (swimming, softball, gymnastics, snowboarding, biathlon) but never just straight-out long or short-distance running. It was boring. In university, I started running just to “get fit”, and… because someone told me that they would never recommend starting running to someone older than 25 because it would be bad for their knees (arthritis). Around the same time, I learned that bone density decreases at a faster rate then your body can build it up at around that same age sooooo me being me I started running. Nothing big. Didn’t really track anything. May have run the odd 5 k without knowing it.

Europe

After uni I went to Europe for 3 months (by myself) and had this goal to run in every country. Out of the 13 countries I went to, I think I think I missed one and ended up doing a half-day biking trip instead (the Netherlands).

When I came back from Europe I kind of stopped. I did the odd 2-3k run here and there but nothing major. Did my first 5k run in 2014? - Colour me Rad - Did not train for it and had to walk most of it. Still ran on and off but randomly and nothing more than 3k.

Pregnancy

Right before getting pregnant, I had a bad ankle sprain (suspected fracture), followed by a low back injury (disc?) where I had to take about a month off work and spent a lot of time laying on the couch because anything else caused numbness, tingling and shooting pain down my legs. All I wanted was for the pain to go away and to be functional and feel strong again. Pregnancy was -fun? No it really wasn’t. I physically felt like I was in a bad place. I still had ankle pain. Still had back pain (it was minimal at this time). I was nauseous all the time, and to top it off, when I was nearing the end of my second trimester, I sneezed and had searing pain shoot from my pelvis down my leg which caused me to be unable to weight-bare. It was awful. I got treatment, but it seemed to always be there. I couldn’t walk more than half a block without severe pain. I gained 73 lbs in my pregnancy because I could only keep down junk and it hurt to do any walking. I kind of just hoped it would go away on its own after having my son. It didn’t.

Cesarean and Postnatal

I had a cesarean birth because my son was breech and had the cord wrapped around his neck (yay for science helping us through this!). My abdomen was cut open. This added to my beliefs that I would never run again. After some time I saw a few practitioners to help with my tailbone and pelvic pain. I had some success, but after a year of treatment and being told I probably shouldn’t run again because my pelvis was too unstable (they may not have said this but it is what I heard and what I retained out of the session). In my mind, I imagined my pelvis literally falling apart if I ran. It scared me. This was a confusing and hard time for me. I had always been a fairly strong person. I could walk forever. Do whatever and be okay. So being scared of going for a 5k walk, being scared of running, being scared of lifting weight was really tough and confusing for me.

I should note that the therapists I saw, were amazing, and supportive, and they were doing what they were taught, and what they thought was the best thing for me at that time. Pelvic health has come a long way in the last 5 years, but it is still very conservative and was even more conservative 5 years ago (this is partially why I created my External Approaches to Pelvic Health course!).

The Pandemic

As much as it sucked - some really awesome things came from it. There were 6-weeks when I wasn’t working. I had already thrown myself into the world of pregnancy and postpartum education but everything I had learned up until this point was very conservative. Personally, I was doing the same exercises and stretches that I had been doing since 2017 (bridges, bent knee fallout, etc) because I “wasn’t ready to progress”. So, during this time off from work, I was listening to this webinar of Antony Lo’s and he says something along the lines of “You have to stress your tissues at 70% of their 1 rep max in order to create tissue change.” THIS was a freaking LIGHTBULB MOMENT for me. I was sitting there on the ground listening to this and thinking to myself “Well no shit — I know this - WHY did I not apply this to myself? WHY did I allow myself to do the same exercises for 3 years that did not tire me out? That didn’t create any progression? That didn’t stress my tissues?” Anywho. I started doing more. I thought f-it. Lets give it a go. So I started doing exercises with weights. I started doing more impact. More bodyweight stuff. It had been a while so I didn’t go crazy, but I gave myself permission to do more than I had in 4 years and progressed from there. Fast forward to June 2020.

The November Project

I like to think this was my starting place for running. My dear friend, Tyanne, was going to this free program at The Forks in Winnipeg. So I invited myself along. It was at the crack of dawn every Wednesday. It was a run/bodyweight strength program. The people were supportive and amazing, and just such a great community to be around. It is called the November Project. Tyanne and I worked hard to hold each other accountable to attend as often as possible. In October, with some encouragement from the November Project, Tyanne and I registered for the Turkey Trot 5 k. Like sure. Why not? Neither of us had run anything near a 5 k in the last 5 years but it sounded like a good idea. So with little to no training, I went into the run with a minimal injury and came out even more injured. Shout out to Jess for running it with us and encouraging me to keep going! It took me…. 50 minutes??

October 2020 Manitoba Marathon Turkey Trot

L: Jessica, Ashley, Tyanne, Noah. R: Tyanne, Ashley showing off our bibs to our first race!

Injury you say? I was functional, meaning I could walk relatively pain free, so I never got x-rays or saw a doctor, but I am fairly confident I gave myself a stress fracture to the proximal head of the fibula. Would I have done it any other way? NO I needed to do that run. I needed to show myself that I could run a 5 k without my pelvis falling apart (I had this Janga image in my mind). AND I am happy I did it no matter the outcome.

My First 10k! (Times 2)

October 2021 I ran my FIRST 10k! I think it took me 64 minutes and change. Why did I choose to go for a 10k? I had two people ask me to run a 10k with them. Jessica and my Uncle Gord. SOOOO after I got over my 5k injury in Oct 2020 I slowly started building up my distance. I registered for the WFPS 10K with Gord and my Aunt Jan. Covid stuff got it canceled, so Uncle Gord, Aunt Jan, and I made our own route and ran it anyway. 2 weeks later, I ran a 10k with Jess and felt pretty darn good about both runs.

Okay. Back it up a bit. How did I get from getting injured after running a 5k (and taking almost an hour to do it) to running two 10k’s in just over an hour each? I trained. Or at least followed my version of a 10k training plan while also being self-employed, taking care of a 4 almost 5-year-old and well, general life.

October 2021 WFPS 10k (even though it was cancelled J&G made is special using medals from the previous year!)

L: Aunt Janice and I. R: Uncle Gord and I.

Jessica and I after finishing our 10k on October 30th 2021

My 10k Training Plan

This is not my recommendation for a training plan, it is just the general plan I attempted to follow.

First - I had an awesome support group. Friends and family to hold me accountable. I had friends that I would sometimes run with or, just message them after runs to let them know how it went. I had my family that I would update when I reached certain goals and my husband and son who gave constant support and encouragement throughout training.
Second - I picked days/times of the day that worked well for me and my family. I typically chose mornings before my son woke up, and Sundays. My husband was always supportive of my training, but I wanted to choose times that that were least likely to interfere with any plans.
Third - I had a plan. Teresa Waser, a TA from my masterclass talked me through a plan where I knew how I would feel about any possible outcome. It sounds basic, but I think this was the most important part of my training. I now use this for everything.

Now onto the physical training portion. This is what worked for me, and does not mean it will work for you.

I started at a distance I was comfortable with. Remember. I was injured so I was really starting from zero. This meant I initially was following an injury rehab program which included short slow runs (5-10 steps of running in a 5 min walk), gentle jumping (for impact training), etc. Once the pain was gone, then I really started running. I run in barefoot shoes so I am a bit extra cautious about the distances I am running, progressing slowly at around 10% each week while listening closely to how my body feels.

I started with .5km. Left it at that. If I had no aches, pains, or DOMS then the next time I ran I upped it by .25km. If I had DOMS then I kept the same distance, and if I felt like I had more than just DOMS I decreased to what I was at the last time I ran. This meant that there were times where I did not up my running for at least a week if not two.

I tried to run 2-3x/week.

At about the 3k mark, I upped my runs by .5k.

At around the 7k mark, I upped my runs by 1k.

The majority of my runs were in my hometown of Ile Des Chenes. I did have a few at the cottage which was helpful for hill training and variability. I also tried to keep some cross-training in with light weights, yoga, and the November Project. I would have liked to have more variability, but that would mean driving somewhere for my runs and I just don’t have the time for that.

Was this the best training plan? Maybe. Maybe not.

Did it work? For me? Yes.

What would I change? Well - see what I did for my half-marathon training program!

My Half-Marathon Training Plan

After the 10k’s I took a break from running. Still lifted weights, at this point my clinic had purchased a squat rack with a barbell and weights so I took full advantage of that.

Here’s what I learned from my 10k plan- I need more variability. I needed to choose better times for running because I kept missing training sessions. I needed more cross-training.

You don’t need to run a half-marathon during your training for a half marathon. Why? I had learned in my 10k training that I really didn’t have time to run 10k multiple times a week just to train for a 10k… more on that later!

Over the winter I ran the odd outdoor 2-5k. I did weights. I snowshoed. Started Ice Skating. LOTS of cross-training and telling myself that it’s okay if I don’t run, as long as I am moving.

Spring 2022 just as the snow was melting I had been working on increasing my distance by 1k each week. BUT the problem was I was only running 1 MAYBE 2 times a week.

INJURY

Nothing major. Just a heel thing. And an achilles thing. BUT… I took about a month off from running and had to start back at my .1km running distance. I tried to keep my head up and stay confident. May 2022. I started getting my head in the game for the October WFPS half-marathon. But I was injured and terrified of making it worse. SO I remembered that consistency is key and when I was able to run 1k, I did just that 3-4x/week following my prior better, same, worse plan. I ran this distance for almost 2 weeks. When symptoms didn’t increase, I started upping my distance (I still had symptoms, they just were not any worse from running).

I also had some difficulty over the summer of my son not being in child care so it limited my availability to run freeley. For the most part- he would ride his bike while I ran and we did anywhere from 2-5k a few times a week.

By the end of August, with a really weird and inconsistent training plan, I had made it to 8km. At this point, David would be returning to school and I would be back on a schedule soon. So here was my more consistent fall schedule:

Sunday: Long-distance run (10k)
Monday: Recovery run (3-5k)
Wednesday: Sprints (2.5k)

If I was lucky I would throw in another short distance run for speed (3-5k). Complete honesty? I didn’t care about the distance or time I was running. I just wanted to get 3-4 runs every week for the 2 months leading up to the race. AND I made sure to make time for a 10-minute movement warm-up before every run no matter the distance.

By the time I got to October 16th I had run 4 - 10k’s once a week and was feeling confident in my ability to complete a half-marathon. I was sure I would be able to run 15k, but thought it was likely I would run/walk the remainder of the distance.

How was the half-marathon?

I ran the whole thing with a final time of 2:29:45. I only walked while trying to drink Gatorade :) When my legs started to feel tense and cramped, I would switch it up with skipping, running on the grass, or high knee running - for at least a few steps. This helped immensely. Also? The support along the way was a must-have for me. I am so grateful to have such a fantastic and supportive family, and I am thankful they were able to come out and support me along the run! My Uncle Glenn waved me off at the start line. Aunt Eloise cheered me along the race 3 times and again at the finish line. Glenn, Jan, and Gord cheered me on with .5km left to go. My husband Kevin and son David were cheering me on at around the 15k mark and at the finish line.

October 16, 2022 WFPS Half Marathon

L: Akos and I (ran into her at the start line). R: As I cross the finish line.

What would I do differently?

Nothing - because this is what I was able to do and it is what worked for me. When I prepped for the 10k, I was running a long distance every time I went out. I didn’t and don’t have 3-4 hours every week to spend running. So I modified and allowed myself to run shorter but more consistent runs.

The Take-Away?

No matter your story, no matter your goal, I believe that you can achieve it. You just need to:

Have a goal
Have a plan
Be consistent in your training
Include cross-training! This could be different activities (skating, snowshoeing, sports, weightlifting), or different types of running (hills, sprints, speed, distance, etc).

Find what works for you, just be consistent.

If you have read till the end, thank you! I hope you enjoyed my story and I hope that it will be helpful for your running or exercise journey. Good luck with your plan, and if you need some extra guidance please feel free to reach out! (click on the “contact us” button at the top!)

Happy Moving!

-Ash

*** I understand that saying I thought I may never run again because of pelvic pain may sound dramatic, and I am not trying to be dramatic. I am just trying to share my story because it is a real concern for some people especially because some of the messaging about returning to running postnatal can be very negative. So in all that negativity, try to find the positive! :)