I've had two babies and getting back to running after pregnancy is probably one of the hardest things post-pregnancy. I just had a baby 9 months ago. So, this is all still very fresh on my brain. I think with all things running you have to be patient and trust the process.
I started running again about 5 week after giving birth. I didn't have a c-section, so didn't have the same recovery period as someone that has a c-section. Below is my progression week-by-week for 8 weeks, I think the best part of coming back to running after being injured or pregnant is that the gains do come quickly! You can see by week four I was clocking in sub 10min/mile and by week eight I was doing sub 9 min/miles.
This wasn't a plan that I had pre-written but feel free to use it if you are looking for an 8 week plan. I went mostly by feel and took days off whenever I felt a little sore. I do remember the first few weeks my knees were hurting pretty bad due to the relaxin hormone still circulating through my veins. Check out the progression below:
Week 1
- Run #1 = 11:07/mile
- Run #2 = 10:43/mile
Week 2
- Run #3 - 10:20/mile
- Run #4 - 10:07/mile
- Run #5 - 10:09/mile
Week 3
- Run #6 - 10:32/mile
- Run #7 - 10:00/mile
- Run #8 - 9:31/mile
- Run #9 - 9:27/mile
Week 4
- Run #10 - 9:00/mile
Week 5
- Run #11 - 9:19/mile
- Run #12 - 9:02/mile
- Run #13 - 9:36/mile
- Run #14 - 9:31/mile
Week 6
- Run #15 - 8:55/mile
- Run #16 - 8:59/mile
- Run #17 - 8:58/mile
- Run #18 - 9:34/mile
- Run #19 - 9:07/mile
Week 7
- Run #20 - 9:27/mile
- Run #21 - 9:09/mile
- Run #22 - 9:23/mile
- Run #23 - 9:00/mile
- Run #24 - 8:33/mile
Week 8
- Run #25 - 8:45/mile
- Run #26 - 8:55/mile