Why am I incontinent at the end of my run?

[NewBabyJoy]

2 babies birthed vaginally, the first destroyed my pelvic floor, but i saw a physio post-natally and did a LOT of work on it, and saw great improvements. If I'm honest, I haven't done much work on it since the birth of my second child, but haven't had as many issues until recently when I started to run more. I've now had several episodes of urinary incontinence, but always as I stop running. No leakage issues at all whilst running.

I plan to start taking a more serious approach to my pelvic floor exercises, but does anyone else have this?

Same here. Definitely worth continuing to work on your PF. In the meantime, the discrete black Tena pants are an absolute revelation and saved me from giving up my running.

This happens to me too, mainly if I push myself. As soon as I stop, I piss myself

Stop drinking caffeine

Thanks for responding. It's reassuring to know I'm not alone. Everything I read talks about stress incontinence while running, but that isn't the case at all for me. I've got some washable pads, will try one of those, and will make sure I pee before I go out.

Don't drink caffeine, so can't do that. And will re-download the pelvic floor exercises app and dig out the exercises the physio gave me in 2017.

It's so annoying

Weeing is the body's way of releasing heat quickly, so you bladder gets a lot of liquid to dump at once. Plus, you become more aware of it when you stop and the physical exertion is not at the top of the list.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but I do a short warm up, then go for a wee, and take a sippy bottle instead of drinking beforehand on longer runs. Anything over an hour has a planned loo stop anyway.

You might be holding your core tighter while you run (correctly).

Warm up? Drinking water? Over an hour Are??? Are you a professional TheABC? I can just about spare 30mins to make a mad dash around the block before a child needs me 🤣. I bet you do a proper cool down too, don't you.

It's all good though, because yes Scrap, I'm obviously engaging my core throughout the glorious half an hour!

I wonder if I can run to the loo, and keep jogging on the spot in there while I drop my leggings.

If I'm hydrated, I don't have this problem. I think pp has a point. I always take a bottle of water with me in the summer, wee before the run, and as soon as I get back.