At long last, we have family in town and I’m sitting down at a coffee shop with the time to write. I wanted to share some basics of my training during pregnancy – not because there’s a right or wrong way to do it – but just to provide an individual example of what adjustments worked (and didn’t) for me. And to highlight the importance of being intuitive and focused on the long game (not my speciality but getting better :).
As a disclaimer, I probably aired on the side of caution simply because of the miscarriages we navigated prior to this pregnancy. My medical providers emphasized that my body should be able to tolerate my normal level of activity (or up to 85 percent of my max heart rate), so during the first two pregnancies I essentially kept up my regular training regimen and continued doing workouts with the team. But after the second miscarriage, I started to associate that level of training with loss – whether it was related or not – and therefore felt the need to scale back once we got pregnant again. I consulted with some fellow moms in elite running and decided to focus on staying healthy and maintaining my aerobic base. I felt confident that would give me a foundation from which to maximize my postpartum return, while honoring the baby and my emotional needs.
The other variable that shaped some of my decisions (i.e. more cross training) was that I was prescribed progesterone injections in my one of my glutes twice a week. They caused quite a bit of soreness and swelling, and I found I recovered best if I cross trained the day after those injections. I also needed to adapt some of my strength training so as not to further aggravate that area.
All that being said, below is an outline of how I generally structured my weeks during each trimester:
Trimester 1 (~13 weeks)
4 x 60 min runs – pace by feel…. Most days I naturally ran about 30 seconds slower/mile than normal. Sometimes didn’t even use my GPS watch so I could just run intuitively.
1 x 75-85 min run
1-2 x elliptigo sessions (60-80 mins)
2 x strength sessions (lower weight, higher reps)
1 day off
Did not feel comfortable doing any intensity during this tri, just with higher risk of miscarriage. But did strides in spikes once a week and/or 200s once a week to keep up some speed work.
Trimester 2 (13 - 27 weeks)
3-4 x 50-60 min runs – pace by feel. Really started to slow down by week 25-27ish.
1 x 75ish min run… eliminated around week 25ish when I started feeling significant body changes.
2 x elliptigo sessions (60-70 mins). Intervals 2 days/week most weeks. Tried to keep HR no higher than 170.
2 x strength sessions (for the most part. We moved in October and I def missed some days during the height of that.)
Yoga ~1x/week (specifically, this prenatal class and this side body class)
1 day off
~20 weeks started to wear “Fit Splint”, a pregnancy belly band to support pelvis
Trimester 3 (27-37 weeks… gave birth at 38.2!)
3-4 x 40-50 min runs…. 30 mins by the end.
2-3 x elliptigo sessions (60-65 mins). Intervals 2 days/week, adjusted toward the end based on fatigue.
2 x strength sessions (LIGHT, adjusted based on fatigue)
Yoga ~1x/week
Pilates 1x/week starting around week 30. SO HELPFUL for posture and keeping body open.
~35 weeks, started to feel discomfort in pelvic floor / sudden urge to pee while running and started out runs with walk/run.
Stopped running at 36.5 weeks…then just uphill walking, cross training, and rest!
Other notes:
Pelvic floor PT! I worked with practitioners at Run Raleigh PT and Beyond Pilates in Boone. I can’t recommend this highly enough. Runners carry more tension in that area compared to the average woman, so some simple work on relaxing and contracting the pelvic floor can go a long way for both birth and postpartum return.
Do not recommend downhill running in the third trimester. For me at least, it put unnecessary stress on my pelvic floor. Toward the end I would just walk the downhills.
Glute medius activation! In the second tri, I had some issues in my hamstring as my pelvis started to rotate forward with the weight of the baby. My PT helped resolve that by prescribing some strength training and pre-run exercises to strengthen the glute medius and realign my pelvis before running.
Normatec! Especially in the third trimester, I thought this helped avoid swelling in my feet and lower legs.
Cupping. You can buy a set of cups online for ~$25-30. They were amazing for loosening up my back — esp. QL by the end.