20 Weeks Pregnant! How My Training Has Changed
I’ve had quite a few newly pregnant mamas ask me how I changed my training when I found out I was pregnant and what was safe to do or what guidance I received from my doctor. I wanted to start by saying, while I am currently getting a pre/post natal certification at the moment, I am not qualified to provide individual or generic advice on this topic. This blog post will address the changes to my fitness and running routine. Fitness and pregnancy are so individualized. Every pregnancy is different from woman to woman and even for the same woman, each pregnancy can be so different. While you imagine you may be able to maintain a certain amount of mileage or fitness, your body and baby will direct things and decide for you.
17 weeks pregnant
Research shows that exercise is good for both the mother and baby. It lowers gestational diabetes and cesarean births, reduces the risk of preeclampsia, and increases the speed of postpartum recovery just to name a few benefits. Labor and delivery is an endurance event that requires a lot of strength, so cardio and strength are extremely valuable. I knew my biggest priority was to maintain as much activity as possible during pregnancy while letting competition and data go.
When I first got pregnant, I had just hit my first 50 mile week in almost 2 months and things started to click with pacing and workouts. I was feeling excited about training for the mile distance, but I noticed my HR was a bit higher than usual. My Garmin kept telling me I needed longer recovery after an easy run. About 3 weeks into pregnancy when I still had no idea what was happening inside my body, I was doing a workout of 4 x 800 meters at mile effort and while I hit pace each time, I stopped about 200 meters into the last rep and just felt defeated. It was a strange sensation, but the workout felt much harder than it should’ve. I felt like it was tough to get any oxygen. With my previous experience having B12 and iron deficiencies, I just thought that I had not paid much attention to my supplementing and was starting to experience shortness of breath because my levels were low (one of the side effects of B12 or iron deficient anemia is shortness of breath or inability to process oxygen efficiently). I took a pregnancy test when I was 4 weeks and that gave me my answer!
Running
I wasn’t worried about continuing to work out, but knew there was no point to continue speed or training for the mile distance because I would inevitably slow down. With no idea what was going to happen to my body, pushing it in workouts didn’t sound fun and I wanted to respect the signs I was already receiving from my body to run comfortably. I had also just started adding onto my runs by running with my husband, which was about 3 minutes slower per mile than my normal easy run pace and I really enjoyed these runs. It felt like a good time to give my running a back seat and support him on his journey. First trimester fatigue hit me hard and any run left me exhausted and in need of a nap. Here’s a break down of my weekly mileage from week 1 through week 19, including my longest run of each week and a few notes:
50.44 total miles, 8 mile long run
44.98, 8 miles
43.15, 7.5 miles
43.94, 8 miles (we found out we were pregnant at the end of this week)
38.02, 9 miles
32.9, 8 miles
26.53, 7 miles
25.16, 5 miles
26.14, 6 miles
18.75, 5 miles
25.62, 6 miles
19.6, 4.35 miles (this was when I switched to running my long runs with my husband)
19.3, 4.81 miles
17.08, 5.12 miles (we got our ElliptiGo this week!)
20.36, 6.24 miles
9.64, 3.39 miles (I had an amniocentesis done this week which required rest)
16.13, 6.69 miles
12.46, 4.39 miles
6.63, 3.4 miles (this was the week of wildfires in CA, so we were stuck indoors)
I’ve loved running with my husband during this time!
You can see my running volume has greatly decreased. I am sad and miss running so much, but a few things have added to the discomfort of running and forced me to give it up more and more:
Heat - I got pregnant right before the dead heat and humidity of summer. The fact that my body was changing, adding more blood volume and fat to host the baby, made me heat up much more quickly even when we waited until the cooler times of the day. Running during the summer is hard. Running during the summer while pregnant was awful (for me) and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t overheating or dehydrated during these workouts since that is bad for me and baby, so I kept a lot of runs short.
Urge to pee - some women experience extreme discomfort and urges to pee - this was me! By about week 10, I had to pee as soon as I started running. In the middle of a pandemic where you are trying to avoid public restrooms, running longer wasn’t very appealing. I did get the ReCore Fitness Maternity FitSplint which helps stabilize and relieve pressure on the bladder when running or working out. It does a great job and definitely eases some of the discomfort, but running long still isn’t as comfortable as I would like it to be.
Pelvic pressure and imbalance - at 20 weeks I haven’t notice my normal balance change. Getting in and out of the shower or bed is fine and I’m still able to do some single leg work. I feel most out of balance when running and this is primarily because most of the changes are happening in my hips to make room for baby. I’ve always favored my right side and sleeping more and more on my left side because of my growing baby has made that imbalance more evident and brought on some pain in my left hip. While I would love to run through pregnancy, its not worth it to risk injury now and hinder the remainder of my active pregnancy or hurt my postpartum comeback. The short runs are okay as long as I do a good stretch routine and warm up.
Strength Work
I didn’t stop my strength routine when I found out I was pregnant, but I did stop core work. I wasn’t sure what was safe, although I knew diastasis recti could become a problem if I wasn’t careful. The strength I was doing was not HIIT or anything that required jumping. I focus on the push, pull, hinge, squat, carry method so I could keep up with that for a while before I noticed significant changes in my body. I wanted to make sure I had options for my strength routine and with the inability to work with a trainer in person due to the pandemic, I got the Expecting and Empowered Pregnancy Strength Guide and started using that for my strength work on week 9. It offers an upper, lower, and full body workout for each week. I recommend the digital copy because it links directly to YouTube videos for form and kegel exercises. When I got started - no joke - I was beat up after doing one of the workouts. This was because of a few things:
While I kept up with strength early on, I lowered my weights and reps because I was so tired that first trimester.
I didn’t get nauseous until week 9, when I started the E&E guide. I felt lucky to only have about 3 weeks of nausea and no actual sickness, but it really laid me out and I wanted to run as much as I could while I could, so I’d been prioritizing running over lifting. Once I got to the guide and did 3 sets of one routine, I was spent for about 3 days! So the first few weeks of using the guide, I only did 2 of the 3 workouts or I only did 2 sets.
My plan for now is to continue running 3 days/week, EllitiptiGo 2-3 days, and do 3 days of strength. I know I will cut out running eventually because the ElliptiGo provides such huge relief for the pressure on my bladder and pelvis. I plan to go longer and more frequently on that once I’m ready to give up running.
I want to encourage other active mamas to stay active during pregnancy, but can’t stress enough how important it is to listen to your body. I knew so early on that something was up because I’ve been so in tune with my body through running. If you are trying to conceive, pay attention to your data and how you feel so you can hopefully know sooner rather than later and make the decisions that are best for you and your baby. Also, just know that the changes are temporary (I hope, as this is my first go at pregnancy!), and that running and activity levels will return. I’ve been so sad about physical changes and seeing my fitness data decline, but keep reminding myself that running and fitness will be there when I’m ready and I can make my comeback!
J
