Fit Pregnancy

Continued...
Monica's main worries prior to getting pregnant:
I will lose my body

I will lose fitness

I won't be able to do anything

I will get slow and never recover
I can relate to those concerns -- I share many of them every October and November!

The good news is you can maintain your body, your health and, most surprisingly, your fitness. Here's how she did it.

No Zeros -- Monica did some form of physical activity every single day, for her entire pregnancy - even the day her water broke. This performance was a lot better than Dad's record!

While our medical advice was not to commence a fitness program when you get pregnant, all our doctors said that it was OK to maintain a fitness program through pregnancy. Monica's doc also noted that there isn't much practical knowledge about pregnancy and the endurance athlete.

The warnings boiled down to:
Don't let your body overheat;

Stay well hydrated;
Don't get out of breath (steady effort, or lower); and Continued...

Listen to your body.

Monica read the blogs of athletic moms like Bree Wee and Paula Radcliffe -- seeking to learn from their experience. She also consulted with coaches of elite female triathletes to learn from their experience. Something that came out of that research is the risk of stress fractures that result when moms come back too quickly. We received a lot of warnings about late term and postpartum running.


While most people talk about trimesters, looking from the outside, I noticed shifts closer to ten week blocks within M's 40-week pregnancy.


First ten weeks -- hormonal changes, mainly impacted mood and appetite. Monica was lucky in that her cravings were fresh fruit (rather than sugar/starch) related.


Second ten weeks -- feeling much better, moderated volume and intensity with attitude of baby-comes-first.


Third ten weeks -- pregnancy starts to show, pubic bone discomfort at 26 weeks, stopped running at 30 weeks, shifted to the elliptical trainer 2x per week.


Final ten weeks -- months of high frequency swimming left her very economical in the water, some high volume swim weeks, hiking started around 34 weeks, elliptical reduced to 1x per week.


Here's a great stat... total swim distance across the pregnancy... 908,600 meters. Average weekly volume was 14 hours and 45 minutes (includes yoga & cross training but not mellow walks with me). That average volume was down from 19-23 hours per week before conception.


The most surprising thing for me was that across her third trimester, Monica had returned to a level of aerobic swim economy that was on-par with where she was preconception.


To sum up Monica's focus:

Pre-pregnancy -- health, not race fitness

During pregnancy -- baby comes first, no zeros

The biggest mental challenges Monica faced were:
not stopping;

coping with weight gain;

coping with her body changing; and

coping with peer group response.
There will be days where you feel like everyone wants you to get huge, slow down and be uncomfortable. Those feelings are normal and it helps to know that all pregnant ladies are dealing with them.


If she had to give you one piece of advice with your pregnancy then she would encourage you to remain active, moderately, every day. Also remember that if you plan on breast feeding you'll burn off your baby weight safely and gradually.