Thoughts on exercising during pregnancy

I have deliberately entitled this post ‘exercising during pregnancy’ rather than ‘training during pregnancy’ as, for me, the two are very different. Training, as far as I see it, has an end goal; you are training towards something specific: a target race, to improve your swim technique, to raise your FTP on the bike. This means there is a focus and a structure to what you do as you are chipping away towards achieving a set target. Exercise is far more casual. Anyone can engage in exercise without any specific goals in mind. Sure, they may be using it to lose weight, keep in shape, get fit, feel good, relieve stress etc, but there is a fluidity around the use of the word. This suits where I am at the moment. For the first time in years, I am not training for anything… well, aside from impending motherhood, but there ain’t no Wattbike session, intervals set or pilates class in the world that can prepare me for that! Rather I am exercising, on an ad hoc basis, to feel good in body and mind, hopefully to keep me and my baby bean healthy, and to just enjoy it.

And enjoy it I am! What a treat to be able to just go out the door and run where I want without looking at the pace on my Garmin. I am running purely on feel, whilst trying to keep my heart rate down so as not to distress baby in any way. Matt and I have been keeping up our Saturday morning parkrun routine, but for me, there hasn’t been the added stress of feeling like I have to hammer it and finish as first lady. I get there feeling relaxed, maybe warm up, maybe not, saunter to the start line, position myself a few folk back from the front line, and enjoy the run and admire the views. Then the café and catch up with friends part still features afterwards, of course!

Some days running feels harder than others. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I work and I am on my feet for 7 ½ hours a day. I feel pretty knackered by the end of these days and if I run on a Thursday, the effort feels much harder. I still record my runs to log the mileage in my training diary, but that is purely because I like to keep totals of how many miles I run in a year to add to my collective totals and see how my virtual progress around the world is going! I don’t look at pace whilst running, only after, and it does fluctuate. Parkruns tend to be the fastest – obviously, despite feeling chilled, competitive Ellie is still lurking in there somewhere and having others around me to work off brings out that bit of extra speed – and some runs when I am on tired, work-weary legs, are over 9m/m. I really don’t care. I am out the door, doing them and enjoying them. That’s what counts.

I also try to do a spin class once a week and a swim. Swimming is interesting as this is the only sport in which my times haven’t slowed. To be honest, they were so slow to start with, if I slowed any more I would likely lose all forward momentum and sink anyway! I wonder if the added buoyancy aid that is rapidly expanding around my middle isn’t giving me some form of assistance in this regard?! The maximum I swim in one go now is 60 lengths, but often fewer, maybe 50 or just 40, depending on how I’m feeling. Swimming usually finishes with a visit to the Cornish Bakery in Sidmouth for a coffee and cherry and almond croissant… it’s kinda become a new ritual!

As far as peoples’ attitudes towards me continuing to exercise during pregnancy go, I have noticed they are split into two distinct camps. The first, occupied by those who aren’t avid exercisers, tend to think you are bonkers, irresponsible and selfish for continuing to run whilst pregnant. “What if you fall over?” (I could do that walking, or moving around the house anyway) “That poor baby, being shaken about inside” (The baby is insulated by a massive sack of amniotic fluid and not likely to feel much). “If you are struggling with tiredness anyway, why put yourself through this as well?” (Exercise actually energises you and I feel so much better on the days I do a 30 minute run or swim than on the days where I do nothing). Besides, current medical advice is that pregnant women SHOULD exercise throughout their pregnancy (30 mins 5 – 6 times a week is in fact recommended, and I am not exceeding that), but obviously making the relevant modifications as you progress towards full term. If you exercised regularly before conceiving, it is safe for you to do more than 30 minutes at a time as your body is used to it. Studies show that women who exercise throughout have healthier pregnancies with less complications than those who do not.

Then we come to camp two: people who are, by and large, exercise fanatics themselves, including those who personally know of other athletes who have successfully continued to not only exercise but also to compete to a decent level throughout pregnancy. This camp is wont to imply you are being overly cautious by only running 24 minutes at parkrun, as they know someone who was still doing 20 minute 5ks at 25 weeks pregnant. They are the people who tell you about so-and-so who competed in fell races at 38 weeks preggers, or who continued to mountain bike throughout, so Ellie, aren’t you being a little bit over-cautious by refusing to even get on your bike? To these people I invariably say, maybe I am, but did these people take over 3 years to conceive? If we had hit the target at the first time of asking, so to speak, I might be a bit more blasé about cycling on the roads or pushing my body a bit harder on a run. But we have been through hell and high water to get to this point and so there is no way on earth I would do anything to jeopardise it… wrong place wrong time at a blind junction on the bike and that’s all it takes. No, it might not happen, but if there are safer alternatives, such as sticking to the spin bike, then what’s the point?

I have read blogs by athletes who have done amazing things whilst pregnant (scaled the Eiger, won international medals in eventing) and who then went on to bounce back in no time afterwards and fit their breast-feeding schedule around their training. Good for them. I do not judge these people, but nor do I hold them up as some kind of totemic superhero either. Every woman should be free to do what they feel is right for them, without pressure or judgement from others. The current balance I have found of exercising on average 5 days a week for a weekly total of 3 hours, at a far less intensive level than pre-pregnancy, works for me right now. If I start to struggle, I am not going to beat myself up if I have to scale that back. There has never been a better time to throw the stats, numbers and averages out of the window and just do everything on innate feel. Besides, I am really enjoying having some free time to do things other than training, resting and recovering! I do miss Friday morning long rides with the gang, but I am enjoying other things in their place. Biking Fridays have become baking Fridays and I still of course have the option of driving out to the coffee stop so I don’t have to miss out on what is, let's face it, the best part of biking anyway! Mostly, I am just trying to enjoy my pregnancy as it is something I have been desperately seeking for a very long time. Furthermore, when will I next get the freedom to be a bit lazy and sit on the sofa watching crappy Louis Theroux documentaries on I-Player with a cuppa and cake in the future? Maybe not for several years from February onwards, so I am enjoying it while it lasts!!

@ 17 weeks.