People often compare childbirth to running a marathon, but I don’t think that’s entirely accurate. At least for me — birth is certainly in its own category of an endurance event, but honestly, I think running a marathon is easier. And I have experience with both: I’ve been a professional track and field athlete for over 17 years, been to two Olympic Games and nine World Championships in track and cross-country, and run six marathons. And I have a toddler.
All of that is to say, running is a big part of my life. Once I was pregnant, one of my biggest questions was: To what capacity can I keep running in my life?
But when I started seeking out answers, I was surprised to find that there wasn’t much data, medical research, or evidence to even build an answer from. What were professional-athlete moms supposed to do? (Meanwhile, if I looked up something like Tommy John surgery for professional baseball players, there were almost 80 pages of papers on PubMed alone.) I felt frustrated, to say the least.
My OB-GYN assured me that I could keep doing the physical activities I did before I was pregnant, but I sensed that the day-to-day details of the life of a professional distance runner were lost in translation. I figured track workouts needed to be toned down, but by how much? Mileage would get scaled back, but to what level? This was also beyond the scope of expertise of my professional coach.
Throughout parts of this journey, I felt like I was bushwhacking my own running path through the motherhood jungle with occasional directions yelled out by supportive but also similarly lost moms near the other side. I couldn’t help but wonder why there wasn’t more of a road map for this — from professional sports federations or leagues, or the medical community.
I know I’m not alone here. In fact, I get asked about this all the time now by pregnant runners I meet at races. You don’t have to be a professional runner to want to keep up with an activity that makes you feel good during your pregnancy, and it can be frustrating to not get concrete answers.
So here’s what I did — both how I adjusted my running while pregnant and how I got back into it after my daughter was born.
My pregnancy running plan
Because it was so hard to find data-backed guidance about how to adjust my running while pregnant, I ended up leaning a lot on my peers who had already gone through it. Below are the ways I approached running, but everyone’s experience is different, so be sure to listen to your body and get input from your doctor as needed.
I paid close attention to my body: How I approached running changed based on how I felt day-to-day, or mile-to-mile really. When I spoke with the other athlete moms, I realized you can do much more running while pregnant than I thought, but everyone has so many variables affecting how hard, how long, and how soon they can return to running. I was feeling things out every day. Some days I would run like nothing was different and feel fine, and other days (usually in the first and third trimesters) I’d get into a workout and realize I needed to cut it short or at least slow down. Sometimes I’d do nothing, but I usually felt less nauseous and tired overall if I did some amount of exercise. Luckily, I didn’t have any injuries while pregnant. A few friends told me they experienced round ligament or pubic symphysis pain, which can curtail running through pregnancy.
I upped my gel intake: An idea I got from a few other athlete moms was to bring an energy gel with me, even on shorter runs. This helped with blood-sugar-related symptoms such as feeling dizzy and weak halfway through a run. (I continued this practice when I was postpartum during the breastfeeding period.)
I used a heart rate monitor: I liked using a heart rate monitor for peace of mind while I was training (although I’ve heard the study citing 140 bpm as being the limit for pregnant women is considered outdated, so I’m not sure what I was looking for). It was just comforting to see what certain efforts meant now that I was pregnant, as my heart rate was a little higher even though paces were much slower. Depending on your running intensity, you may not need this. But for me, it helped me tune in to my body and pay closer attention than I may have in the past.
I took it easier overall: I wound up cutting my running and workout volume in half and lowering the intensity to maybe 60% what I would have been doing. This was somewhat arbitrary, and mostly based on an effort that fell between “fun” and “digging.”
I mixed in other types of workouts beyond just running, too. My favorite cross-training was the ElliptiGO because it felt like running but with less impact. I also liked to do uphill repeats on the treadmill to take some pounding off my joints in the second trimester when I felt good and wasn’t too off-balance. Because I’m a distance runner, I started running on the track more often. That way, I could keep snacks and drinks nearby easily, control my efforts best, or stop and go home whenever I wanted.
Around week 25, I stopped my twice-weekly workouts and just did easy running or cross-training and strides or short hill repeats for form work. My daughter had a fetal arrhythmia detected, and I was worried about stressing her system. It ended up resolving after she was born, and neither my OB-GYN or the maternal fetal medicine doctor ever actually advised me to stop running hard or anything, but it seemed not worth the worry, of which I already had a lot. (I’m a pretty anxious person as a baseline setting.) Given the lack of research in this area, I found that I just had to go with what felt right to me in the moment, and that could change day by day.
I worked with a physical therapist: One area that does have some emerging research is the biomechanical effects of pregnancy and how it can affect your pelvic floor and alter your hip and core posture postpartum, so I worked with a really knowledgeable physical therapist, Jess Dorrington out of Portland, Ore., to do strength training during and after pregnancy.
Jess knew more about pregnant and postpartum body changes and potential issues for athletes than anyone I knew, so she basically guided me through and back from the pregnancy. She was a serious runner and also a mom, so I valued her personal experience too. She had worked with a few other professional track athletes both before and during their motherhood, and I felt lucky to meet her, by chance through another track friend, at this point in my career. We mostly used bands, medicine balls, and body weight or kettlebells to focus on things like single-leg lunges, glute-strengthening exercises, and pelvic floor exercises.
How I got back into running after giving birth
About three weeks after my daughter, Jo, was born, via C-section after a long labor, I met with Jess again and we started light rehab to re-engage my transverse abs. I did those important but mundane foundational exercises like breathing or just finding the area and engaging it under my hand. We eventually added more difficult versions of this using leg raises and other movements.
I added light biking the next week, and a few weeks later Jess guided me through a plyometric program to ready me for a return-to-run program. Those walk-runs started around week six, and I did increasing amounts of running a minute, walking five minutes every other day until I was running for a continuous 20 minutes, which took about two and a half weeks (about eight weeks total postpartum).
That 20-minute run felt truly awful. It was the middle of August, and to save time, most days I was running from my house, which sits at the top of a hilly road. I definitely contemplated retiring on the mile-and-a-half climb home on that run. (Remember — I’m a professional athlete! Your experience may be different, so take your time easing back into things and pay attention to your body every step of the way.)
It was a long road back to full training, and I was fairly conservative with the progression. I often felt “behind” and restless. With the new rules of my body and adapting to Jo’s routine, having flexibility in my running schedule was essential. Some workouts got pushed to the evening if her nap schedule was off, some morning runs happened at noon, some evening runs disappeared.
It took about four months of doing my own workouts before I went back to my coach with goals for a true race effort. I did eventually start to race up to my pre-baby standards about nine months postpartum. Not long after that, I developed a high-grade stress fracture in my femur, due to a variety of factors but most likely because breastfeeding while training was more draining than I accounted for. I had clearly made a mistake and again was frustrated that I didn’t have more support and information and, honestly, extra hands so I could go eat a meal on time.
One thing that was a constant for me through the wild physical and mental ride that is matrescence was running. It’s been the throughline of my entire life, and it’s connected one self to another time and again. I know I’m not the only one who feels this way about wanting some connection to your old self after becoming a mom, and there is research indicating that both mothers and babies have better health when a woman stays fit while pregnant, but exactly what the parameters are around that are not quite clear yet.
Maybe for you it’s not running. It could be yoga, hiking, or playing basketball. But the lessons here are universal: it’s about finding your way back to something that makes you feel like you. And this takes time.
My daughter is two and a half now. We’re done breastfeeding, the scars have healed, and my muscles feel strong now. My body is my own again, so I can train however I like. But it’s still hard to make time for things. I have to hire a sitter to do track workouts or even clean my house, because my daughter doesn’t nap anymore and she’s not yet in school. Running is not the first priority on my list anymore, and it still gets pushed around the day a lot. But I do fit it in — it’s what’s best for me and everyone else in the house.
I’ve learned that having kids requires sacrifices in many ways: your energy, your rest, maybe parts of your career. I’ve also learned that holding onto things that make you feel like yourself are essential to being the best mom you can be.
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Thank you so much for this article! I’m curious how you know the stress fracture and breastfeeding are related? Is it due to the demands breastfeeding places on the body? I found it almost impossible to get my miles up (and by that I mean more than a couple without walking) until after I stopped. Overall found this perspective so helpful – we need more of it!
Thank you for this! I found out I was pregnant while training for my first marathon (unplanned), and then had to stop with SPD pain around 20 weeks. Losing running was so hard! I just had my 2nd baby almost 6 months ago via c-section, and hearing it took you months to get back to intentional running makes me feel so much better as I’m still navigating the breastfeeding/work/running balance without the consistency I had pre-kids. More stories like this!!
Molly thank you so much for sharing your experience 💕 It’s so comforting to not feel alone, navigating the new (and constantly changing) limits of my body, and to be reminded that it will all eventually heal. Running is such a big part of my life too (although I’m nowhere near Olympic level haha 😄), and I think so few people understand what it’s like to be a pregnant runner!
Whenever I hear my judgmental aunt in my head while working out pregnant (“should you be lifting that?”), I remember that Serena Williams won an Australian Open two months pregnant. If Queen Serena can do that, I can maintain my normal gym routine.
The lack of data and clear guidance for activity while pregnant is frustrating. One thing I’m curious about is your return to exercise. My OB made clear that six weeks postpartum (also after a c-section) was a clear line in the sand for return to exercise. Is that not evidence-based? Or was your early return a special allowance given your role as a professional? I’m not a professional athlete, but I’m devoted to strength training and cycling, and I’m only allowed to walk for now.
Thank you for this! We need more stories out there because just like pregnancy everyones movement journey is different. I would love more articles sharing practical tips and tricks for running while pregnant. It’s been a lot of learning along the way for me. Finding a more supportive bra, storing enough gels and water, locating pee spots, dealing with GI distress… there’s a lot of new things to consider! I love the suggestion for a track workout to keep snacks and things nearby.
Thank you so much for this! I’m 25 weeks pregnant and have been running my whole life as a stress relief and way to keep healthy. I’ve kept up with it through my pregnancy and had planned to ask Emily or Dewey about this exact topic! It’s so unfortunate to hear there are limited data in this space but comforting to know that like so many things, I should trust my body. Hoping to get to a 5k in a few weeks then move back to more run walks/ just walking!
I train dressage horses for a living and I rode at some capacity until week 32. My midwife said I’d know when to stop and she was absolutely right. BTW I went a week over and had a 23” 9-1/2 baby. Riding did not damage him in any way – but no, he has zero interest in riding.