Running Through Pregnancy

Running Through Pregnancy

When I found out I was pregnant, I made a promise to myself that would remain as active as possible for the entirety of my pregnancy. As someone who has prioritized health and fitness her whole life, this was a no-brainer. Why would I stop doing the one activity that is guaranteed to lift my spirits and clear my head? During nine months when your body and brain are constantly changing, you start to not even recognize yourself. To maintain my sense of self, it is important for me to maintain the one activity that gives me the most inner-peace and strength. Exercise in some form is so ingrained in my daily routine that a day without movement would make me feel like I was living a different life, on top of feeling like I am in a different body.

I vowed that as long as I was making safe decisions and not harming my baby, I was going to continue to do it all — strength training, toning and conditioning, walking and running up until the very end. To hold myself accountable, I set a specific goal for myself with running. I committed to running 4–5 miles every week up until my third trimester. If I had to sacrifice pace, I would. If I had to break up my miles over the course of several days, I would give myself that grace. If I needed to take a pee break, there was no stopping nature.

My goal was to do ~2 miles without stopping, twice a week. Some runs felt easy breezy. I glided through 2.5 miles without feeling winded. On those days, I resisted the urge to run faster, refraining from hitting the plus button the treadmill for fear of bringing on Braxton Hicks. Other days, the discomfort was unbearable. Not just where my baby was, pressing up against my organs, but the cramping in my calves was crippling and the strain in my groin left me limping. As the weeks and months passed, my pace slowed. At 27 weeks, I had slowed down my mile close to 2 minutes. As I took the last 10th of a mile in stride, I beamed with accomplishment, knowing I had completed my goal. I ran 4 miles every single week of my 1st and 2nd trimester. For marathon runners who are pregnant, this accomplishment might not sound impressive. But for the average person, or even a very fit person, I venture to say this is no easy feat.

As the sunset on my second trimester and rose on my third, I felt a hunger to keep going. I didn’t want to set a hard goal in terms of miles or runs per week. I am too dedicated and love a challenge too much to recognize that would not be healthy for me. If I committed to running 3 miles a week up until 34 weeks, I know I would do it, no matter the pain that came with it. So instead, I decided to create a “nice to have” goal for running. I would like to run 2 miles a week until week 30. If I completed that with no issues and was feeling good, I would extend that to 32 weeks. And so on and so forth until the stress become too bearable to move. Unlike my second trimester objective where come hell or high water I was going to make those 4 miles happen, I was going to listen to my body more during the 3rd trimester. I would not beat myself up if I could not achieve the weekly 2 miles. However, if I did accomplish it, I could indulge in a moment of pride, relishing in the power of womanhood.

Every woman has to lean into what works for them during pregnancy. My rigid, goal-setting approach might seem aggressive. It’s surely not the mindset for everyone. But for me, a large part of enduring pregnancy was the adage of know-thy-self. I enjoy a challenge. I thrive on pushing myself to achieve. If I was going to maintain a positive mindset, keeping my energy and spirits up when the anxiety of new parenthood and pain of physical transformation became too heavy, I needed to continue to operate as I had my whole life. One-step at a time, checking off a box, and feeling the gratification of completion. This is how I would get to the finish line. This is how I would make it through 40 weeks.