Running Goals During Pregnancy

When you become pregnant, your running goals change overnight.

By Dagny Scott-Barrios, Runner's World

If weight control or faster times were a priority before, they shouldn't be anymore. Whereas you might have been pushing yourself to the limits of fitness before, now you simply want to pamper yourself for optimal health, well-being, and relaxation.

"The women who have a hard time are those who retain the idea that they must be as fit as possible," says Dr. Douglas Hall, M.D., an obstetrician in Ocla, Florida. "During pregnancy, you want to be as strong as necessary, but not as strong as possible. It can be hard for an athletic woman to change her goals suddenly, because she won't feel like she is doing enough. But it's a very important distinction."

Here are some ways to help you change focus:

Pamper yourself

Instead of dreading the weight gain, fitness loss, and discomforts of pregnancy, look on the bright side. You have a good excuse to indulge completely in your well-being. Appreciate it while it lasts. In fact, these 9 months can be a time to develop good health habits that you can carry beyond pregnancy. With your baby's health foremost in your mind, you might, for instance, begin eating correctly and getting enough sleep for the first time in your life. "When you are pregnant, you take such good care of yourself," says Nadia Prasad of Boulder, Colorado, an Olympian and 1995 French national 10,000-meter champion who has run through three pregnancies. "Your runs then become such times of celebration and joy."

Just get out there

Symptoms during the first trimester can make exercise sound less than joyous for some women. Nausea, exhaustion, and dizziness make it tough to function, much less run. Most women say that running during the first few months of pregnancy is even more difficult than running during the final months before delivery. But they all agree that mustering the wherewithal to get out the door—even if it's for only a little bit of exercise — is just the thing to boost your energy.

"I was lucky; I didn't have a lot of symptoms. The only thing that affected my running was that I was so tired," says Mya who was 29 when she had her first child. "But running helped that because it gave me a burst of energy. If you're running before you become pregnant, don't stop. It will help give you energy and let you feel more in control."

Give your training diary a rest.

Ah, control. You'll quickly learn to go with the flow. Planning workouts, especially in the first trimester, can be a lesson in futility. One day can differ from the next dramatically in terms of energy levels and other factors that affect running, such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathlessness, and dizziness. It's hard to ignore the demands of the little one growing inside you, and in fact, you shouldn't try. Consider those symptoms to be signals telling you to take it easy.

"For some women, the experience can be frustrating because they can no longer run at the level they desire," says Judy Mahle Lutter, president of the Melpomene Institute for Women's Health Research in St. Paul, Minnesota. "But it's time to listen to your body and be wise." Lutter's own daughter was disappointed because discomforts kept her from exercising to the extent that she wished during pregnancy. "As with so many women, she found that she needed to stay active because that's who she is. Working out was a stress reliever." It's easier to continue, Lutter says, when you understand that the usual rules don't apply. "Understand that things will happen — you'll get a backache or something else that a run might ordinarily help — and now the run is making it worse. If things don't feel good, that's probably reason to stop for the time. But that doesn't mean that you have to give up on exercise entirely."

This article is an excerpt from Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running by Dagny Scott and is published by Rodale, Inc.