I was fortunate to run throughout my entire pregnancy with both Cullen and Bjorn. In many ways running during both pregnancies was very similar–I struggled during the first trimester, the second trimester included some racing, and the third trimester running was tough once again and included a lot of running/walking.
Crazily enough, Cullen and Bjorn’s due dates were only 5 days apart, so I was at the same point in my pregnancy, during the same part of the year, which made it easy to compare/contrast the two pregnancies. I ran nearly the same races during both pregnancies and even did similar workouts around the same time as a fitness check-in for myself.
I still remember the morning I found out I was pregnant. I took a pregnancy test right at 4 weeks after my period started, saw the ‘plus’ sign, and then naturally went for a run with my friend. I didn’t say anything to her, but my head was spinning with excitement.
The first trimester of Bjorn’s pregnancy was really ROUGH! I was extremely tired and nauseous all day, so there wasn’t a lot of running going on. The second trimester was better, but I felt out of breath each time I ran. Finally, the third trimester resulted in every run being a combination of running/walking. Then, the last week before Bjorn was born, all of a sudden–pretty much out of nowhere, I started having a lot more pressure on my pelvis. Running became way too painful, and I only managed a few miles that week. At the time I didn’t know what was going on, but in hindsight, I’m sure Bjorn’s head was starting to drop, and getting ready for birth, which was putting more pressure on my pelvis.
Here is a breakdown of my miles during each trimester with Bjorn.
Trimester 1: 455 miles total | average: 35 miles per week
Trimester 2: 365 miles total | average: 28 miles per week
Trimester 3 (10 weeks instead of 13): 158 miles total | average: 16 miles per week
Total with Bjorn: 978 miles
I had all intentions of running 1000 miles with Bjorn and would have done it if he hadn’t been born three weeks early. I only had to run about 12 miles per week up until week 39, which is when I thought I would end up having a c-section. Instead, I only ran through about week 36 with a minimal amount of miles the last week before I gave birth at 37 weeks.
For comparison, here is my mileage during Cullen’s pregnancy.
Trimester 1: 450 miles total | average: 34 miles per week
Trimester 2: 335 miles total | average: 25 miles per week
Trimester 3: 171 total miles | average: 13 miles per week
Total with Cullen: 956 miles
What are the odds that I ran nearly the same mileage during both of my pregnancies. Like I said at the beginning, both pregnancies had a lot of similarities as far as running. However, I did have a lot less pain with Bjorn than I did with Cullen. During Cullen’s pregnancy I had all sorts of aches and pain in my hip flexors, lower back, pubic bone pain, etc.
I love the summer racing season, so I wasn’t not going to run races this summer. I was fortunate to run 7 races during Bjorn’s pregnancy–placing 3rd in the Hightail Quarter Marathon and 4th at the Trent Waldron Half Marathon.
Alaska Heart Run 5K – 21:05 (14 weeks pregnant)
Trent Waldron Half Marathon – 1:35:31 (19 weeks pregnant)
Twilight 6K – 25:13 (20 weeks pregnant)
Alaska Run for Women – 5 miles – 34:31 (21 weeks pregnant)
Anchorage Mayor’s Half Marathon – 1:40:45 (23 weeks pregnant)
Hightail Quarter Marathon – 47:08 (6 months pregnant)
Spenard Roadhouse 5K – 21:48 (7 months pregnant)
I am already looking forward to getting back into training postpartum. I took things slow and cautiously after Cullen’s pregnancy and was happy that things progressed so well that I plan to follow the same plan (or a very similar route) this time around as well. I am hoping I can stay injury-free and can have a successful racing season next summer and into the fall because I still want that sub-3 marathon goal more than ever!
