Training during pregnancy

I have a friend who's workmate did an Ironman after she just found out she was preg.  She completed it in like 18 hours and apparently the child is fine.  I thought it was a bit wreckless, but I'm not a prude, it's her body...  At the same time though I believe our bodies are much more adaptive than we tend to think.  If the doc says cool, then go for it.

Good luck.

A

First off congratulations Erin on both your pregnancy and decided to train for a tri.  My tri season has ended this year before my first scheduled race since I found out I am pregnant.  I thought about still doing the race but the bike course is a crowded course, although it has been safe in previous years I didn't want to take a chance this year.

My Dr. also told me it is okay to still train/workout during the pregnancy.  What she said is if I was already doing it to keep doing it but don't up the workouts (ie don't go longer than I'm use to). 

I'm not doing any speed workouts or hill repeats as there is no reason to.  So I'm exercising when I have the energy (I had no energy the second month so I took most of it off).  I'm going for a very easy 55 mile bike ride on Sunday for the Tour de Cure and that will be my last long bike out on the road, I plan to ride on the trainer during the summer.  I plan on running as long as I can, swimming until the end and weights as long as I can.  When I stop running I take up walking. 

What I hear from most already mothers is that your body will tell you when to stop and what not to do.  Like around week 6 my (upper) body told me not to run, once I got use to it I was okay.

Good luck in your pregnancy and your training.

By the way how far along are you/when are you due?

Sheri 

I was a lazy slug when I was pregnant so I can't give you any advice there...but congrats your your twin pregnancy!!

We have twins who just turned 17 plus 3 more kids...twins are awesome...each time we adopted (last 3 kids) we asked for twins...but we were only blessed with twins once.

Congratulations!!

I swam about 3-4 x week throughout my first pregnancy, including the day I went into labour. I felt wonderful and had a great cheering section at the early morning swims with all the older women there. They were more interested in my growing belly than their swims I think! I found the boyancy in the water to be easy on the ligaments and joints, and since the water is cool, it kept my body temp from getting too high too quickly. Also, most people's max hr is much lower swimming than running, so it does not stress the circulatory system in the same way - which is already working overtime.  (Not to suggest that running with it's generally higher max hr is not also good while pregnant - I just was not much of a runner at that time)  My son seemed to enjoy the pool time too!

I continued to bike for the first several months since it was my only mode of transportation, but found it hard to get the energy to bike home after work, so I gave that up.  Listen close to your body and rest when it needs it - it has lots of important work to do!