I’ve written this blog plenty of times in my head, and now, with my 7 month old baby asleep on my lap I thought I would give it a go.

In essence this is a case study on myself, and I’m fully aware that no two pregnancies are the same, but I do feel I learnt a few things along the way that I could share, that may just help someone else.

It should be noted that:

· I was 43 when I had my daughter. A ‘geriatric’ mum as they refer to us older mums. I was excessively monitored due to my age and apart from a smaller baby there were no issues.

· My baby was born on the 10th percentile, healthy and with no major complications, ten days ‘early’. Baby was born quickly, 100 minutes after arriving at hospital.

· I was the fittest and strongest I had ever been going into my pregnancy… Cycling at least 6 hours a week, walking the dog 7 days a week, weight training with a trainer twice a week.

· I had no morning sickness. I think that would have severely debilitated me and I would have struggled to maintain the exercise.

Cardiovascular fitness

The first 12 weeks I felt no real difference on the bike. A lot of my cycling was indoors and even my outdoor rides were fairly good. At around 16 weeks I felt like I ‘lost’ a gear and only could push to forth gear.

I tried to keep my heartrate below 150 so as not to do anything stupid. I even managed a Cycle Sportive at 16 weeks and I opted for the sensible short route of 40 miles instead of the 80 I had entered (before I fell pregnant!). I needed a bit more fuel than before, but nothing that a Wine Gum couldn’t fix.

From 20 weeks I really noticed how much tougher cycling was. I ‘lost another gear’ and didn’t ever feel like I could get out of third. I assumed it was because I was heavier, and carting a bigger weight up a hill was more difficult. Despite a small bump, my respiratory rate was steadily climbing as well as my heart rate (I was still keeping it below 150, so really having to slow down!!). I hadn’t appreciated, until a patient of mine who is an esteemed OBGYN, explained that the biggest reason why one struggles for air is not just the bump diminishing your lung volume, but in fact your blood volume has DOUBLED. This blew me away. More blood needs more oxygen, which means increased respiratory rate, and your poor heart has to work harder to pump the blood volume around. So when someone says to you that the fetus only weighs 450g and that it shouldn’t make that much difference, either take a deep breath and smile, or if your hormones are properly raging, tell them to b*gger off! It’s like exercising at very high altitude, it is brutal. Your fuel demands with endurance exercise shoot up. None of this ‘you only need an extra slice of toast a day’. If you’re exercising you need half the loaf!! I’ve never eaten so many flapjack squares in my life, and I also needed to replace salts far more than before. I recommend a good electrolyte drink for any endurance exercise that has a high sodium content. If I didn’t correctly fuel I could get through my ride ok, but the next day I felt like I’d ridden for 24 hours. I was absolutely shattered, and it would take me days to recover.

By week 32 I couldn’t go outside on my bike anymore as I didn’t feel safe, partly because of the bump, partly because your blood pressure does some pretty funky things. Mine would regularly drop to 90/50 (normal is 120/80), so you feel pretty woozy.

Indoor cycling could no longer be done on an empty stomach like before, and going for a dog walk straight off the bike would drop my blood sugar to low levels; about 3 (normal is 5-7) if I didn’t have something to eat when I got off the bike (my husband is a Type 1 diabetic so we have all the blood glucose testing kit). I wasn’t pushing myself, I had dropped my rides to a max of 45 minutes indoors, but it was still having a massive effect.

I really struggled with my ego during this time. I was a bit of a statto before I fell pregnant. Looking at my STRAVA every day. Checking my fitness scores, my speeds etc. Constantly competing with myself. It was the most humbling experience to still feel like I was doing my best (within my capacity), and to be getting slower, less fit, and less able. Your brain knows why, and it’s one hundred percent worth it, but it’s still hard to let go. Pregnancy was the greatest teacher of just that… you have to let go of the constant drive to be the best you can be. Exercise for fun, for health and for your endorphins. But not for fitness, not for competition and not for Kudos.

Strength Training

I carried on gymming twice a week with a trainer the whole way through. In fact, I trained the morning that baby was born!! I should have stopped lunging/ split-squatting earlier than I did (which was probably about 30 weeks) as I started getting a vague pelvic pain. I lifted significantly lighter weights as my pregnancy progressed and avoided the obvious things like sit-ups. I had no back pain during my pregnancy, and I really do believe the strength training helped. Whilst cardio was so much harder, strength training still felt achievable, albeit with lighter weights. If I were I to have another pregnancy (I’m not!), I would probably do more strength sessions and do less cardio and avoid one legged stuff from week 16ish. The overwhelming thing with strength training for me was the DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). I had more stiffness after strength training than ever in my life, and for much longer than usual. I’ve hypothesised that my body was using all the proteins I was eating to build a baby rather than build new hamstring muscle fibres!!

Other benefits of continuing to exercise:

· As someone who relies heavily on exercise endorphins to maintain my mood, I think that continuing some level of exercise during my pregnancy helped with this .

· I didn’t have insomnia and I wonder if continuing exercise helped me sleep at night.

· I didn’t gain crazy amounts of weight: a total of 15kg and have lost 14kg.

· During my super quick labour I felt ‘fit enough’ to get through it. Even without the painkillers (which I would have had if they let me!!)

Postpartum exercise

As I had no major birth complications, I was able to get back to exercise quickly.

I missed two weeks in the gym and then started back slowly with a strength trainer. I am not back to full strength yet but am enjoying getting stronger. Baby comes with me to the gym, and we train around her basically!

I started back on the indoor bike at home at 3 weeks, building up from 10 minutes. I didn’t foresee how difficult it would be to have an hour to myself to cycle. I mean surely babies sleep?! I hadn’t anticipated having a baby that would basically only nap on me, for hours, but only on me. I’ve worked hard on various training programmes, however because I very rarely manage more than 30 minutes my endurance is appalling, and if you know anything about FTP, mine has dropped a lot!! Some days I only manage 10 minutes, other days 15. But I figure that SOME exercise is better than none. Again, the Strava fitness checker in me must acknowledge:

1) I am exclusively breastfeeding which does take it out of you. An amazing experience, but it is physically draining.

2) I am pretty knackered as I am waking up for feeding etc by baby at least twice a night. It’s also pretty tiring looking after a little human all day I might add!!

3) I don’t have the time to train like I did before, and I’m not able to ‘fit it in’ like I did before. I can’t get up at 5.15am to cycle like I used to when I’ve been up feeding baby at 1 and 4am. Bite size chunks are what is available right now, and I had very unrealistic expectations of how I would be able to have more time. Each baby is different too, and I know other mums who have babies that sleep through, nap in their cots in the day and happily take a bottle, so I know these factors are different for everyone. I would just say that when it comes to your own fitness, unless you have a babysitter on tap, you’re going to have to learn to adapt to different training, at times of the day you aren’t necessarily wanting to train.

4) I’ve been hammered with coughs and colds. Your immunity is down due to lack of sleep and fatigue, so anything that is going around, comes around! I have two stepkids who bring home all of the bugs from school and between me and baby we’ve had all of them. This massively affects your fitness, not only because of being too ill to train, but even when able, the ‘hangover’ from a respiratory illness can last for weeks.

Despite the challenges, becoming a mum is the greatest gift that I didn’t know I needed till I got it.

It has also been the most humbling experience, and the most fascinating one, particularly from a physical perspective. The human body is just incredible!!

Please feel free to share your experiences too!

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Kate