I’m quite comfortably in the second trimester of my pregnancy now at 18 weeks and enjoying life.
Comparative to the first trimester, it’s an utter breeze. No constant feelings of nausea, no feeling like I was limited in what I could eat for fear of it turning my stomach or being too much. While I still can’t eat certain foods (apples, shockingly, can you even believe? Along with ice cream, hot chocolate and chicken wings), I can pretty much eat most things and eat far bigger portions than I was able.
Porridge thankfully doesn’t make me feel sick anymore and I’m gradually increasing my portion size little by little. Pre-pregnancy I would have a giant bowl, but then I had to half that bowl to a teeny tiny portion and now it’s about 3/4 of the way there again, hurrah!
My chocolate eating, however, has become quite something. I eat it every single day. Now previously I would of course eat chocolate regularly but this is literally every night.
I just love having a black decaf coffee a few lines of the Cadbury’s Mini Egg Bars (you must try if you haven’t) or Tony’s Chocolonely or Toblerone. Basically anything. We have a lot of chocolate in the house and every single night I’ll be getting some.
I’m not worried because it’s not like I’m eating an entire bar every single night (though some nights I do get close!) but to me it’s balance. We have nice balanced meals most days and if I eat a lot of chocolate one evening, I’ll make sure to eat more vegetables and less chocolate the next day.
My energy levels are so much better too. During the first trimester I was exhausted ALL the time. I had to take 30-60 minute naps in the afternoon to get through the day (thank god for WFH!). If I ran I would be totally drained for the rest of the day. My standing desk became my sitting desk and doing my usual strength workouts became very hard. Following along to YouTube workouts was tough as I felt so unfit.
To be honest I thought this was only going to get worse. However happily it has not. I no longer need naps, running and working out feel normal again and I get through the day without feeling like I’m walking through treacle. It’s crazy how things change so quickly.
In terms of my running, I’m still slower than pre-pregnancy, of course, but I have some mornings where I feel more energised and zippy than usual and can be around 8:15-8:30 paces.
But then there are other runs where I’m nice and comfortable just going along at 8:50-9 min miles.
Running, despite being slower, doesn’t feel vastly different to how it used to. I do feel a pressure and slight weight in my lower tummy and this will often result in my needing to stop a number of times to go for a wee during my longer runs. But I don’t feel any discomfort or pains when I run, or afterwards (otherwise I’d stop).
I did have a minor blip recently where my left of hip started to bug me. It felt like a niggle I’d had before so I didn’t think it was pregnancy related. But perhaps due to all the changes in my body and hormones it was exacerbated? Who knows. I was sensible though and rested it for about 6 days. Instead I did YouTube workouts instead and rehabbed my hip with squats, lunges and glute work. I found these definitely helped.
Now the hip issue has gone and I’m back to my usual runs. While I’m so glad it cleared up quickly and it wasn’t a long-term thing (touch wood) it did give me The Fear a bit. I really want to maintain my running as best as I can during this pregnancy. Now of course, as I keep saying, I know my paces will drop further and I will eventually be running less but I do want to continue to run every week as much as my body will allow. So far 30 miles a week with a 10-13 mile long run at the weekend is working perfectly. I adore my running at the moment, especially with lockdown. It’s such mental refresher and a way I derive great happiness in this worrying and admittedly rather boring time.
This is why when I started to get a niggle I was quick to react and take some time off. I’m happy to take a number of days off rather than weeks off because weeks are big in this pregnancy journey. Lots is changing and I don’t want to suddenly try running again after a lot of time off and realise my body is just not able to anymore.
I know that might be a silly way to look at it and factually not accurate at all but it definitely encouraged me to be far more sensible than I’ve ever been. Normally I’d have pushed through the runs regardless, but I stopped straight away even though it wasn’t painful per se, just a bit niggly. Pain is usually what stops me. However I nipped it in the bud before it even got there, whew! A lesson for future non-pregnant Anna I think…
Did you run through your pregnancy (if you’re female and had children!)?
Do you like to snack in the evening?
What food would you hate to not be able to eat anymore?
I was very lucky to be able to run up until three days before I had Oscar. I had intended to run right up until having him, but I ended up working until the Friday, parkran on the Saturday and went in for pre-op on the Monday for delivery on the Tuesday! So things got very busy close to the end!
I am not an evening snacker at all. I’m done right after finishing tea, but Dan gets through so many crackers and crisps and dips on an evening! My time for snacking is mid-morning as a distraction from work instead.
Ah that’s the goal! I’d love to run right till the end.
We watched Baby Done last night (with Rose Matafeo)- in that film she was a tree surgeon and trying to climb trees etc while heavily pregnant. Compared to that, keeping running seems like it would be much easier!
Haha exactly – women have done this for 1,000 of years and have had to carry on with life as best as they can. We have far better medical facilities to support us so much better now too.
I couldn’t run while I was pregnant – I eventually got to swimming after a lot of resistance, which was wonderful by the time I was enormous and we were mid-heatwave (my due date was 31st July, LK arrived 13th July). I had a tiny DVT owing to having to rest owing to ovarian hyperstimulation owing to IVF (jeepers, what a lot of owing to stuff), so when I could get back to running when I was about 10 weeks pregnant, I started very gently with Couch to 5K: and after about 3 attempts gave up as my hips were killing me for 24 hours after each run. Had to resort to walking on the running machine on an incline and the stationary bike, neither of which I enjoyed, so I packed on a fair amount of weight during the first trimester! More or less lost it all…
You are doing your pelvic floor exercises?!
So far I seem to be OK running but I can feel my hips are aching a bit more – something I’ll keep an eye on.
Yeah definitely on those pelvic floor exercises! I have an app and a reminder haha 🙂
I remember asking my midwife about running during pregnancy and she simply said to me, carry on with your normal exercise routine & don’t try anything new or reckless! I continued running about 10-15 miles a week until 32 weeks when the tiredness really started getting to me. Best snack for me pre and post run was a bowl of porridge or rice pudding (which I loved during pregnancy) and a spot of jam. Best of luck with your pregnancy and keep going with the running
Yeah I think that’s the thing – we’re used to exercise so can carry on as long as it still feels OK. Rice pudding?? Hehe each to their own!