Marathon 1st Trimester

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baratom

New member
Hi all, I am 8 weeks along and set to run a marathon in 3 weeks. I have been training since November (55-65 MPW)

Previous to pregnancy, I could easily run 8 minute miles on my 18 mile long runs. The past month or so, I am struggling to even finish a 10 mile run and my mile times are 10-11 minutes.

Has anyone experienced feeling wayyyy slower in the first trimester and will this start to go away? I am super nervous for my marathon now as I was aiming for a 3:20:00 to qualify for Boston.
 
@baratom Real talk: I was also training for a marathon when I got pregnant. For a while I was too sick to even run at all. Eventually I had to throw in the towel and decide to tackle that race next year.

Early on, I was shocked to find that my former easy pace was now putting my heart rate above 170 by week 6 or so. I was hoping this would improve over time, but honestly, at least for me, it hasn't. I now (15 weeks) run about a 90 - 120 seconds slower pace per mile for my zone 2 runs. I no longer expect this to improve during my pregnancy, as I'm now gaining weight for the baby and thus the runs will probably just continue to get harder.

Turns out we gain on average about 3 pounds of blood alone while pregnant. That's a lot more for our hearts to do!

It took a long time for me to come to terms that my body is going to be different for a while and all my plans weren't going to shake out the way I had hoped. Maybe a BQ isn't in the cards for this year, but if you stay active, safe, and healthy during your pregnancy I'm sure you'll be able to achieve it postpartum. That's my hope as well ❤️
 
@negaru I’ve noticed my heart rate being a lot higher while running slower paces as well. I will just do as best as I can. Thank you for the support!
 
@negaru Wow this makes me feel so much better. My garmin is what notified me that I might be pregnant first, the second is that it is impossible for me to run up hills without my heart rate skyrocketing now! I’m only in week 5 😂
 
@baratom I was wayyyy slower in my first trimester during my runs/marathons. It's very normal to have more fatigue and exhaustion and just struggle hitting your normal numbers.

I would just caution you to not expect to qualify for Boston if you're noticing you're struggling to hit your regular paces. I thought for sure I'd keep typical paces during my marathons when I was pregnant during, but that definitely did not happen. My pace slowed down so quickly once I got farther into my first trimester. It sucked, but it's normal. Don't sweat it too much.
 
@baratom Yes - it’s normal and expected to slow down. My average pace immediately increased by 45+ seconds per mile. Your body is working really hard!
Prior to pregnancy I completed at a “subelite” level.
 
@baratom Just completed a trail half marathon at 15w. My experience while training was that pacing for runs on pavement didn't change too drastically (maybe +30 seconds/mile) but my hilly runs on trail got a lot slower as I progressed in pregnancy (+2-3 minutes per mile).

What helped me mentally was kind of reframing my goals for the race. I know you mentioned wanting to BQ, but I dropped my time goal by about 30 min to account for my changing ability. I ended up nailing my revised goal on race day and feeling super proud of 1) doing all the training to get me to race day, and 2) completing a half with over 3,100 ft of vert with a baby the size of an avocado in me and double my normal blood volume.

My OB said that keeping up my normal activity during pregnancy is great but that I shouldn't expect or try to get any PRs right now. That helped me think it through.

I wish you the best of luck at your race! You are doing so awesome.
 
@baratom Not training for a marathon during pregnancy, but have done multiple. I’m 9weeks. I started feeling the effort get harder as early as 6 weeks, some good days some bad days. Unless 3:20 is slower than your normal capabilities, I would probably walk that goal back a little bit. I would consider maybe running your race by heart rate trying to keep it at a certain heart rate in the first half and then seeing what you have in the second half. Doesn’t have to be super conservative heart rate, just something that you can actually keep up and not completely burn out. I don’t know your specific max heart rate etc, but I normally keep my heart rate
 
@baratom best of luck! and as a fellow preggo I salute you for your bravery lol I haven’t done more than 10miles at a time so far and think I’ll prob just go up to the half distance.
 
@baratom This is super normal. In both pregnancies I went from super healthy and high energy to absolutely dragging in the first trimester, including being much slower.

This is totally unsolicited so feel free to disregard, but you’re planning to run Boston next year, so like 5 months postpartum? That’s not impossible, but it might not very advisable. I went back to running too quickly after my first pregnancy and ended up with pretty significant pelvic floor issues because of it. I did a few months of PT after my second birth and am now back to running, but still doing regular exercises to fix my pelvic floor dysfunction.

If you are wanting to continue to train and run at marathon level during pregnancy and postpartum, perhaps see if you can find an OB with experience in supporting that? I know my OB practice had a doctor who had some kind of specialization in supporting pregnant athletes.

Again, I apologize for totally unsolicited advice! I just have experienced the bad outcomes (prolapse, incontinence, etc.) and want other runners to be aware.
 
@reebern Ok, this is good to know. I don’t have any prego runner friends, so I don’t really know what to expect. I’ll take this into consideration and consult with my OB!
 
@reebern would love to hear more about your experience returning to running postpartum and what you would recommend? I really want to run a marathon within a year postpartum, maybe slowly return to running 8 weeks PP. is there anything I can do during pregnancy to also help that healing process?
 
@anabella I think staying active during pregnancy and then being really mindful of how you get back to it is super helpful. My PT recommended Get Mom Strong and I really liked the postpartum workouts on the app. The key is that some exercise will exacerbate pelvic floor and diastasis recti issues, so you can’t just do whatever core workouts you want. And you have to re-strengthen your core, or running is a nightmare and the back pain is terrible.

But also I think you just have to accept the limitations your pregnancy, childbirth, or postpartum imposes. You can’t (and should not) just power through no matter what. A tough birth or emergency C section, for example, are going to take longer to heal. And pushing through to reach goals at the expense of that healing is going to catch up to you eventually, especially if you have multiple pregnancies.
 
@baratom I just ran a half at 18 weeks yesterday. Ended at 2:09 which is 20 min slower than my regular end time would have been. So - I’m not sure it gets better; for me it got worse because now in addition to being slow I also have joint pain lol Still, I’m happy to say I was able to even run.
 
@baratom I’m planning on and training for, a half which will be when I’m 14 week, in a month. It’s been rough and I’m not completely on track with my training schedule— I’ve skipped midweek shorter runs when all I can manage is getting to and from work. BUT I’m just thinking about finishing and enjoying the run, definitely not on time. I’d say my training pace is 1-1.5 min/mile more than usual with same exertion level…so I relate, but trying to keep perspective on what’s reasonable while a whole person is growing inside of me. Good luck!!
 
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