Pregnancy running is hard. Period. This was a post that I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write. Of course, it fittingly has to come right after I celebrated hitting my goal of 1,000 pregnancy miles.
As you probably already know, I’ve wanted to run throughout my entire pregnancy. I wanted to be one of those women who could say she ran up until the day she delivered. Unfortunately, it looks like things have changed for me. Pregnancy running is hard and it makes you appreciate the ability to run without so much added weight.
Monday morning I went out to run and struggled through the run. I had such a tight and painful feeling in my glute and right hip. I’ve had this before and was able to stretch/roll it out and get right back to normal. Monday throughout the day it kept feeling worse and I was limping around the office. The reality of truly stopping running during pregnancy hadn’t quite set in yet.
Tuesday morning I ran 2 miles on the treadmill, but it hurt. It wasn’t easy and to be honest I probably should have stopped earlier than I did. I spun afterwards without pain and then went on about my day, still limping around. I looked up sciatic dysfunction release methods, stretched, rolled, and tried just about anything I could think of. Stretching didn’t help and foam rolling/trigger point therapy hurt worse.
Wednesday morning I ultimately gave up. I ran a mile on the treadmill but stopped afterwards instead of doing my current normal of 4 miles. I’ve pushed through a lot of pain in running. I ran through a fractured rib during Boston training, I ran through sickness, and so many other aches and pains but I wasn’t willing to push through this. Pushing through adds stress to my body and in return can stress little man too. Of course, it may be fine but it’s not a risk I am willing to take at this point.
I couldn’t understand why nothing I was doing was helping.
I started reading and discussed with several others. I’m torn as to what exactly it is. At this point my body is going through so many changes. It could be sciatic nerve dysfunction, baby pressing down on something, loose joints, or a sacral stress fracture.
There’s a wide variety of “what if’s” there and lot of frustration. The only reason a sacral stress fracture is in consideration is where the pain is located. It doesn’t radiate down my leg much or hurt when I sit. It hurts when I put weight on it and the pain itself is stemming from my sacrum. If I push on the specific area it’s super painful. It does hurt my hip from time to time as well, but that doesn’t help much in determining the problem.
I won’t be going to the Dr for an X-Ray or MRI at this point in pregnancy. I have to make a decision based on what we know and so I’ve decided that I won’t be running for the remainder of my pregnancy. I have to focus on getting the pain under control prior to delivery. If it is a stress fracture, my recovery period would fit perfectly within the next 3-4 weeks plus the weeks postpartum. There would still be hope for a strong training cycle for Boston assuming I make the necessary corrections.
If it’s sciatic nerve dysfunction then that should go away mostly after I give birth. There is no real “good” way to make this decision but I always knew there could come a day where it would have to be made.
Am I upset? Yes, it’s not easy.
Deep down inside I wanted to be able to run until the day he is born, but I made it 36 weeks and 4 days and for that I am proud. I am proud of working through the exhaustion, the frustrations, and the long days. I’m proud I stuck with it and focused on keeping my body strong for our sweet boy. I am truly proud of my journey through pregnancy running. I tried to do everything perfectly and be cautious but things do not always work out the way we want them to.
Now I focus on getting myself as ready as I can for delivery. I focus on my next race of delivering our baby boy and starting this new phase of life. My dreams are still very much alive and if nothing else this has fueled my passion even more. Our bodies are not indestructible but they can be fine-tuned and made stronger!
I have 3-4 weeks until our lives change forever, but for the better! This is a great opportunity to let my body recover, focus on strength and get it as ready as it can be to run again postpartum. I won’t let this cancel my dreams and I still plan to toe the start line of Boston in 2017.
The plan right now is to take a full week off from everything, aside from upper body strength training. After a week I will add in spinning and will hope to keep that up until he is born and then afterwards start my postpartum recovery.
Thank you all for being such wonderful cheerleaders during my pregnancy running journey! I look forward to continuing to share this new stage in our lives with you and picking back up and going after even bigger goals in my running journey!
“When something bad happens you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or let it strengthen you.”
I’ve been following your journey this whole time and have been very inspired by how long you have kept it up and how much you have been able to do. I’ll be 29 weeks along tomorrow and, sadly, I had to end my running during pregnancy a week ago due to the very same reason as you. Sciatic pain is no joke – it hurts and generally just takes the joy out of running. Good luck with the next few weeks! Stay positive and keep your head up! You’ve got this. Walking, spinning, swimming – while not running – will keep you strong to the finish line! Congrats on making it this far!
Thanks so much Hillary! I am sorry to hear that you have had to stop running as well. Our bodies are doing so many different things to prepare for our sweet babies and I know in the end it will be worth it! Good luck in the home stretch 🙂
I’m so sorry that you have to stop running for now. You have been such motivation, but I think you made the right choice. (Not that you need my opinion ?) I’m really looking forward to following you postpartum journey! Have you talked to your doctor about how much time they recommend until you can slow jog? I haven’t yet but I’m going to. I know “articles” online say 6 weeks but I’m curious to see what the doc says because mine has been super encouraging to keep up running and exercising.
No I haven’t yet! A lot of it will depend on how my body responds and how I heal up. I’m just going to play it week by week and see how things go. I’ve read so many different opinions and different people’s experiences. Hopefully we will both have a quick recovery 🙂
I am so proud of you! You have certainly worked hard to get to this point, and you are so strong because of it. You’ll be a superwoman postpartum too! Honestly, “running” at the end of pregnancy is more like waddling, and you are probably better off hitting the ground running with a recovered body than a beat up body that just gave birth. 🙂 XOXO Praying for you!
Thank you SO much! Your journey through pregnancy and postpartum is such an inspiration to me! I hope to come back stronger as you did! Your support has meant so much to me!! xoxo
When I was pregnant 22 years ago, my doctor told me to stop running. I hadn’t been running for long, about a year, but I knew I loved it. I was living in North Carolina at the time and it was summer and very hot. I didn’t have access to a treadmill and doctors didn’t know as much about running and pregnancy.
Anyway, I tried running with a baby jogger and, later, on my own, but I just couldn’t get past how terrible re-starting felt. But I’d made a goal before I got pregnant to run the Philly Half one day.
For a whole host of reasons, I didn’t revisit this goal until I was in my early 40s. Re-starting running was pretty awful. But I was determined. That was almost 4 years ago, and I just qualified for Boston in October.
So my message to you is that running is always there. I don’t think you’ll have the trouble I did getting back into running when you feel ready post-birth since you’ve been so active all along. But don’t beat yourself up if the hiatus lasts longer than you’d like because it’s never too late to start again.
Wishing you a happy, healthy remaining pregnancy 🙂
Love hearing your running story! That’s amazing what you have accomplished! Thanks so much for your support 🙂 I look forward to seeing what happens after our little man is here and of course him finally making his appearance!
Kudos to you, Sara, for making the tough decision to quit running. I hope you will feel better soon and I look forward to keeping up with your training postpartum.
Thank you so much Margaret! I look forward to documenting my full journey postpartum!
You’re amazing mama! But I feel your frustration. In the past few weeks I’ve also had a lot of sciatic nerve pain, and after my long run today it was like my glute froze and I couldn’t put any pressure on it. I was one of those that ran up until my daughter was born, and I’m hopeful I can keep running with this one. Enjoy every minute of your pregnancy!! Xo
Yes pregnancy does some crazy things to our bodies! Great job with your running! I hope you can continue all the way to the end 🙂
It’s a tough devision for sure-I ran until 32 weeks with my now 3 year old, when it was just too damn uncomfortable. Thank goodness for walking and spin classes! I got some grief from people, but I have no doubt that staying active before labor helped me avoid a c-section (long labor) and aided in my recovery. Hang in there!
Love hearing other peoples stories! Great job staying active! I do love spinning and was so glad we invested in a spin bike back when I first got pregnant 🙂
Good for you for deciding to not run. I’m 26 weeks pregnant and I also really wanted to be one of those people that ran all the way up until delivery but just last week I re-stress fractured my pelvis. I don’t know for sure it’s a stress fracture as I can’t get an x-ray or mri, but I had the same injury a couple years ago and it feels exactly the same. It’s disappointing, but I’m trying to have your perspective about fitting in the recovery (2-6 months of rest) within the time I would naturally take off anyway. Thanks for documenting what you went through,