I've been a competitive swimmer now for 18 years (makes me feel old just to say it) and I'm pregnant with my first child. I keep reading that you don't have to modify your swimming workouts when you're pregnant, but in those same websites, I see things like "Try doing *** stroke to eliminate the strain of torso rotation" so I know they haven't the slightest clue about competitive swimming or real training.
So my question is, does anyone have any good resource for how hard you can push yourself swimming while pregnant? And don't tell me to ask my doctor because I'm guessing she knows even less about swimming than "babycenter.com". My primary concern is with becoming slightly hypoxic while swimming (during flip turns and underwater pull outs). I often come up a little breathless, but am okay within a stroke or two. If I weren't pregnant, I wouldn't think anything about this, but it's hard to know if that's "bad" for the little one.
Any thoughts or direction would be greatly appreciated.:drown:
I am currently pregnant with my second. I didn't swim at all with #1 (who will be 3 next month). This year, I'd been training really hard all season, hoping to go some lifetime bests at Austin SCY Nats. Well, a planning miscalculation resulted in me being pregnant at Nats! Whoops... Anyways, here's how my meets went leading up to and through Nationals.
Note: all weeks quoted are obstetrical weeks, ie. weeks from last period. For actual weeks pregnant, subtract 2.
6 weeks pregnant: Indiana States, unrested. Not feeling pregnant at all yet, no nausea, no fatigue. We only went to one day of the meet and I swam 3 events (50/100 free, 100 IM). Swam a LIFETIME best unrested 100 free. No clue if this was due to surging hormones or just that I had been swimming great all season on my 100 free. Started feeling crappy about 3 days after this meet.
9 weeks pregnant: Illinois States, at very start of Nats taper. Swam 11 events over 2 days. 50/200/500 free, 100/200/400 IM, all 50s of stroke, and 2 50 frees on 2 relays. Good Lord! Anything over 100 yards, I did not take at all out pace, since my main goal was to score points for our team. I still went very hard, but it was more like an all-out practice hard swim (and the times were comparable). Feeling very very nauseous at this meet. I tried to wear my Tyr leg suit for the 50 free and felt horrid after about 10 minutes of wearing it. Turns out the compression was just too much - as soon as I took it off I felt much better. Competed the rest of the meet in a drag suit. Had one fantastic swim... was only 0.04 off my lifetime best ever 50 free split
11 weeks pregnant: SCY Nats in Austin, shaved and tapered. Ha, shaved and tapered. Yeah. I'd say I hit my peak of nausea and fatigue around weeks 11 and 12. I only swam 4 of the 6 events for which I was entered: 50 free/fly/*** and 100 IM. In general, my body felt like it would during an in-season meet where I was pretty broken down. Very happy with my 50 free - only 0.15 off lifetime best. 50 fly was ok, 100 IM was ok (esp. given how my breaststroke turned out). 50 *** was hands down probably the worst race of my entire life. I went over 3 seconds (in a 50!!!!) slower than last year. My dear husband, in an attempt to rationalize the swim, said, "Well, you were riding really low in the water and just couldn't get over the wave. You have gained a lot of weight in the last month." Hmmm... true statement, though possibly not the best thing to say to a hormonal nauseous pregnant lady.
Sorry this is so wordy... Hopefully others will find some useful info here about competing during the first trimester. I plan to keep training through this pregnancy (I'm at 14 weeks now and FINALLY feeling a little better!) and put some info up on the Karen's Pregnant Blog thread. My goal is to stay in decent enough shape that I can have a semi-ok meet at LCM Nats in Indy next year. I'll be the one there with a 9 month old and a 4 year old!
Note: I DID dive in for all my races, but I stopped doing dives in practice and during warmup at meets. So my first start off the Austin blocks was for my 50 fly! I had no pooch yet, just that nice bloated look, so I figured baby was still safely tucked behind the pubic bone and tummy muscle. My doctor said max heartrate of 140. Since I have no additional risk factors, I figured if I was back to 140 within a minute, I was doing ok. There is absolutely no medical logic for this minute, it's just what I felt comfortable with. My coach, a labor and delivery nurse for over 20 years, said that more important than heart rate was keeping body core temp down. We practice in an 80F pool and since it was taper time, it wasn't like we were doing mega aerobic sets (which tend to heat me up more) so no issues with core temp. Like Allison, I also stopped the hypoxic stuff, which sucked because we do a lot of hypoxic stuff at taper time. I also noticed it took me a very long time to warmup and that I was extremely out of breath for about the first 500-800 yards.
I am currently pregnant with my second. I didn't swim at all with #1 (who will be 3 next month). This year, I'd been training really hard all season, hoping to go some lifetime bests at Austin SCY Nats. Well, a planning miscalculation resulted in me being pregnant at Nats! Whoops... Anyways, here's how my meets went leading up to and through Nationals.
Note: all weeks quoted are obstetrical weeks, ie. weeks from last period. For actual weeks pregnant, subtract 2.
6 weeks pregnant: Indiana States, unrested. Not feeling pregnant at all yet, no nausea, no fatigue. We only went to one day of the meet and I swam 3 events (50/100 free, 100 IM). Swam a LIFETIME best unrested 100 free. No clue if this was due to surging hormones or just that I had been swimming great all season on my 100 free. Started feeling crappy about 3 days after this meet.
9 weeks pregnant: Illinois States, at very start of Nats taper. Swam 11 events over 2 days. 50/200/500 free, 100/200/400 IM, all 50s of stroke, and 2 50 frees on 2 relays. Good Lord! Anything over 100 yards, I did not take at all out pace, since my main goal was to score points for our team. I still went very hard, but it was more like an all-out practice hard swim (and the times were comparable). Feeling very very nauseous at this meet. I tried to wear my Tyr leg suit for the 50 free and felt horrid after about 10 minutes of wearing it. Turns out the compression was just too much - as soon as I took it off I felt much better. Competed the rest of the meet in a drag suit. Had one fantastic swim... was only 0.04 off my lifetime best ever 50 free split
11 weeks pregnant: SCY Nats in Austin, shaved and tapered. Ha, shaved and tapered. Yeah. I'd say I hit my peak of nausea and fatigue around weeks 11 and 12. I only swam 4 of the 6 events for which I was entered: 50 free/fly/*** and 100 IM. In general, my body felt like it would during an in-season meet where I was pretty broken down. Very happy with my 50 free - only 0.15 off lifetime best. 50 fly was ok, 100 IM was ok (esp. given how my breaststroke turned out). 50 *** was hands down probably the worst race of my entire life. I went over 3 seconds (in a 50!!!!) slower than last year. My dear husband, in an attempt to rationalize the swim, said, "Well, you were riding really low in the water and just couldn't get over the wave. You have gained a lot of weight in the last month." Hmmm... true statement, though possibly not the best thing to say to a hormonal nauseous pregnant lady.
Sorry this is so wordy... Hopefully others will find some useful info here about competing during the first trimester. I plan to keep training through this pregnancy (I'm at 14 weeks now and FINALLY feeling a little better!) and put some info up on the Karen's Pregnant Blog thread. My goal is to stay in decent enough shape that I can have a semi-ok meet at LCM Nats in Indy next year. I'll be the one there with a 9 month old and a 4 year old!
Note: I DID dive in for all my races, but I stopped doing dives in practice and during warmup at meets. So my first start off the Austin blocks was for my 50 fly! I had no pooch yet, just that nice bloated look, so I figured baby was still safely tucked behind the pubic bone and tummy muscle. My doctor said max heartrate of 140. Since I have no additional risk factors, I figured if I was back to 140 within a minute, I was doing ok. There is absolutely no medical logic for this minute, it's just what I felt comfortable with. My coach, a labor and delivery nurse for over 20 years, said that more important than heart rate was keeping body core temp down. We practice in an 80F pool and since it was taper time, it wasn't like we were doing mega aerobic sets (which tend to heat me up more) so no issues with core temp. Like Allison, I also stopped the hypoxic stuff, which sucked because we do a lot of hypoxic stuff at taper time. I also noticed it took me a very long time to warmup and that I was extremely out of breath for about the first 500-800 yards.
