Adventure sport and exercise

Hi All,
Any other adventure sport pregnancies out there?
I whitewater kayak and mountain bike so there's both level of risk and level of exertion to consider. Does anyone know much about safety throughout pregnancy, or can advise how long you've been able to continue with your sports etc?

I stopped mtbing at 14 weeks mainly because I felt uncomfortable though I did have a minor crash at 10 weeks. Hurt nothing more than my pride!

I know of someone here who raced Xterra at 20 weeks and was still riding casually a little bit later but she is at the top of her field (podium finishes at Xterra pre-pregnancy).

As for kayaking, I wouldn't know if there was any extra risks being pregnant or not, just more of a comfort thing maybe?

I went from Ironman to being pregnant within two months so I've slowed down significantly. I stopped riding my road bike straight away as a) I couldn;t trust the traffic and b) it was winter so gave me a good excuse but I did carry on with club windtrainer classes through to 21 weeks (which is when they stopped). I just rode at my own level rather than trying to bust a gut as in previous years.

I'd had a chest infection prior to getting pregnant so my running had already suffered but I got back out there and ran/walked up to 20 weeks (did 12km City to Surf in Tga and then got achilles trouble). Still walked a bit though.

And I swam up to 36 weeks (3.5km a session for the first 30 weeks then 2km).

I would say listen to your heart and head. You will know what you are capable of doing.

And congratulations!

I kept up everything I did as well as I could, apart from cycling (road and MTB)- I was just way too scared of falling. But I'm a chicken, and also recognised that being scared of falling would make me more likely to fall! I also found that cycling (on the trainer/at the gym) got pretty uncomfortable pretty early on, but I suspect that was partly to do with how I was carrying, as my bump sat really low. I was still walk/running at 27 weeks when I ran/walked a 5km at the Tinman Tri, but cut back to walking after that, as a short run would put me out of action for 1.5 days. Still swimming now (just about 38w), but usually can't do more than a km any more, as I get refluxy!

Basically, do what you're comfortable with, but you may find you have to scale it back as pregnancy can be REALLY bloody tiring. And while the bumph about keeping your HR below 140bpm has been discredited, it's probably safer to dial back the intensity a bit!

Thanks for the replies, I guess I'm already quietly backing off things - like you Bookgirl I'm short of breath much easier, and am being a little more cautious about not biking/paddling things at my skill limits