A World Champ's postnatal journey: when should you return to training?

How do you come back from something as physically and emotionally intense as pregnancy and birth? And find your way back into sport again, while also learning to live in a body and a life that have completely changed?

This is my experience of that process, as Tom and I stepped into life as a family of three in December 2015, when our daughter Esme arrived with a gasp and a cry that showed she has the lung capacity of her mother and father put together.

Before she was born, Tom and I had already decided that we wanted movement to remain an important part of our lives - both because we love it for all its amazing benefits, and because we also wanted Esme to grow up with that as the norm. We also knew exercise would help us cope with the intensity of becoming parents, not just physically but emotionally as well, because sport has always been something that steadies both of us when everything else feels slightly unanchored.

What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time, despite all the reading and preparing I did, was just how different my body and mind would feel in the weeks and months after her birth. The physical changes are obvious in one sense, but still surprising when you experience them first hand; from the looseness in joints and ligaments that makes everything feel less stable than it once did, to the abdominal separation that leaves your core feeling unfamiliar and disconnected, to the fatigue that is not really solved by sleep because sleep itself is so broken and unpredictable.

I was fortunate in that my labour and Esme’s birth was straightforward, but even so I had abdominal separation and those intense night sweats that leave you waking drenched.

So what were the steps I took in the months after she was born?

Do your research

Before Esme arrived, I had done what I think many of us do, which was to try to research my way into feeling prepared for postnatal exercise. I spoke to midwives, health visitors, doctors, and read everything I could find, but I still struggled to find anything that really spoke to someone who had come from an endurance sport background and was used to a certain level of physical output and identity tied to training.

What did come through consistently, though, was something very simple and ultimately very true, which was that you have to listen to your body and be conservative, even when that feels frustrating or counterintuitive.

The slow beginning (and the emotional adjustment no one warns you about)

The reality of that advice only really became clear in those first weeks. The first week was mostly spent lying down or sitting on the sofa, moving only when necessary. I remember on about day four walking roughly a kilometre to get a hot chocolate and feeling completely fine at the time, only to realise afterwards that I had definitely done too much, far too soon. That was an early lesson in how deceptive ‘feeling okay’ can be when your body is still in such a vulnerable state.

After that, I slowed everything down, but being housebound felt strange and at times really emotionally challenging, especially when I was used to being outside and active as a way of regulating everything else in life.

I also found myself grappling with emotions I hadn’t fully expected, including frustration and even anger at times, particularly when Tom went out on his bike. There was a real adjustment in learning how to sit in that postnatal space, and enjoy and relish where I was, without trying to rush out of it.

Finding movement again

Gradually, I began to walk more, usually with Esme in a sling or buggy, and those walks became a kind of lifeline, not because they were structured exercise but because they gave me a sense of movement and normality again. The sling in particular made a huge difference for me, although I’m very aware that this is not the case for everyone and that some women find them uncomfortable or simply not possible to use, especially after a caesarean.

By around four weeks I was managing longer walks, and by six weeks, after medical clearance, I cautiously returned to gentle running. I built slowly from there, reaching around an hour of easy running by week eight or nine, keeping everything deliberately low intensity and choosing softer ground where possible. It felt like my body was still alien to me though; like I was running but it didn’t feel natural or quite ‘right’.

Looking back now, I can see quite clearly that I did too much too soon, particularly with running, and that impatience led to an ankle injury later on. There was a strong desire in me at that time to feel like ‘myself’ again, or at least to reclaim a version of myself that felt familiar, and I think I underestimated how much that desire can override the quieter signals from your body if you’re not careful.

Building strength and mobility

One of the first things I came back to was pelvic floor work and very gentle core activation, often done while feeding Esme or during those rare quiet moments when she was asleep.

With guidance from a women's health physiotherapist, I gradually introduced modified Pilates, which was probably as valuable for teaching me patience as it was for rebuilding strength. It encouraged me to pay attention to how I was moving (very differently!), and reconnect with muscles that felt unfamiliar after pregnancy and birth.

As the weeks passed and recovery progressed, I started doing more structured strength work at home, initially using bodyweight exercises before introducing light weights after a few months. Rather than focusing on performance, my priority was rebuilding a strong foundation, improving stability and regaining trust in my body.

However, as soon as I could run a lot of the strength work went out of the window. If I had a window of opportunity... I would run or bike. Looking back, I wish I’d invested more in developing that core strength, because I think I have paid the price down the line in a body that isn’t as structurally strong or robust as it once was.

I think that has less to do with pregnancy and birth, per se, but more to do with prioritisation, competing demands on my time and an impatience to get back to running. If I had that time again, I would have prioritised strength work a lot more than I did.

Nutrition and hydration

I’ve always thought a lot about what I eat and drink, and postnatally it was no different, because recovery, breastfeeding, sleep deprivation and the gradual return to exercise all place significant demands on the body. I found that I needed far more fuel than I expected, particularly in the early months, and that eating regularly was often the difference between feeling (reasonably) human and feeling completely depleted.

Given the reduction in training volume and intensity, I did feel my disordered eating thoughts and behaviours returning. This has always been a battle for me, and one that I deal with daily. It was the thought of Esme’s needs which kept me on the straight and narrow; despite having the self-flagellating, restrictive thoughts, I didn’t act on them as I once would have.

Rather than focusing on restriction or trying to ‘get my body back’, I prioritised getting lots of protein for recovery, carbohydrates for energy, lots of fats, and plenty of iron-rich foods to support healing after birth. Easy, grab-and-go snacks became even more essential; things like nuts, fruit, peanut butter, toast, bagels, rice cakes with cottage cheese and jam (!) and whatever could be eaten with one hand.

Hydration was equally important, especially while breastfeeding, and I kept plain water or water with electrolytes within arm's reach almost constantly because it was remarkably easy to become dehydrated without noticing.

I would never recommend under-fuelling, especially post-natally. Your body is doing an extraordinary amount of work, and feeding it well is essential for your health, the health of your child (if breastfeeding) and your safe return to exercise.

A new structure and purpose

One of the biggest shifts in all of this was mentally letting go of structure. I couldn’t train when I wanted, or how I wanted, or for as long as I wanted. Some days I got a walk. Some days I didn’t. Some days I moved and felt good, and other days rest was more important than anything else. That was a really difficult adjustment at first, but over time I started to understand that movement and then training just needed to exist in whatever form the day allows.

We also started to find ways to move together, rather than trying to separate parenthood and training. For example, activities like buggy or sling walks, cycling with Esme in a seat and home sessions, became part of how we stayed active.

In the early months I didn’t chase performance. I just tried to move when I could and enjoy it when I did, occasionally entering events just to be part of them rather than to compete. Over time that changed, but it took 18 months for me to feel like I wanted to set a new, outcome (marathon) goal again.

Support, perspective, and change

Throughout all of this, I leaned heavily on Tom, on friends, and on family, even when I didn’t always find it easy to accept help. That support mattered more than I probably realised at the time.

I continued to (and still do) find inspiration in other elite and former elite athletes who have children, but also in athletic friends going through exactly the same shift, trying to rebuild their own routines and identities. We created a local group called the Fit Mums, and we supported, helped and encouraged each other – they are still (fit) friends to this day. Esme is now 10. She’s active, outdoorsy, courageous, adventurous and slightly bonkers - but has absolutely zero interest in anything triathlon-related!

As for me... I'm still active, I still train, I still love to race. I have done marathons, ultra-marathons, huge bike rides, hikes, endurance swims and more. My love for sport hasn’t changed, but I come at it with a slightly different perspective, a different focus and a renewed love for what being active brings me and my whole family.

Further reading

• The Pregnant Athlete: Lessons from an IRONMAN® World Champion
• How many hours should athletes train during pregnancy?
• Running on empty: A World Champion's battle with REDs