What are your thoughts and feelings on pregnancy so far?

I've been enjoying it more than I thought I would. It's a crazy experience in mostly a very good way, but it's also just been so surprising to experience how much changes so quickly in my body. I guess that’s the same for every woman, but from a professional athlete perspective, I think about it in relation to how everything is so different in my body compared to how I feel when training, recovering, and racing. It's amazing that my body can grow a human.

How have you found exercising and staying active while pregnant so far?

My takeaway from everything that I have read and gathered from conversations with fellow athletes who have had kids is it's pretty much up to me with what I want to do, focusing on what feels right to me and what feels good, and I’ve found this changes by the day, and sometimes even the hour.

Sometimes it's a physical feeling and sometimes it's a mental feeling. Right now, exercise is just about staying happy and enjoying it. I don’t have structure, a triathlon coach, or input from anyone. I guess the coolest thing now is that I’ve been working with a strength coach who works specifically with pregnant women, and I’ve really enjoyed that. In general, the motivation to train kind of comes and goes, and that’s fine.

What have you enjoyed about strength training while pregnant?

When I get to the gym I have nothing to compare to. I'm just there doing something completely different to swim, bike, and run, and it feels amazing. There's just something about lifting heavy weights and pushing heavy weights that feels so good. There's so much that goes into birthing a baby, changes through my pelvic floor, etc. where the right strength training is applicable. Plus, this strength will transfer over to my swim, bike, and run, when I get back into training post-baby.

Before pregnancy, I’d do more functional fitness strength sessions, knowing I’d still need to execute swim, bike, and run workouts, alongside being strong. I had been doing strength training maybe three times a week, 30 to 45-minute sessions. Now I'm doing 90-minute strength sessions and more heavy lifting, all adapted for pregnancy!

Can you swim while pregnant?

Yes, absolutely. Swimming feels so good! The fact that you are weightless, as well as the healing nature of water, makes my body more relaxed and takes the strain off my joints and ligaments. I find my muscles get sore really easily right now, so getting in the water just makes everything feel better. I feel like I will be swimming right up until the end of my pregnancy, for sure.

With my swimming, I have just been going with the flow concerning structured sessions. With my squad, I let the others choose what to do and I adapt what they’re doing, or I'll either sit out of 50, or I'll do a set with fins—just adapt to make it so that I can do a workout with them in some way. I try to push myself, but some days I get there and I'm like, wow, I can't push today, and that’s just fine.

I have also been looking up and following workouts from the FORM App. I love the ease and simplicity of the goggles guiding me through a workout, so when I’m swimming on my own, I look through the FORM workouts.

What other activities have you enjoyed doing that you wouldn’t normally do?

Hiking! I've taken time to do more hikes. I've also realized that I can integrate this into my training because if you book it up the mountain, then it becomes very aerobic. At present, I'm just hiking up and my heart rate is elevated, and sometimes I’ll run down, depending on the trail. I could easily replace a long run with a hike. Hikes are just so enjoyable to me.

Lots of dog walks. Some gravel biking too - being a bit more adventurous. Yoga or stretching too—to decompress and for time spent consciously breathing.

How have you found eating—nutrition and hydration—while being pregnant?

I guess the difficult thing with eating for me has been that I haven't had food aversions per se, but cooking has been a huge turn-off. I normally love baking and cooking, but I just don’t have the desire to cook meals for myself at all right now. If we go out to eat, I can have the most beautiful salad, but when I get home and look at the veggies in my fridge, I can't put that together in a bowl myself. It’s so weird.

I have also found it has been better to eat smaller amounts more frequently. I’m always trying to snack more at the moment.

Do you miss racing, and what does the future look like for you?

While I don't have huge FOMO right now, there are moments when I miss racing, and I really miss the feeling of pushing myself. I'm already thinking about next year, but I'm not putting a lot of pressure on myself.

My big goal is to race Kona next year. I already have a slot, which would be ten and a half months post-baby, give or take. There’s so much I don’t know at this point in time, such as childcare, schedules, etc., but if I can race sometime toward mid-summer, and then Kona, that would be ideal, but we’ll see.

How do you plan to approach your comeback?

I am of the mindset that putting unnecessary pressure on myself isn't worth it. It's not worth it for my health, my sanity, or for my baby. I'm just not going to put the pressure on myself. But I do love having the goal of Kona for next year. So there's no pressure, but there is still the goal.

I want to take the necessary time to recover postpartum and not set the expectation that as a female elite athlete, I and other women should be expected to be back racing within 3 or 4 months of having a baby. The better I recover post-birth, the stronger I believe I will be long-term.

I've heard it firsthand, athlete moms sharing that they came back too fast and that they are now paying for it mentally or physically. I don't want to set that precedent at all, and I don't want the industry to expect that of us as postpartum women. At the same time, I am a professional athlete, and I do think I can come back strong once I’m recovered and ready after giving birth. It will be a test of my patience to let myself have the rest I need, but I really do believe it will help me have a stronger season next year. I'm excited to get back to what I love doing!

We’re super excited for Skye’s journey into motherhood. During pregnancy, Skye launched her ‘Skye’s The Limit’ podcast sharing fellow athletes' journeys through pregnancy, parenthood, and professional sport. Be sure to have a listen, while you can also follow Skye on Instagram here!