How Training for Ultras Can Empower Your Pregnancy Journey with Carla Meijen PhD and Stephanie Howe PhD | KoopCast Episode #184
Episode overview:
Carla Meijen comes back on the podcast to discuss her newest book Empowered Birth which takes lessons learned during training and racing and translating and reframes them to empower the pregnancy and birthing process.
Episode highlights:
(9:20) Stephanie’s athlete-pregnancy journey: mental and physical pain, the unknown, adapting plans, personal anecdote, pushing through pain
(44:27) Conflicting athletic and maternal identities: athletic journeys evolve over decades, maternal journeys evolve over months, unfair expectations for shifting identity, identity takes experience and time
(50:00) The post-pregnancy athletic journey: bumps in the road, sick toddlers, avoiding expectations of linear progress, tapping into support, the post-baby PB, process goals
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: previous episode with Carla, Empowered Birth, bringing on Stephanie Howe
(2:45) Carla’s books: putting a framework around sports psychology, giving thanks
(4:05) Empowered Birth: applying strategies from sports psychology to empower pregnancy, building strength, challenge states, personalized approaches, reflection, applications to women in and out of sport, example
(7:30) Tackling novel experiences: relying on what you know, creating a framework for overcoming the unknown
(9:20) Stephanie’s athlete-pregnancy journey: mental and physical pain, the unknown, adapting plans, personal anecdote, pushing through pain
(11:04) Control the controllables: perceived control and positive challenge, vicarious experiences, awareness of what is under your control, example
(14:22) Building awareness: realize what is and is not under your control, the demands of the situation, RPE 10/10 for hours, trust medical staff
(16:00) Athletes and control: FIRO-B assessment, emotional needs test, athletes want control, accepting lack of control, autonomous goals, avoiding do-or-die goals, set goals at different levels, gaining control by moving up and down the goal ladder
(19:58) Accepting lack of control in novel situations: flexibility is key, race strategy analogy, confidence from adapting to unknowns in the past, have a strategy not a plan
(23:00) Goals and strategies: process versus endpoint goals, breathing example, building routines to change foci, tuning in versus dissociating from pain, examples
(24:59) Your relationship with pain is malleable: previous two episodes with Dr. Scott Frey, examples, Stephanie’s perception of pain, RPE 10/10 becomes 5/10
(26:20) Personalizing your experience: a general principle of coaching, generic advice is easy to forget, know your strengths and weaknesses, examples, find what is meaningful to you, creating positive challenge states
(30:44) Stephanie’s personalized experience: there is a ton of information out there, ignoring the noise, focus on what you know about yourself
(32:20) Seeking or not seeking academic advice: maternal instincts, confidence, when to seek help and when to listen to yourself, colloquialized advice, static training program analogy
(35:40) Practicing strategies for pregnancy: personal examples, practicing strategies under pressure, the framework in Carla’s book helps translate intention to action, recognizing and deploying your tools
(38:19) Identity and motherhood: Stephanie’s example, developing identity takes time, evolving sports identity
(40:30) Changing physical capacity: 8 min/mile to 10 min/mile example, increased effort, parallels to overcoming injury, you can stay active during pregnancy
(42:38) The post-baby PB: regaining control, athlete identity and maternal identity take time, examples, conflicting identities, challenges with comparison
(44:27) Conflicting athletic and maternal identities: athletic journeys evolve over decades, maternal journeys evolve over months, unfair expectations for shifting identity, identity takes experience and time
(46:07) Challenges of social media: Stephanie’s personal experience, struggling to be publicly relevant as an athlete, merging athletic and maternal identity, social media creates unfair expectations
(48:10) Try not to forecast fitness: some women return immediately, some take years, take things as they come, example of doing workouts without a watch, social media can offer support or pressure
(50:00) The post-pregnancy athletic journey: bumps in the road, sick toddlers, avoiding expectations of linear progress, tapping into support, the post-baby PB, process goals
(52:02) Lessons from pregnancy: using pregnancy to empower your life and sport, miscarriage and guilt, decompressing from major emotional events, finding meaning and strength in your journey
(56:00) Stephanie’s post-pregnancy journey: growth as an athlete, dealing with the unexpected, emphasizing consistency and personal fulfillment over perfection, learning to forgive yourself
(57:58) Stephanie’s post-pregnancy athletic identity: different is not worse, balancing life and sport, perspective from motherhood
(1:00:04) Reflection: anecdotes and research on changing identities, examples, reflecting on your ability to change
(1:01:39) Koop’s takeaways: forget the forecasting, individual experiences, the power of reflection, examples, maternity is not a competition
(1:04:22) Stephanie’s takeaways: dealing with factors outside of your control, postpartum as the fourth trimester, vulnerability and reflection, lean into your identity, changing approach to control
(1:08:06) Carla’s takeaways: feeling overwhelmed is okay, reflect on what you have achieved, use your support, giving up control, tuning into process goals and flexibility, mental strategies, pace yourself, your journey is your own
(1:10:20) Wrap-up: where to find Carla’s book, links in the show notes, Empowered Birth is not just for new mothers, giving thanks
(1:12:21) Outro: check out Carla’s book, Western States next week
Additional resources:
You can find Carla’s book on her website or Amazon
Papers discussed-
Pregnancy and motherhood in elite sport
Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible
Information on coaching-
Koop’s Social Media
Twitter/Instagram- @jasonkoop