Health & fitness: Keep moving during pregnancy

My partner and I are 14 weeks pregnant with our third child and, although I have managed to exercise throughout our other two pregnancies, running the challenging 14 kilometres of Sydney's iconic race may be beyond my capabilities at 27 weeks' pregnant.

Exercising while pregnant has been proven to be beneficial to both mother and child and I am a big advocate of staying active for as long as you can. But you should always be guided by your healthcare professional first.

I am, however, planning to do the 10-kilometre event at the Winery Running Festival held at the vineyards on July 19 and 20, which should put me around the 23- or 24-week mark. I am sure people will have opinions on this - some supportive and some not so.

From my experience, you get some strange looks when you exercise with a growing belly.

"You're really shaking up that baby, love", is what one older gentleman told me once.

But it is not like I will be trying to do it at race pace - I will just be going at my own pregnant, stop-10-times-to-go-to-the-toilet pace in an attempt to stay active.

If you are looking for a winter fitness goal or challenge, then both the Winery Running Festival, which offers distances of five kilometres to 42 kilometres, and the City2Surf are great.

The City2Surf was 12 weeks away as of yesterday, so there is still plenty of time to train for it.

In an attempt to keep the Hunter moving as the weather becomes less inviting, I plan to offer some training suggestions for what you might do to get yourself in shape for both of these events. And even if you are not keen to do either, you might benefit from the sessions.

Aim for three sessions per week of intervals, strength and cardio, and a long run or walk. The long run is aimed to build your endurance and should be done at a comfortable "chat pace".

If you are aiming to do the 14-kilometre race for the first time, then a good place to start would be four to six kilometres or 30 to 40 minutes, and you can gradually build up your distance over the next few months.

You can do two shorter runs/walks, also at chat pace, during the week as well. These might be 20 to 25 minutes to start with.

Here is a strength and cardio session to try and next week I will offer a start-up interval session:

■ Five-minute easy warm-up with dynamic stretching

■ 10 squats

■ 10 push-ups

■ 10 short shuttles (20m) walk or run

■ Repeat

■ 10 lunges

■ 10 pull-ups/rows

■ 10 short shuttles (walk/run)

■ Repeat

■ 10 to 20 step-ups

■ 10 to 20 running arms with light dumbbells

■ 10 short shuttles (walk/run)

■ Repeat

■ Finish with some core work then five to 10 minutes of static stretching.

Hopefully a few out there will take on the challenge of one or both of these events, or just get moving.