Excerpt — Running for Women

Metabolism refers to all of the energy-requiring chemical reactions occurring inside your body. At any one time, trillions of reactions are going on inside of you, including the growth of new tissue, muscle contraction, and the breakdown of food for energy.

Recommendations for exercise during pregnancy have undergone significant modifications since 1985. Initial guidelines placed restrictions on exercise intensity and duration, limiting women to a heart rate of less than 140 beats per minute and restricting exercise to 15 minutes or less.

Although stress fractures and patellofemoral pain syndrome are the most common running-related injuries among women, other overuse injuries can occur in female runners, including iliotibial band syndrome, plantar fasciitis, and Achilles tendonitis. These injuries are common in both recreational and experienced runners who increase their training load too quickly.