Mitchell on the Manchester boards that yielded a world masters title just four months after childbirth
By Caroline Martinez
Last October, Ireland welcomed its newest track Masters World Champion in Manchester when, at the age of 36, Susie Mitchell became the new Individual Pursuit champion in her age category.
World stripes were certainly not something the Carlow native was expecting, having just had a baby only four months previously. Mitchell had only just been introduced to track racing in the summer of 2011, during a women’s training day.
With a background in adventure racing and running, she was already pretty well conditioned for the high demands of track racing. And after participating in the Sundrive Track Autumn League, with her new Club Sundrive Track Team, she entered the 2011 World Masters with no other intention but to gain more experience.
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“Once the track season was over I competed in the Dublin Cyclocross League. Cyclocross was something I had always wanted to try and I thought it complimented the track nicely since the races were short and fast,” she said.
After winning the women’s category of the 2011 Supercross Cup, the natural progression was to ride the National Cyclocross Championships in January of 2012. However there was no Susie Mitchell on the start line.
“I got pregnant around the time of the track nationals but didn’t want to give up the bike. I had only just started and was having too much fun.”
A few months pregnant at the time, she decided to skip the cyclocross nationals but to keep training as an experiment.
“I was initially concerned about being pregnant and how that would affect my ability to exercise. I generally found the information available limited and pretty conservative so I decided to do my own research into it and work out what I could and couldn’t do.”
“I was lucky to find a great book written by a medical doctor on exercise and pregnancy which was refreshingly un-conservative and based on good scientific research. I based a lot of my training on that. Also I got one great piece of simple advice from someone: ‘listen to your body’. That was probably the best thing anyone said to me.”
“I was also lucky to have a very open-minded experienced obstetrician who encouraged me to keep going ‘until you can go no longer’.”
That was advice that Mitchell took.
“Pregnancy didn’t really affect my training and racing in the first trimester, although I was probably a bit more cautious and less willing to jostle with the fellas on the starting line of the cyclocross races.”
“As time goes on during the pregnancy your body naturally slows down and you just have to base what you’re doing on feel. I found the gym great when I was pregnant. I used the cross trainer and the rowing machine; lifted weights and did core work. This all really stood to me after I had the baby and enabled me to regain my strength pretty quickly.”
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Mitchell and her husband Cormac had a little girl they called Tori at the start of last June, delivered by emergency C-section. It only took her three weeks to get back up on a track bike. Being a veterinarian certainly helped with her understanding of the healing process that goes with C section, having performed hundreds of them on four legged animals.
“I had to get back on the bike for my sanity. Being fit and exercising has always been something that defines who I am, and I didn’t want to let this go. I did a few of the autumn track league races five weeks after the birth and that felt OK, so I decided to compete in the National Olympic Omnium six weeks post-baby where to my surprise won a bronze medal.”
Following her success, she upped her training and went on to win another four national track medals, including a Team Sprint with Sundrive Track Team teammate Sarah Gunn.
“My coach and I never talked about winning medals, we just completely focussed on improving my times by working both on my fitness and the technical aspects of each event.”
She attributes her 2012 success to her not stopping training while pregnant.
“I think I got my fitness back pretty quickly as a result of all the training I did when I was pregnant. Even though much of this wasn’t at a very intense level, particularly near the end, I think any sort of training when pregnant is beneficial. The body is already under a physiological stress so pile a 70km spin on top of that and as it’s a bit like training at altitude.”
After Tori came along, Mitchell was even more determined to go to the Track Masters last October.
“If for nothing else I reckoned it would be fantastic to get three nights of unbroken sleep. My husband Cormac and my mum stepped in and minded her while I was away, even though I think both thought I was half mad to be doing this so soon after having the baby.”
Mitchell hopes to ride the track again this year and to compete and improve her times from last year, particularly in the pursuit. She also intends to go back to Manchester to defend her title. For now, she’s training as hard as she can, working as a vet and being a mum, which she describes as a real balancing act.
“At the moment I’m back at work two to three days a week and minding Tori on the other days. A supportive partner is a must, and thankfully Cormac is that. There were times last summer when I literally would hand him Tori as he walked in the door after work and I would slip out past him, gear and track bike in tow and escape for a training session.”
“Right from after Tori was born, when I was at home minding her whenever she went for a nap I tried do a session on the rollers. I would have everything ready, bike shorts on, water bottle full, then on the rollers less than two minutes after she was gone asleep. There are casualties to this approach though – like the housework! These sessions don’t always go according to plan either – there have been times when she has woken up just as I’ve finished my warm up and is demanding a bottle or a play-mate.”
The young mum is currently also working on writing a book about her experiences of exercising during her pregnancy and post-partum.
“People including doctors are afraid to give pregnant women anything but ultra conservative advice in case something happens. I’m writing the kind of book I would have liked to have read when I was pregnant and in the same situation. It’s also a story of an ordinary woman keeping her sport and training on the go because she didn’t want to lose this part of her identity just because she was also becoming a mom. The world champion part is the icing on the cake and will make a nice chapter at the end.”
Susie Mitchell Palmares, all during and after her pregnancy:
- 2011 Leinster Track Cycling Championships: 3rd in 500m TT
- 2011 Cyclocross; winner of Supercross Cup 2011
- 2012 National Olympic Omnium: 3rd
- 2012 National Team Sprint Champion
- 2012 National Track Cycling Championships: 3rd in Individual Pursuit, 2nd in 500m Time Trial
- 2012 World Masters Individual Pursuit Champion
Mitchell beat the best of the Australians and British to take her Masters world crown
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