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Triathlete Gwen Jorgensen runs up to 100 miles per week—while 7 months pregnant

Triathlete Gwen Jorgensen is running more at 28-weeks pregnant than she did when training for the Rio Olympics.
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Triathlete Gwen Jorgensen is 28-weeks pregnant, but she’s actually running more now than she was when she was training for the Olympics.

“I did three weeks where I did 100 miles a week, which is more than double what I was doing when I was training,” the Red Bull athlete, 31, tells PEOPLE. “The first trimester I actually wasn’t doing much because I was so tired and exhausted, so I would work out once a day instead of [my usual] three times a day. After I started feeling better and having a little more energy, I’m back to two workouts a day. I’m doing a lot of running right now because that’s when I feel best.”

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Jorgensen now does a mix of running, “easy” swimming, occasional bike rides and intense gym sessions at least three days a week. And while she’s able to be active, being pregnant has obviously slowed Jorgensen down from her peak performance times—which she’s totally fine with.

“As I get heavier I slow down, and I have to take a lot of bathroom breaks which turns into a little bit of walking, so I’m out there for a long time, an hour and a half to two hours every day running,” she says. “I’m not training for anything right now, so I’m just trying to stay relatively fit. I don’t have a plan, I just take everything as it comes. Some days I’m running 9-minute per mile, and some days I can run a 5:15-mile. It’s varying a lot, and that just depends on how I feel.”

Jorgensen has prioritized staying active while pregnant for both her physical and mental health.

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“It’s very healthy for both the baby and the mom to stay active,” she says. “There’s less risk of diabetes and things like that if you stay healthy and active, so that’s definitely a huge reason, but it also keeps me mentally happy. I feel best when I’m active.”

And the elite athlete hopes to be able to continue running for the remainder of her pregnancy.

“I’d love to be able to run the day I give birth!” she says. “That would be ideal.”

But she’s prepared to take a bit of a break once the baby is born.

“Every doctor I’ve talked to has said that even if everything goes perfectly, you need at least 10 days of no running or exercise to let everything heal,” says Jorgensen. “But my long-term plan is to race in 2018 and make it to [the Summer Olympics in] Tokyo 2020.”

This story was originally published on People.com.