My Life In Training Post Baby

I was asked a couple weeks ago to share what my training looks like. I can say it’s not the same now that I have an infant at home and I am breast feeding. My mileage is not where I want it to be, but I have learned to accept my limits and be gentle on my recovering body. 

Since I am deep into marathon training, I am running higher mileage weeks. I make my own training plan and tailor it to my needs and my lifestyle. I stick to it religiously as much as I am allowed, learning to not be too tough on myself if it needs to be altered a bit. I have learned that our body after child birth needs to be taken care of, and I wasn’t gentle on it at first. My recovery after races isn’t as fast and I have many workouts where I am drained mentally and physically. 

I have allowed myself more grace, as I dive into motherhood, finish my Masters, and continue to work outside the home part time, trying to learn to balance it all. I realize that for now I can’t run 70-80 mile weeks, but 50-60 mile weeks during peak training are enough, and at times may be too much.  

During marathon training my running program looks like the following (slightly different then what it did pre baby): 

• Monday – 8-10 miles, comfortable pace followed by strength training (core, arms & legs) for 30-45 minutes. Stretching 
• Tuesday – 4-5 easy miles with strides, followed by 15-20 minute yoga & light stretching. (Lately the yoga has been scratched, you do what you can do when you have kids). 
• Wednesday  – These are my double days. I start with 7-10 miles, speed work or hill work. These days include hill repeats or hill sprints, track workouts, intervals, mile repeats, goal race pace target workouts etc. followed by strength training (core, arms & legs) 30-45 minutes in the a.m. Stretching – I  do another run in the afternoon of 3 easy miles on most Wednesday’s with stretching. 
• Thursday’s – Rest Day 
• Friday – 8-10 miles, comfortable pace or a few miles at race pace (tempo run), followed by 10 minutes of core & stretching.
• Saturday- long run, this can be any distance from 16-22 miles. I add 1 minute pickups thought the run or tempo miles at the end of the run.
• Sunday- 4-5 easy miles with strides and with yoga and stretching. 

Weekly mileage – 50- 65 miles. 

*sometimes I through in some Tabata workouts or other HIIT workouts. 

If I am not training for a marathon, I keep in 1/2 marathon shape because I am always throwing in a race here and there spontaneously. I also like keeping a base, but my mileage is lower during this time. Most of the year I am in training. Off season running may look like this:

• Monday – 8 miles or 1 hour of running with strength training 
• Tuesday – 4-5 easy miles (maybe strides), plus yoga
• Wednesday – 7-8 miles, hills or speed work (depends on my mood) with strength training 
• Thursday – 4-5 easy miles (maybe strides) yoga 
• Friday – 8 miles, core work 
• Saturday – long run 10-16 miles, core work
• Sunday – Rest day 

Total mileage – 35- 50

Some days I may skip strength training because of time constraints or my body feeling too tired. Other weeks I may add another day of strength training. I find strength training to be important to a runners training and overall fitness. It helps prevent injury.

Speed workouts are essential to increasing fitness and becoming a stronger and faster runner. It helps the body become used to goal pace and still running fast when fatigued. They are great for adding variety as well.  

With breast feeding, and less sleep I have been careful to listen to the body and make alterations if need be. It’s important to keep my calories up during training as well, especially since I am nursing. 

So thats my training in a nutshell currently. I am learning to go with the flow when need be, and adapting to less mileage. It feels like too much mileage at times, and other weeks not enough. But I take it one mile at a time. I am just about 8 months post partum, and still not feeling 100% myself. It takes time to heal I guess 😉 

Until Next Time Be Whole and Be Fit