The New Mom Training Schedule

I used to be big into training schedules. I would compare and debate the merits of Higdon vs. FIRST, Galloway vs. Pfitzinger, scouring each for the perfect alchemy of timing, time, pace, frequency, intensity and distance that would transform me into an flawlessly-conditioned racing machine. Would doing an easy run on Saturday before my long run Sunday (as per Higdon) help me by training me to run on tired legs, or hinder me by sapping the energy from such a key workout? Would ramping up my long run to race pace at the end (as per Pfitzinger) get me primed for race day, or burn me out before I toed the startline? How many days of running per week (a mere 3 for FIRST;  5-6 for the rest) were optimal for building endurance, but also allowing recovery? I asked and re-asked these questions over the course of training for six marathons and countless halfs in the span of four years. While I never settled on one plan that was an ideal fit, I was a firm believer that each was, for the right runner, a precise and foolproof recipe for success. And to train *without* such a schedule was to be without a safety net – to be ridiculously under-prepared for an endurance test that can’t be faked.

Then, baby Alexandra arrived, and precise training schedules were replaced by demand feedings, erratic sleeping, and a newfound fixation with diaper absorbency that has by far outstripped my old obsession with moisture-wicking running clothes. How, exactly, was I going to manage to follow a training schedule when I couldn’t predict what the next 15 minutes would hold, let alone the entire day or week? In the wise words of my training partner Sylvie, a multiple marathoner and mom of two, the new mom’s training schedule can only consist of “running whenever you can, sleeping whenever you must, and accepting that you will just always, always feel tired.”

And so it has been. I’ve ditched a tidy training calendar and its comfortingly boxed workouts to be crossed off week by week; instead, I’m training for the Ottawa Half-Marathon according to the following guidelines (since calling it a “schedule” is just too much of a stretch):

Run at least three times a week; although sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less.

Don’t let more than two days pile up between running days; although sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t.

When you have a chance to run…RUN! Even if it’s the day after a tough long run, or an especially sleepless night. If I waited for an ideal opportunity to get out the door, I just wouldn’t. Ever. Even to pick up the newspaper.

Give each run each week a purpose – short and zippy, long and easy, I try to change it up each time I go out in the vain hope that a bit of variety is at least sort of like having a training schedule.

Everything counts. I used to think anything under 5k wasn’t worth it; now I secretly count a brisk jog across the street to catch a traffic light towards my total weekly mileage.

No matter how many other runs I miss that week, the long run is sacred. And yes, there are weeks where the long run has been my only run.

Am I out of my comfort zone by taking such a relatively-unstructured approach to training? You betcha. But I also feel oddly liberated, like I’m truly setting my own course for the first time – one that fits me as both a runner, and a mother.