Prioritizing time for personal athletic growth

This is an IHart podcast. guuaranteed human Hey listeners. Thanks to Suja orrganic cold pressed juices and shots I don't feel like I need a twenty step wellness routine to feel my best They have something for whatever you need I'll grab a gen juice like Mighty Dozen on busy mornings when I want easy nutrition or burry lemon gut health in the afternoon for a pick me up It tastes great and has probiotics and even prebiotic fiber which is what we're all looking for these days get real wellness from functional super ffoods Not from a trend your algorithm is pushing Suja's powerful cold pressed fruit and vegetable juices and daily wellness shots prove you don't need a wellness retreat to feel like you took one Sip and let the superfoods do the work the fads se wellness that actually works cold pressed, organic, and blended with benefits. Suj, orrganic Welcome to Before Breakfast. Prodion of IHart Radio Good morning This is Laura Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's tip is about how to find time to get faster Lots of people have athletic goals that involve pushing past their current limits Finding time to do that in a busy life can be challenging But it is not impmpossible I believe that even people with jobs and families can decide to get in what is perhaps the best shape of their lives Today's episode was inspired in part by my co host on my other podcast best of both worlds. Sarah Hart Unger A practicing physician and mom of three has long been a committed recreational runner However, like many people in the busy years She hadn't been training particularly seriously. A few years ago, she ran a five K at about a nine minute mile pace For many of us, that would be perfectly fine. But Sarah had a longime goal of qualifying For the Boston Marathon. For any non runners listening to this? The Boston Marathon famously requires people to get a fast enough time in another marathon. in order to participate For women in their early forties, this time is three hours and forty minutes for twenty six point two miles whichich works out to about an eight minute and twenty three second mile In other words Sarah was going to have to get significantly faster than her nine minute mile pace And be able to sustain that pace for many more miles. than she was doing. It sounds daunting But she decided to try. She hired a coach to help her plan out her workout Then she did them mostly in the morning before going to work by being out the door by about five thirty AM on any given day She could run until six forty five AM and be back in time to help get her three kids ready for school and get herself to the office. to start seeing patients On Saturdays she would often run from five thirty AM to eight A or so in order to do her long runs Sund days were generally off from running. On some level, this is a lot of running In seventy five minutes on a weekday morning, she could run eight to nine miles depending on the pace On a weekend long run, she could run fifteen to twenty miles deepending on what the coach asked for. If she was doing about eight miles on five weekdays and to twenty on weekends, that is fifty five. to sixty miles per week On the other hand, it's not that much time either Sventy five minutes times five is six hours and fifteen minutes during the work week add another two point five hours for a long run And we are still undernder nine hours for the week According to the annual American Time U Survey The average American spends two point seven nine hours per day watching television which comes out to more than nineteen hours per week. shhift less than half of that over into the running category and serious training to get faster. becomes a possibility Now it's not quite that simple, of course. People tend not to watch TV at the same time when they would be running But time can be malleable with some planning rather than watching TV at night Sarah would go to bed early By about nine thirty or nine forty five PM most nights. in order to be up on time to run Shift time around a bit and passive evening leisure time turns into active Morning leisure time Some days Sarah couldn't run because of travel or illness, but mostly She did. And as she increased her mileage and did the speed work her coach prescribed She did start to get faster Over the course of a year or so Th nine minute miles. became her leisurely pace. She built up her endurance thenen In May She ran the Bayshore Marathon in Michigan In about three hours and thirty five minutes Five minutes under the Boston qualifying time and at a pace of approximately eightight minutes and twelve seconds per mile. All this was well, taking care of her patients running her family And of course co hosting a podcast with me I find this very inspiring We often think of exercise as a good thing to do for health or stress relief People train seriously when they are young or if they're doing some sort of competitive sports We don't train seriously as middle aged people. with a lot of responsibilities can I am not personally aiming to qualify for Boston. But I do think with some work I could get significantly stronger and significantly faster than I am now Indeed, if we devote nine hours to anything in life each week with a desire to get better Probably will It's always easier not to It is always possibility We all have twenty four hours in a day