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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is about how to find time to get faster.

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Speaker 1: Lots of people have athletic goals that involve pushing past

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Speaker 1: their current limits. Finding time to do that in a

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Speaker 1: busy life can be challenging, but it is not impossible.

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Speaker 1: I believe that even people with jobs and families can

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Speaker 1: decide to get in what is perhaps the best shape

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Speaker 1: of their lives. Today's episode was inspired in part by

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Speaker 1: my co host on my other podcast, Best of Both Worlds.

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Speaker 1: Sarah Hartunger, a practicing physician mom of three, has long

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Speaker 1: been a committed recreational runner. However, like many people in

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Speaker 1: the busy years, she hadn't been training particularly seriously. A

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Speaker 1: few years ago, she ran a five k at about

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Speaker 1: a nine minute mile pace. For many of us, that

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Speaker 1: would be perfectly fine, but Sarah had a long time

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Speaker 1: goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. For any non

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Speaker 1: runners listening to this, the Boston Marathon famously requires people

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Speaker 1: to get a fast enough time in another marathon in

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Speaker 1: order to participate. For women in their early forties, this

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Speaker 1: time is three hours and forty minutes for twenty six

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Speaker 1: point two miles, which works out to about an eight

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Speaker 1: minute and twenty three second mile. In other words, Sarah

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Speaker 1: was going to have to get significantly faster than her

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Speaker 1: nine minute mile pace and be able to sustain that

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Speaker 1: pace for many more miles than she was doing. It

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Speaker 1: sounds daunting, but she decided to try. She hired a

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Speaker 1: coach to help her plan out her workouts. Then she

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Speaker 1: did them mostly in the morning before going to work.

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Speaker 1: By being out the door by about five thirty am.

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Speaker 1: On any given day, she could run until six forty

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Speaker 1: five am and be back in time to help get

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Speaker 1: her three kids ready for school and get herself to

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Speaker 1: the office to start seeing patients. On Saturdays, she would

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Speaker 1: often run from five thirty am to eight am or

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Speaker 1: so in order to do her long runs. Sundays were

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Speaker 1: generally off from running. On some level. This is a

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Speaker 1: lot of running. In seventy five minutes on a weekday morning,

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Speaker 1: she could run eight to nine miles, depending on the pace.

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Speaker 1: On a weekend long run, she could run fifteen to

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Speaker 1: twenty miles, depending on what the coach asks for. If

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Speaker 1: she was doing about eight miles on five weekdays and

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Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty on weekends. That is fifty five to

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Speaker 1: sixty miles per week. On the other hand, it's not

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Speaker 1: that much time either. Seventy five minutes times five is

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Speaker 1: six hours and fifteen minutes during the work week. Add

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Speaker 1: another two point five hours for a long run, and

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Speaker 1: we are still under nine hours for the week. According

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Speaker 1: to the annual American Time Use Survey, the average American

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Speaker 1: spends two point seven nine hours per day watching television,

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Speaker 1: which comes out to more than nineteen hours per week.

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Speaker 1: Shift less than half of that over into the running category,

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Speaker 1: and serious training to get faster becomes a possibility. Now

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Speaker 1: it's not quite that simple, of course, people tend not

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Speaker 1: to watch TV at the same time when they would

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Speaker 1: be running, but time can be malleable with some planning.

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Speaker 1: Rather than watching TV at night, Sarah would go to

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Speaker 1: betterly like by about nine thirty or nine forty five

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Speaker 1: pm most nights in order to be up on time

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Speaker 1: to run. Shift time around a bit, and passive evening

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Speaker 1: leisure time turns into active morning leisure time. Some days

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Speaker 1: Sarah couldn't run because of travel or illness, but mostly

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Speaker 1: she did, and as she increased her mileage and did

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Speaker 1: the speed work her coach prescribed. She did start to

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Speaker 1: get faster. Over the course of a year or so,

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Speaker 1: those nine minute miles became her leisurely pace. She built

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Speaker 1: up her endurance. Then in May she ran the Bayshore

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Speaker 1: Marathon in Michigan in about three hours and thirty five minutes,

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Speaker 1: five minutes under the Boston qualifying time, and at a

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Speaker 1: pace of approximately eight minutes and twelve seconds per mile.

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Speaker 1: All this was while taking care of her patients, running

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Speaker 1: her family, and of course co hosting a podcast with me.

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Speaker 1: I find this very inspiring. We often think of exercise

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Speaker 1: as a good thing to do for health or stress relief.

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Speaker 1: People train seriously when they are young, or if they're

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Speaker 1: doing some sort of competitive sports. We don't train seriously

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Speaker 1: as middle aged people with a lot of responsibilities, but

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Speaker 1: we can. I am not personally aiming to qualify for Boston,

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Speaker 1: but I do think with some work I could get

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Speaker 1: significantly stronger and significantly faster than I am now. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: if we devote nine hours to anything in life each

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Speaker 1: week with a desire to get better, we probably will.

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Speaker 1: It's always easier not to, but it is always a possibility.

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Speaker 1: We all have twenty four hours in a day. It's

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Speaker 1: just a matter of what we do with them in

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Speaker 1: the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's

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Speaker 1: to making the most of our time. Thanks for listening

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Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

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Speaker 1: you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

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Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite show. Yes