An ecstatic SBS+ Tom after both of them owned a marathon in the Twin Cities.

Another mother runner’s husband, Tom Karp, jumped into a bright orange book and on the mother runner train as he stared down the 2012 Twin Cities Marathon. He volunteered to write this post and we took him up on it because a) it comes in handy after a long weekend like this one and more importantly, b) we were thrilled he had such success with the plan. Or maybe he just felt guilty because I helped him put his shoes back on and tied them after the race; he had just gotten up from sitting down, and I sensed that reaching his shoes felt as hard as running another 26.2.

To put things in perspective I should begin by mentioning that I’m a man and I’m 46. I’ll also add that I’m 6’2” and I that I could lose a few pounds.

My marathon story: at the age of 41, after years of running, I decided to run my first marathon. I found a plan online and stuck to it. That was in 2006.  Then I did it again in 2008 and 2011.  My times:
2006  4:45:11
2008  4:27:55
2011  5:13:18In 2012 I did 26.2 yet again. Drum roll, please: 4:02:00As the old Sesame Street song goes, “One of these things is not like the others”.  What happened?  I trained like a mother!

When I was thinking about doing the race, I picked up a book my wife was reading, Train Like a Mother. I  skimmed over some pages that didn’t seem to apply to my life–stuff about periods; sports bras; running after having a baby; and other issues men simply and thankfully do not have to deal with–and then I hit upon The Marathon: Own It Plan.

It caught my eye right away because there was a key attached that explained the terminology in the plan.  There were symbols that made sense to me like coffee cups (you can bail on the workout if your life doesn’t allow you to get it in) and water bottles (no bailing allowed; it’s a key workout to get you across the finish line). One of my problems has always been that 800 x 4 never made much sense to me, but  this plan, that explained every workout and then some,  made sense to me, a working, 46-year–old father of two.

After taking on 18 miles, Tom poses with his righteous posse: a bunch of badass mother runner.

Clearly, given my race record, I had nothing to lose. I put the plan into an excel spread sheet, rearranged the order of some of the days to fit my schedule, printed it and put it on the refrigerator.  And I followed the plan (except for that summer vacation week).
The previous plans I followed had me running more and further each week until race time. I felt like I was just piling on more and more of the same miles over the course of the summer. For me, that was a recipe for exhaustion and boredom.
The Own It Plan mixed things up, offered flexibility each week, allowed me to drop a day if I needed to and never made me feel like I was doomed if a particular run didn’t go as well as I had hoped.  Thinking back to my training in 2008, I remember having a horrible long run and the plan I was following had me running even further the next week and the week after. This hit me pretty hard psychologically; I always felt ‘behind’ even though the race had not started.

In the Own It Plan, if a run doesn’t go well you’ll either get a chance to do the same run again or get a step back to a shorter run before you attempt a longer distance. Simply put, it allows you more opportunity to taste success–and thus, stay motivated–than other plans.And the speed work included in the plan did wonders for my time!  I’ve never been a fan of intervals or fartleks or anything where I really had to consciously run super hard.  But, for whatever reason, the speed work in the Own It Plan, came far easier to me. Don’t get me wrong: it still kicked my butt, but I didn’t dread it like I have in the past. The tempo runs and runs with ‘strides’ obviously played a huge role in making my 2012 TCM time a huge PR.

Seriously, a 28-minute PR at age 46. Who does that? I do.I’m now telling my father friends to suck up their pride and stick to a mother’s plan.  These women seem to know what they’re doing: The Own It Plan, whether you’re a mother, father, child-free or swimming in diapers, is a sure way to improve your running.

Or put another way, Badass Mother Runners know best!
We’ve heard some great success stories on our Facebook page, but would love to gather them all in one place. Have you tasted success on one of the training plans from Train Like a Mother? Also important for us to know: have you had issues or failures with them? We welcome all feedback, and thank you in advance for it.
Also, if you haven’t tried a plan yet, here are links to the 5K Finish It and Half-Marathon Finish It plans for free.