Run Training from Pregnancy into Motherhood

Announcer: This is the RunDot Podcast, the running show that brings you world-class coaching with every conversation. Let's get started with today's warmup.

Carrie Tollefson: Alright everybody, my goodness, three guests on the RunDot Podcast today. That's so fun. So Brady, you get to coach these two lovely ladies, huh?

Brady Hoover: I do, yeah. I've been working with Amanda for just over two years now and Kate and I date way back to two thousand and seventeen. We started working together and we've been along along for the ride ever since. They are very good students. Well No they're very good students.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. By the end of the podcast we're gonna dig a little deeper into that. But no

Brady Hoover: No, I feel like I feel like I'm gonna get ganged up on here with three ladies and just me and anyone to come to my defense here. I'm zone D right now.

Carrie Tollefson: for sure. For sure. You're definitely one on three here. but Amanda, I want to hear a little bit about how you got into this sport and how you came about having Brady coach you.

Amanda: Yeah. So I up until I met Brady, I was kind of a year half marathoner. And I would just kind of pick some random races, pick a random training program I found, and then just be like, I just want to finish or do better than last time. And then I got pregnant, had my daughter, and was really struggling getting back into running and It was something that really helped me a lot through like postpartum depression and a lot of things. And so I was signed up for a half marathon and my friend Katie was working with Brady and RunDot. And she's like, You should really try RunDot to get kind of back on your feet into running, just see how you like it. And so I think Brady and I did a call together right before the half marathon. And you kind of just like coached me through that race. And then after that, I was like, I want to do a marathon. And then we've kind of just been doing races together ever since and so glad I got into RunDot and so thankful for Brady because I just never thought I could be where I am today.

Carrie Tollefson: that's so fun to hear, Brady. Way to go.

Amanda: Yeah.

Brady Hoover: A lot of PRs for Amanda and we we're we're just getting started. We're not done yet.

Carrie Tollefson: it okay Kate tell us a little bit about your journey into the sport and then also how you connected with Brady.

Kate: So my poor husband actually I was getting a lot of running injuries and I think it was in it was like 2018 there was a triathlon. So I don't know if we go as far back as Brady said, but it's definitely before COVID. Definitely before I definitely like around time 2019, 2020, because 2018 I started triathlon and my husband was like, I want you to sign up for this. It was our YMCA and there was triathlon class and I was like, no, I don't want to do that. I want to be a runner, but I was having some really bad experiences with the run. I had a couple of bad marathons. I was really underfueling, a lot of injuries and getting down on myself. And of course, that vicious cycle of doing things that actually made me slower, thinking I was gonna get faster. I ended up joining the triathlon class. My husband said, I'll do it with you. fun so I ended up going I said all right I'll just give it a shot well I became obsessed and what it like to take over my life and my husband just the the first session but I ended up meeting like these amazing friends and I loved it so much and then One of my friends just mentioned, you know, you should work with Brady. And I said, okay, I'll give it a try. And then I we did a call and Brady and I were on for like an hour talking about bicycles. And my husband was just like, all right, hire him. I don't care how much he costs. If he'll talk to you about bicycles for an hour and you don't have to talk to me about it. and we've been through been through a lot. I've had quite a few injuries. we just Went to hopefully fixing my running gait, but I had I've had like three femoral stress fractures in two years. and that's along with also having a two-year-old. And so I was obviously pregnant. So I've been through a lot of things that I thought were gonna like derail me for good. And then I always seem to be able to come back stronger. So I'm really grateful for to Brady first sticking with me and getting through all of these rough patches because it's always worth it in the end. You know right now back to running, and I'm like, yep. I I can't I can't give this up.

Brady Hoover: They both get getting ready to run a marathon. So yeah, Kate and I have been through a lot of a lot of PRs together. A lot of you know, she's a runner before she's a triathlete, but she's had a lot of triathlon ex success. She even qualified for Kona at one point, at Maryland Ireland, Maryland. She's run Boston quite a few times, qualified quite a few times for Boston. Kate's working towards a marathon right now and so isn't Amanda. So I think our reunion will be Boston Marathon 2027 because I feel really good that if we can keep these ladies healthy, they're both they're both gonna run a a fast enough qualifying time to get in with a margin. yeah like Kate was saying she always you know we've had we've had our obstacles where ups and downs and every time she comes back she's coming back stronger. you know always you know she's worried about She's been worried about okay, I'm am I gonna come back? Am I gonna be at the same pace? How long is it gonna take me to gain the fitness? She has a great team, great medical team between Dr. Quinn, physical therapist Carrie. I'm trying to think who did the run gate analysis. What was her name, Katie? Kate. Whitney, yep. and a lot of the stuff when I saw Kate's most recent video, and I sent that over that my notes to Dr. Quinn, Dr. Quinn sends back Dr. Whitney's notes, and she's like, You two are aligned. I was like, Good. it's one of those things that run gate analysis we we've realized we need to do quite often every three to six months because things change, especially before baby and after baby, how your body moves, it changes even couple years past baby having a baby, it still continues to change as we get different imbalances in our muscle. We lose f flexibility, we gain flexibility depending on how much we're stretching, doing our mobility work, doing strength training, like the way our body moves can change. So we've realized it's something that we always have to be aware of and pay attention to and constantly screen and tweak.

Carrie Tollefson: So let's dig into that a little bit. so you both were with Brady before baby. Yeah. Correct? I

Amanda: I started with I was not, yeah. I started right after

Carrie Tollefson: Right after. Okay. So Brady, was this the first were these like two of your first women that you had coached like right after having a baby or, you know, going into that whole journey of motherhood?

Brady Hoover: In running, yes. Yeah. In the gym, I was a strength coach prior to being a run coach and a triathlon coach. so I haven't always worked with pregnant women in in the gym, both prior to being pregnancy through pregnancy and post pregnancy, but they were my first athletes that were like, Okay, we want to get back into or Amanda's like, I want to run my first marathon in Kate's like, I want to get back into long course racing.

Carrie Tollefson: Exactly. I mean the thing is like babies are so they're scary at times, right? I mean you think Am I gonna be the same after as I was before? Not only physically, mentally, but also like, what in the world is my life gonna be like? And for those of us who are athletes, it is a big I think it's a big commitment to say, Okay, this is especially women, we're gonna change our body. We're gonna go through all the different things that, you know comes with pregnancy, then we gotta figure out life after pregnancy. So it's a big thing. But I think when you have a good coach like you guys do in Brady, having that extra set of ears and eyes on you is so important. Amanda, why don't you talk a little bit about that? Like the recovery and then obviously having someone that has coached and he's a dad himself.

Amanda: Right. Yeah. I I had to get over a huge mental block when I was kind of doing things on my own postpartum. I was like, there is no way. I was running very like a lot slower than before. And I just didn't really quite know what to do to really get my body back. And it's I feel like there's so much that happens postpartum, especially when you go back to work, you're Juggling work. If you're breastfeeding, you're juggling that, daycare, like there's just so much more to think about. so thankful when I started with Brady, we just kind of like eased back into it. And I feel like all of the doubt that I had initially of I'm never gonna have my body back, I'm never gonna have this level of fitness that I once did, very quickly diminished with Brady, especially because he he's so good at explaining the science and Yeah. The Y of things, which is really helpful for me. like we need to do zone two for a little bit, we need to do more zone four, you know, X, Y, Z. We need to work on your strength because, you know, pelvic floor, all these things. so having someone to help me with then that transition was so helpful. And I'm actually bitter now than I was and faster now than I was pre-pregnancy, which is just crazy. And I'm just so excited to keep going.

Carrie Tollefson: I'd love to how old is your baby? Ooh, it's so fun. And is that one and only or do you have more now?

Amanda: she's my only one right now. I would like to have more. I would really like to qualify for Boston first, is kind of the goal. I love that's contingent on Boston, yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: Okay.

Kate: Yeah.

Brady Hoover: Yes and Boston has a great a great deferral policy for pregnant women. So you know, there is that. So maybe the reunion won't be till 2028, but then the whole family will come.

Carrie Tollefson: There you go. There you go. Or we still can do like Zooms, right? We can still do reunions over Zoom. That's fine. Kate, talk a little bit about you did kind of mention that you guys obviously were together before you were coach athlete before baby. But talk a little bit about your comeback after the baby. Like I always took a month off of no running. I don't know what you guys and what coach recommends, but for me, my coach and my agility coach, I had a couple of different coaches at the time. They did not want to see any evidence of birth, right? So for me, that was, you know, whether I was still bleeding or whether I was still feeling weak or whatever it was. But how about you? Like what was that journey like after baby? Cause you too have a one year old that I mean you have one baby that's about two.

Kate: Yeah, she's gonna be two in February.

Carrie Tollefson: It's so cute. Okay. Tell us about your journey.

Kate: Yeah, so Brady and I were together quite a while before Baby. And similar to a man's eye, I had a thing. I wanted to do an Iron Man before I had Baby. That was the funny thing too. I like when I first started traveling, I was like, there's like really crazy people to an Iron Man. I'm never gonna do that. Like those people are really weird. And then here I am. And I want I want to do another one now too. which I can't believe I'm saying, but and then I had some trouble getting pregnant. so that also kind of affected my training too. Just there was a lot of you know stress with that and depression. And then I call Ella, my daughter, my miracle, because literally we were about to start fertility treatment and we canceled the appointment because I was pregnant like a week before. and it was very scary for me, especially someone, you know, I'm someone with an eating disorder history, someone who's relied on triathlon for my mental health. So it was a really, really scary period. one thing I say, I guess I guess it's probably a good thing, but also a warning don't have your coach be part of your treatment team or like part of your team because like now Brady and my doctor are like best friends and I can't get away with like anything. It really, really sucks. I can't get away with anything. and I had to take so they were, but what was really good is I felt like I had it was kind of nice, like I really did not believe in myself. But to have kind of this team of people that believed in me sort of kept me going. And I was like, okay, you know what? Like, I'm gonna just see this out. And also kind of getting little things to look forward to, which I'm so kind of trying to make up new goals for myself. So instead of like, you know, when I was running while pregnant, instead of trying to, you know, PR, it was sort of like, can I run sub this while pregnant? Or can I run in this shirt that says baby on board? Or can I just do this pregnant? sort of thing. the return was a little rough for me because my doctor, I hope she listens to this because you just said a month off. Well, she made me take 12 weeks off, and I'm still sore with her about that. I mention every time we see each other. but to be fair, I did then end up doing a half iron man seven months postpartum. So all in all. They she wasn't wrong, it wasn't gonna, but I I but at least I I was cycling and swimming and getting back to other things in that time. But that for me was the most frustrating thing was like feeling like I had healed, but being told, well, your body's been through a lot and you you have to wait. And that was like really, really tough for me. And tough also seeing is a lot of people return earlier. And so there's a lot of comparisons. Every pregnancy is different, and that's been something I've had to really like. Try to tune out now is this is my journey. And even I tell other pregnant people too. I've coached a few I'm I'm a running coach myself. And so I've I I coach one person while she's right. I you know, you can't you can't know. And it doesn't mean you're less in shape or less of an athlete. It's just some people return faster than others, or some people can run long, some people can run all through pregnancy, some people have to stop. some people find different sports easier and there's really no rhyme or reason. so I think you're just having someone that knows you as an athlete. that's why I think coaches are good, because we're not machines, we're people with lives and complex histories.

Carrie Tollefson: I still agree with that. Like my coaches gave me a month, but I was a professional runner, so it was my job. so like there was probably a little bit more urgency to see if I was, you know, we were very careful and I didn't really get back from, you know, I didn't at that month was my first run back. It wasn't like, okay, here we go, you're gonna race. There were some athletes that I competed against that were already back a week after, but then there's other athletes that took three months. So I do think you're right. Like every athlete is different. Every woman is different. And it's like it is sort of on the coach and the doctor to be those people that say, we're gonna hold you back. Like we know you're good, but we also one of my favorite lines from my agility coach was get to know your baby. Like this is something, especially on your first. Like you've never had a baby before. Like take the time. You can run for the rest of your life, but this moment is gonna go away. And I really, really appreciated that. Do you have something to follow up there? I love chat.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, I found you know I have I have two kids but have not delivered a baby. So I feel like p prior to having a child, you have this one identity and then when you do have this child, you have a new identity. Like you're never gonna be that old you. You can carry a lot of the traits from that old you to new you. but now you have a baby and that baby is first and foremost, right? That baby is number one. Whereas, you know, maybe our ourselves should have been number one prior to that. Or maybe it was our spouse, maybe it was 50-50. but we could always control when we were going to work out and how we were, for the most part, how we were going to feel going into that workout. Whereas when you have a newborn, you know, you're dealing with being underslept, being over overworked and underslept. And I I don't mean like overworked, like working, it's like, you know, working as a mom, breastfeeding, all of these things that mothers are doing. you need to give yourself grace. And I kept on reminding these ladies is, you know, it's not about it's not about just checking off the boxes and completing the workouts because how they're prescribed or written. It's looking at the workout and saying, okay, Brady wants me to do four by six minutes at zone four today. Right. This is further down the road after baby. But that means Brady's giving me permission to do up to four by six. And I would remind Amanda and Kate, if the body, if you went for one and you went a couple of minutes in and the body pushed back or over underslept, whatever the circumstance is, just go zone two. Look at your heart rate and go for the duration, right? The duration of the workout is going to get us to that finish line. Yeah, the intervals are going to get us there a little bit faster. But it's that consistency over time. Yeah. And if we're listening to our body and our body says don't push today and we pull back. We're gonna stay healthy. Where if our body's telling us to hold back and we push forward, that's where we could get injured. Right. And I would remind that time of to push is not early on after the baby. It's all this give and take. Because if something was to if you did start running too early, it's gonna take longer to recover from whatever that injury was than the time off than if you just gave it those twelve weeks. Like the doctor gave us permission to swim as much as we want, to gradually increase the bike intensity. turned a lot of runners into triathletes. Amanda just because of very good at Okay, doctor, I can't do this, I can't do this, but what can I do? And when she's given permission to do something, she's good at pivoting and going down that other road of what can we do?

Amanda: Yeah.

Kate: Good friends, I'll work on it.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, Amanda, we're teasing you about becoming a triathlon or triathlete. Not a triathlon, a triathlete. You can clearly tell I'm not one. I can't even speak it right now. But I wanna know how you do it all. So, you know, you said you came back and, you know, you've been healthy now and you're trying to get all these big goals, qualify for Boston, do other things like that. but how do you fit it all in? How do you and Brady kind of structure your day so you can fit in this this training plus be mom, plus work, do all this stuff.

Amanda: Yeah, that's a that's a great question. I typically have to drop my daughter off around like six thirty and be at work about seven at the latest. And so have this amazing group of running moms that we go at like four thirty, five in the morning. And it's kind of nice to keep each other accountable that way or just be like, I don't have to go out on my own this morning. So that's been really helpful. I think just last week this happened with Brady and I, where I was like, I have an opportunity to spend entire day with my daughter and I need to like move some things around. And so Brady and I, I think we had to restructure like one of the zone four workouts so that I could move my long run. So I wouldn't be too tired for that workout. And so anytime something like that comes up, Brady's super accommodating to that. We'll also keeping the training moving along. But I mean Brady is so great at understanding How difficult it is and how little time we do have to train as moms and like working moms, especially. So that and just gosh, I don't know if I ever really get my laundry done. I feel like you just kind of have to like pick and choose things. And like, you know, sometimes there's just things you have to let go, which I'm still working on. But yeah, that's kind of like how I started getting

Kate: Yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: Like, do you guys use slot diapers? I had every intention and then after a while I'm like, Screw it, bring on the huggy.

Kate: I never even never even tried. Never even tried.

Amanda: Same. I couldn't do it. That was my original goal. Once and then never again.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, yeah. Kate, how about you? How do you structure your day?

Kate: Yes, I'm one thing I'm I'm fortunate. So I'm a professor. So my job has, you know, a lot of different stressors. but I do have a somewhat flexible schedule. So I'm not like nine to five sitting in an sitting in an office with six. So I try to really I I move things around all the time. One nice thing about being a triathlete too is I kind of just like brain, y'all see me moving things around all the time. I just kind of know the rule of like, you know, no two, like I can't run run. You know, two days in a row or can't do like two really hard things in a row. And but I'm just constantly moving things around and kind of going when I can. So when I get out and it's a lot of mental gymnastics. So that's why I think the hardest thing for me is like we kind of plan, like I kind of plan out my week. And thankfully my husband is really supportive too. So on the weekends, he will do something with the baby while I do like my long run. He he actually will run with her too, because now I'm not allowed to run with the stroller because of all my inmates. And he really doesn't mind. He's a weight he likes weightlifting. So to him, kind of like the running with the stroller. So he'll go with her and I'll do my long run or my long bike or both, depending on what I'm training for. And he knows that's something very important to me that I'm gonna come back and be a better mom after that. And I give up a lot of things. I think a lot of people don't realize is like this is my thing I love. and that doesn't actually necessarily be the thing you love. I think a lot of people feel like guilty or they look at me like, you're doing this and like you're making me feel bad. And it's like if you don't want to do it anymore, you want to take a break, like that's cool because there's a lot of other things I've taken a break from. Like, I don't, you know, I know some people don't work out as much as me or they don't stick with their sport, but they do an amazing job on taking care of their house and gardening and doing arts and crafts and doing a I don't do any of that stuff. Like, I don't even know if my husband's like, I took care of the I don't know what's going on out there. my hair's going gray. I'm not doing anything about it. Like my nails aren't done. Like, there's a lot of things I get. So it's my husband, but do you want to go get your nails done? I'm like, well, but I could do my long bike. So I there there's like a pick and choose. and this is what brings me joy. This is what I know I need to keep my mental health going. For other people it might be it might be other things.

Carrie Tollefson: wanna dig into that a little bit with both of you because I think Amanda, you said this was important to you because of postpartum, maybe some some of your mental health. But also, you know, I I just started to research a little bit on you ladies, but Kate, you're pretty open with some struggles that you've had. You've already mentioned it on our chat today that you had an eating disorder and you're working through that, you know, for the rest of your life. I'm assuming you have to always keep that in check. So like what is it about this run that helps you both so much? Why you're just like me. So I'm asking you guys, but I'm looking at myself in the mirror when I'm talking to you basically. But why is it so important that we say no to going with friends or we say no to taking, you know, maybe doing things to ourselves that a lot of other women our age are doing instead to go for a 30 minute hour run. Like what is it about this thing, Amanda, that you love so much?

Amanda: I on a very long run with some friends once we talked about this. And I think running for me is the one thing that makes me feel so alive. to go back to I had a pretty difficult pregnancy and postpartum. I like hemorrhaged at home about a week after and I was like in the hospital for several days. I had to get all these blood products and there a lot of people were like, You didn't come when you did. It could have been bad. like almost I almost thought like I that was like could have been it for me. thanks to modern medicine, it wasn't. But on a long run, like before one of I think it was the first marathon I ran, I run because it makes me feel alive. it makes me clear my head, it makes me really happy. it's as a mom, it's one of the only times I really have to myself. And I don't wear headphones when I run. It's just that's how I get all of my. stress my anxiety. That's how I get the day out. And yeah, just so fortunate for the run and so fortunate to also like Kate said, have a husband that's like so supportive of it and understands like if I don't run, I may be a crazy person. Yeah, it's like a grog kind of. So yeah. So that's that's how I kind of yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: I love that though. And I'm so thankful that you're okay and that you can do all these awesome running things that you love to do. How about you, Kate? Why do you run?

Kate: So I little plug, but I I actually wrote an article for the International Journal of Sports and Religion. and Triathlon magazine wrote a little bit about it, about how endurance sport, particularly triathlon and long distance running, for a lot of people functions as a substitute for institutional religion. So a lot of people are coming to these things to heal from trauma or to deal with the loss of a loved one. And the stories I get from the stories that people opened up to me when I did this article, like I got a lot of people that wanted to be interviewed and people that shared some very deep things with me that I was just honored to be part of their story. And so there's something about runners. Like I can run with someone or like meet someone at a triathlon and like learn like this amazing life story about them and connect with them on a way that like I don't connect with people that's on that same level in other in other spaces. So there's just something about the community and being all together and the connection you have when you're like, like I always remembered these people. And I don't even know names, but I'll just remember certain people like suffered with me during my Iron Man. Like I'll get that guy that said that thing or that person that gave me a water or whatever. Like you just remember. And I think that's something really beautiful about that. And to me, as someone who teaches the algae, there, there's God in that. Very much there's dad in that. And for me too, personally, it was just a way to appreciate my body and also a reason I have to take care of my body, especially the long distance dream. When I did my first half Iron Man, it was just a wake-up climber working with my dietitian. And she's like, This is not only like to be ideal or like you're not gonna finish the race if like you don't do what I tell you. Game starting, it really like helped me get to see few food as fuel and

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah.

Amanda: And then

Kate: Really learn to like to take care of myself because taking care of myself leads to what I enjoy. And I like having something outside of that, like I love I could I I love my job very much for there's a lot of stress. Like I'm a pretend you're right now. And sometimes the only way to really forget about that is to go for a really hard run. Be aren't you giving yourself more stress? I'm like, no, because sometimes you know, Brady gives me something really hard. I can't think about tenure. I gotta think about I'm surviving this. And then afterwards I feel good about myself and then I'm kind of ready. I have like this confidence to sort of okay, I can tackle whatever I have to at work today, or I can go teach my class or I could deal with whatever's going on.

Carrie Tollefson: It's one big cycle, isn't it? I mean, and I think too, when you have a coach like Brady that's someone that can see what this means to you. And it's probably good for him to be listening to you ladies right now and to be reminded as a coach, like they are so important. Coaches are so important. They are more than just writing up workouts or telling you how to look at your app. Like there's something about having a coach relationship. And that's one of the things that I miss so much of being a professional athlete. I miss calling up my coach and And bragging to him or her about how awesome I was that day. Like I was just talking to a college class and I did. I said, find people you can brag to because how often in life do we actually lift ourselves up? Really? And maybe, maybe every now and then we'll know, but how often do you like actually say it? And I think that was a really fun part of being an athlete. And maybe eventually I'll have another coach like Brady, that says, you know, these things that we need to hear. Like we are working hard. Your hard work is seen. You guys can do these awesome hard things. Like, I think that's what a great coach is. And that's what I want to hear from you now, Brady. Like hearing these athletes and hearing that you are helping them find the joy in life through a run. But like what does that mean to you? And why should people that train with Run Dot maybe reach out to see if a they would want to have a coach like you or someone else in RunDot coaching, you know, catalog.

Brady Hoover: Yeah, I I I love what I do and you know, I'm definitely a people person. and I love I r I love working with now that I'm a parent too, I love work working with new parents. I've been I was I was there before these ladies. I never I didn't get to experience what they experienced through childbirth, but I knew what it was like to be a parent on the other side of it. And that that part of letting go of who we once were, that we are no longer the most important person in our own lives. and just reminding them that, you know, it's about the consistency. It's about just getting out there and putting the work in. sometimes it's just going out there without a watch and just going out and enjoying the run, right? What cook connecting with nature. This like the I remind them this is this is your time, this is your, you know, your own personal time, right? This is your quiet, I call it quiet time. This is your quiet time, your permission to check out. You know, every I feel like everyone at least deserves an hour to themselves once a day. some people read a book, you know, these ladies choose to go out and run and I'm with them. Yeah. I just get more out of that. Isn't as tired as we could be, right, from a sleepless night or a sick w a sick little one, especially this time of year with everything going on. it's just what can I, you know, is just reminding them and myself too is like what, you know, what is the plan asking of me? And how do I feel today? And you know, I love like sometimes I get a text message from Amanda. I'm just finishing up my workout. You know, I s I work out at five thirty and it's six thirty and Amanda's asking me questions about her workout. I'm like doo to do. I'm like responding and I'm like, wait a minute, she's two hours behind me. It's four thirty in the man animal four thirty in the morning, Amanda. Go back to work today.

Kate: Yeah.

Carrie Tollefson: She can't. She's gotta get going. She's gotta get to the d drop off at six AM to work by seven.

Kate: You it's a

Brady Hoover: about that like these I mean Kate and Amanda are just so it's just so disciplined and so good at pivoting and so good at like sharing with me. and being open with me, right? And sharing sometimes it's personal stuff. And it's like, okay, this is how we're gonna get around this. And you know, it's okay that you're going through this and this is normal and we're gonna get through this and we're gonna come out better on the other side. And they always do. you know, I it's always reminding athletes of it's it know at the end of the day it's a small dip in the endurance ocean when you can't do your speed work. Like it's not it's not gonna make or break the race, right? If it becomes a pattern for a few weeks, okay, then maybe we talk about looking at something a little further out now to buy us some time. it's a lot of give and take, but it just I always get excited for our calls because like the first the first 15, sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes 30 minutes is catching up and it's like, wow. Okay, we got we got thirty minutes left. We got we gotta get down to business here, but you know, we wanna keep like sharing about like kicking up about the kids and what they're doing. you know, well watching the Denver Broncos and you know Yeah. And it's just hey Amanda, I saw you were at the game last night. Like that's so great. to see her and you know, to see her little one dressed up in the Broncos uniform and

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah.

Kate: Except my last.

Brady Hoover: Just following them on social, just seeing them on the outside of outside of an athlete and as a like a as an individual, but as a parent too. And they're crushing it.

Carrie Tollefson: I love this. Like people, you know, will say why RunDot and what has the role that RunDot played. And right here, if people can just see the fun that you three are having just by being on screen together and kind of thinking about all the fun that you get through this coaching relationship, the app. Tell me a little bit about the role that Run dot plays in your life besides Brady, because you know, you have the app that can keep you and hold you accountable on its own, but you guys have gone above and beyond and have someone that you can actually talk to and look at your metrics and discuss what the app is sending to you and things like that. So I don't know, Kate, do you want to start with that? Like the importance of having Ronda and maybe sell the pitch on, you know, why it's great to have a coach as well.

Kate: So I think I started before Run Dot was the thing. I think tri dot was first. So I have, you know, a lot of tri dot gear. And what I really love is that there's always like tri dot people do usually doing the races I'm doing. And so I just remember like my last triathlon, like I just was which was actually a while ago is I lost my whole season to my stress fracture, but thinking back to really especially good for me, thinking back these happy memories and just I remember couples of the bike jam these people like, go try that, go. and so I just love having that ability to like make connections. Or so no, I see someone with a try that hat, like I'll go up and say hi and yeah, they'll probably talk to me. At least we have something in common.

Carrie Tollefson: That's cool. I love it. Do you feel that too, Amanda?

Amanda: I do, yes. And I I use the app without a coach. I think it was a month or two prior to Brady and I officially starting. And I I will say compared to other platforms that I've used, it it was just like it's the most adaptable platform to where you're at. I'm trying to think back to when I did it myself, but it would be, you know, if you were like kind of like overreaching or something, it would adjust. I am drinking the Kool-Aid though on having a coach because for me it's just been such a magical experience. So the app itself is great, but I just, I mean, I would just highly recommend the coaching aspect of it. Cause there's just like some level that AI just, you know, I mean, you said something earlier, Carrie, that coaches, you know, you want someone to brag to. I've also called Brady. crying on the worst five K of my life. You know, like so someone to also to just be like, you know what? We can move forward from this, we can move on, you know, that has a plan. Like there's just something so important to having that like human interaction.

Carrie Tollefson: There really is, especially when you get a good one. I mean, I have been so fortunate. I don't think I've had a bad coach. and there's been some ups and downs, right? We're human and things like that. I've gotten really mad at coaches before. I've cried, I've laughed. They've all been invited to my weddings. They've all heard about the kids. Like they're all still very, very much mentors in my life. You know, like if I ha am having a hard day or a hard decision or whatever, my co if it's not my parents and my husband, it's And my sister, that's my coaches. Like they're very much family. So I think that's so important. I just have to talk to you about this, Kate, because I was digging into your Instagram before we were chatting. And it was hilarious because you put your birth story, not your whole birth story, but you put it out on Strava, your like, you know, how long it was. You're trying to set a new PR or trying to break your PR from the marathon. And then you said you actually broke Kipchoge's PR and you had your baby in an hour and thirty minutes. Did I get that right?

Kate: She came out pretty fast. it was things went pretty quickly.

Carrie Tollefson: That's so funny. Like, were you induced? Was it just unnatural? On it did she just come?

Kate: She just she just came fast. My water broke in the morning and I didn't want to have to be induced. So we went for a walk, my husband and I, and then we called the doctor and they were like, come now. And we had a lot of time. My husband actually went and got himself dinner because he thought I was gonna be pushing for hours. So he was apparently I didn't notice, but he was apparently like eating a slice of pizza while telling me. And then I just And what's funny is I did have a pretty easy birth. Like I I will be honest, I was like, this wasn't so bad. But then I had terrible tailbone pain afterwards and couldn't sit. And I had a child who didn't like to sleep, like really bad. So, you know, everybody has their things. Like a friend of mine had a really terrible birth, really big baby, but then no tailbone pain and longer slip stretches than sleep. So like we all we all have our things.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah. How was your birth story, Amanda? Was it smooth sailing or was there, you know, some ups and downs along the way?

Amanda: I had it was weird. I went into like a labor or what did they call pre-labor or ear early labor, like two weeks before, and then it stopped. And then and then they're like, just kidding. And so I got sent home and then I was at Costco and then had a contraction. But I was like, this is if it's anything like what happened two weeks ago, this is gonna take a while. And then all of a sudden my contractions were like four minutes apart. and my mom, my husband was on the entire other side of Denver. And my mom drove over and she's like, I need to take you in. And I was like, No, there's a plan, like Shyler's gonna come home, everything's fine. And then we got there and I had this like plan, like, I'm not gonna do any pain meds. And I got there, and my husband was like, She doesn't want anything, and I was like, Nope. I was like full epidural, everything. So I was in labor for like eight hours, I think. So but yeah, I had an epidural, so it was great.

Carrie Tollefson: It's funny that you mentioned that. I was for my first one, Ruby came on April Fool's Day and she was due on April 11th, which is our wedding anniversary. And I was in Target talking to my longtime training partner and I started to laugh and I thought like I just see my pants. I was like, Well, I have this big belly, you know, like everything's riding on my bladder right now. It's just like whatever. So then the day goes by and I'm like, kinda feels like my back is funny. Like I was not expecting to go early, and that's not. It's not really that early, but it's 10 days. So I was like, no, this is nothing. Well, I ended up calling the hospital and they said, I think you should come in. Your water could have broke a little bit, you know, like you could have like a a slow break. And we need to make sure that that's not the case. So I called Charlie, my husband, and he finished up the workday and he was going to pick out his twins season tickets with his brother, the twins, like the professional baseball team here in Minnesota. And so I was like, okay. And then he ended up coming home. And I still was like, okay, I think we gotta go. Like, I think I gotta go in and get checked. And we were just both being nonchalant about it. And he was like, well, let me just jump in the shower. So then he jumped in the shower and then we went and sure enough, I had my water had broke. And they had to start me on, you know, a Pitocin drip, I guess. It took over 24 hours. And Within I think 30 minutes of actually having her, the doctors left the room and told me I could not I could not sneeze, I couldn't cough because it went from like zero to 60 in a second after having my epidural. Like I wasn't dilated, nothing was happening, and then boom. So and then within I think three pushes, she was out. So I don't know. Us athletes, we go fast once it's really we're there and we're ready to go. So it's so fun. Every story is so different. Coach, did do your athletes that have babies call you up and tell you all the details like we just did?

Brady Hoover: Yeah I I hear some of it. I was there in the little room myself.

Carrie Tollefson: Tell me a little bit about 2026 now. I wanna hear from all three of you. I wanna hear what your goals are. But I think I'm gonna start with coach. Like coach, when you look at these two ladies and you know that next year is another year, a big year, hopefully we're all back on the healthy train. What do you think of? What are your hopes for Amanda and then for Kay?

Brady Hoover: Yeah, that the both of them, yeah, keep their keep their balance and keep a love for running. I know it's that both of their outlets, it's their happy personal time. you know, they're very well good at sharing with me and communicating with me so that I can help tailor the workouts. or suggests, you've got a hard day today and your baby's sick and you didn't sleep really well and you're asking me, should I go do this hard workout? No, let's pivot and shift. Let's move things around. We got time. We're not, you know, we're not at a critical point in our training where, you know, let's like Amanda last week or two weeks ago where we moved our long run to Thursday and we kind of shifted things around 'cause I said, you don't really want to do this really hard. I really want you to do this zone four workout, but I don't want you to do it forty eight hours after you just did a long run with intervals. Like let's push it to Monday. Let's make this re you know, we can we can shift things around to still stay on course and still train track. they're both making incredible leaps in their fitness right now. they're both in race preparation phases now. So we did a great job with the development phase and I love the development phase because that's where I'll go in there and you know, I'll let RunDot run itself a lot. And then sometimes I'm like, Okay, let's spice things up a little bit. Let's get you on the track for the next couple of Tuesdays or next couple of Wednesdays, or in this case it's Thursdays. cause she strength trains on Tuesday, easy run on Wednesday, hard run on Thursday. really want you to, you know, be as fresh as you can for these workouts because this is what's gonna increase your aerobic capacity. This is what's gonna get you up. I've held Amanda back quite a bit in in terms of like how many A races she can do because she has this time, you know, has this goal to eventually qualify for bus, and that's why she hired me two years ago. when she came, her threshold pace, like her one hour. If I say, go run as hard as you could. You know, she would run a 930. That's like always like zone one pace for Amanda now. to how many big races she could do. I mean, we've done she's done half marathons. but we've always put those in the C races where I'll give her enough volume to cover the distance, but not race it at her full potential, if you will, because we have that eyes on the price of qualifying for Boston. We know she wants to have another child. So we know we you know we're it's not like we're taking a shortcut or anything. You have two different training cycles. You have development phase and you have race preparation phase. The more time you spend at race preparation phase, you're still gonna get faster. You're just not gonna get it faster as quick because you're building stamina for a race. So if she's doing two races two marathons in a calendar year, well, six months of that she's gonna spend in race preparation phase. That means we are we're maintaining the threshold that she has. Whereas if we say, yeah, go run a bunch of half marathons, let's put them in the C races, she's still PRing, even though they're C races, and we're giving her like a three-day or four-day taper into that race. She's still running PR. She's in her full potential, where full potential might be 98% of her threshold pace. We're running at 96. you know, getting her fresh enough to run it. but at the end of the day, we want to move that needle, we want to get her. you know, her engine size bigger. and then her fuel and call fuel economy comes later. So in two years' time, she's gone from that nine thirty to threshold pace to today as a seven fifteen. And I said, We're we are right where we want. We've built a big enough engine that that is a great pace to run around a 320 marathon and get you into Boston. Well knock on wood, you know, everything goes well. and then with Kate, you know, coming off of her injury, You know, we we saw a couple of things with her running mechanics that said, we see what's going on. There was a bit of over striding going on. And you know, there's nothing wrong with heel striking. When we say o heel striking, usually that comes it's a negative term in the running history because like heel striking is over striding, where there's I call it heel touching, where you roll from like heel to toe and push off. we're looking at the angle, we saw that case tibia angle was you know it was out in front of the body that no there was there's some bracing braking forces happening here. this is this this makes sense why we're seeing this bone stress injury now because with that breaking force rather than the calves and the quads absorbing that impact it's traveling up to the knee and into the hip. And with that with that braking force what happens when you hit that heel and you over stride is it puts more stress on the upper femur. And we go, sense. So now we were able to screen that, work with her medical team. And now we were able to give her running drills. in specific and she's not getting her strength from me right now, she's getting it from Carrie. but I'll get a running video from Kate and I'll message Carrie and say, Hey, I forget to do that. Yeah. So it's don't be don't be friends with the medical team now. No, it works great because I can go right. Here's what I'm seeing with Kate's run right now. if she wasn't with you, this is what I would be having her do. what are your thoughts? And she goes, Great. we are we're covering that right now. I love that suggestion. We're gonna work that into her routine. and you know, Kate's just she's excelled since this injury. she's now midfoot striking where we wanted to be or poor touching. and she's getting faster without a lot of speed work because her running economy has improved. So not by not hitting the brakes with each and every stride, she's now spending like forty milliseconds less time on the ground. Her vertical oscillation is more so she's just more there's just better running economy, right? All these things translate is what I'm getting after. All these things translate to free speed, when we can change the mechanics and have everything work for us. so much so that yeah, I gave her a hard workout and she just blew it out of the door. And I was like, my gosh, this was all supposed be in, you know, zone four. And I'm seeing zone five and zone six here. Hey, this is incredible. and then I'm looking at her heart rate and I'm like, well, did she push too hard? No, her heart rate's where it should be. Nope. She, you know, she deserves to be running at these paces. Let's go ahead and move the, you know, move the thresholds up now. you know, let's make that ceiling higher. So she's again, you know, she's looking at a 320 as well. So it's like these two ladies that just met each other for the first time but have heard a lot about each other through our conversations. And we

Kate: Should run together.

Amanda: We should. Let's do it.

Brady Hoover: Yeah. They're looking at yeah, they're like the same pace, but they're training. Well, Kate's a triathlete too, but when Kate's training for a marathon, I generally will have Kate run four days a week, which we're almost to that fourth day of running. I told Kate she's gonna earn it coming back from the injury and we're there. and even though Kate's running four days a week and Amanda's running four days a week and they run at similar paces, I know what Amanda da I know what moves the needle well for Amanda and I know what moves the needle well for Kate and they're two totally different things. So their training plan, if you took out swimming and cycling and just had Kate only run, their run training would look totally different. But they're running the s almost the same pace because of what their what their bodies can do.

Carrie Tollefson: Sure. Yeah, that's great. And I think that's too why RunDot is so good because you can see those different metrics and all of us are different that way as well. Not only do we have different birth stories with every child, but when we run, we're all different.

Brady Hoover: One has this thing being called it has a training stress profile. And when I go in there and look at, you know, you have training stress, weekly training weekly training stress, training stress per workout, training stress per week, training stress per month. And this is what's part of the AI that's driving the training is looking at all these things. They have different training stress profiles and that's what RunDot is prescribing their training around. And they're progressing at like the same rate because they're at the same pace now. Even though their training's different, what works for Kate doesn't work for Amanda. What works for Amanda doesn't work for Kate. sometimes we pull that stuff that's working for Kate. We give it to Amanda to build more stamina. We pull from Amanda what Amanda's room, we give it to Kate. That's gonna increase her speed. a little bit, move the needle there, but Kate responds best to longer threshold efforts. Amanda responds best to you know, more zone five anaerobic workouts, and in RunDot has figured this out about them, which is just incredible.

Carrie Tollefson: So cool. I love it. Kate, when you hear Coach talk about you, does that change your goals for 2026 or what is the goal right now? Did I see that there's a half iron man on the schedule?

Kate: The half Ironman has been deferred twice. So I think third times is hopefully the charm here. deferred for postpartum and then deferred for stress fracture. Thankfully, Iron Man took pity on me because I missed my whole season and allowed me to defer again, which I am really, really grateful. But I honestly have been so scared. I'm not gonna lie, like I'm sort of just I'm really enjoying running right now. I can't believe I trusted the process. I really didn't think I was gonna fix my gate. Like I just kept doing all these things. I was crying in a lot of sessions with my PT and with my doctor, and I'm like, this isn't gonna work for me. And then we did the gate analysis and it was and it and things feel good, but I still am struggling with like being honest about what my goals are because I'm very scared after losing the whole season.

Carrie Tollefson: Thank you. Yeah, your goals are to just keep going. Just to keep getting out there.

Brady Hoover: Yeah. I said I have goals for Kate. I know what she's capable of, but like we're treading on water safely and I have them up here. I haven't written them down on paper yet and presented them to everybody. You know, she's looking at a great season, she's looking at a competitive half iron time. Just we need to keep her healthy and we know that we just need on like the body changes. We just need ongoing, you know, running mechanic we just are I need Ongoing video on both of them. So

Carrie Tollefson: Time. You need time.

Kate: Well I have a deal with my doctor. She has to do an Iron Man if I don't make a comeback. Like if I am officially ever like out of the sport. And so then I figure at least Brady can have her and we can focus our attention on that. So that also kind of keeps me going.

Carrie Tollefson: Love how you work. Okay, Amanda, I know you said maybe 2028, but what do you when you think of 2026, what do you think of?

Amanda: I think the biggest thing right now is I'm working on being confident in these new zones. I have a house marriage a series January 10th and Brady told me what the goal time was and I was like, What? Are you s are you sure? That's can't be right. And so Brady has been giving me a lot of confidence building workouts. so be like, you can run a 730 pace for However long. And so I think the fitness for me is feeling there. I think it's kind of this mental component of like looking at my watch and seeing these splits and being like, okay, we want to run, we have enter a marathon on the books February 22nd. And just being comfortable and wrapping my mind around those cases and just being like a little more confident.

Carrie Tollefson: Yeah, I love it. Okay, as we wrap, I'm gonna ask you all one cool down question. And I wanna know if you what your advice would be for a running parent. Like one tidbit, nothing long, not a bunch of them, just one tidbit on advice for a running parent to be able to get out the door. It whether it's a stroll or whether it's a piece of gear or is it something you eat, like what is it that you guys think of? Amanda, go.

Amanda: I would say working on time management and getting out, especially in the early stages, just getting out for any period of time, even if it's 20, 30 minutes, just getting back out there, taking that first baby step.

Carrie Tollefson: I love that. Okay. Kate, go.

Kate: I think I did my first 5K back in November. And I think the thing is look for the joy. There's actually a lot of joy in parenting that makes you a better runner mentally. Like my daughter ran her first little race and her little tracksuit. And I was just so proud of her that I said, you know, no matter how this goes for me, this is gonna be a joyful day. And I think that ability to not be all about yourself actually can make you a better runner. So yes, there's a lot riding against you when you're a parent, but there's a lot riding for you too.

Carrie Tollefson: beautiful. Okay, Brady.

Brady Hoover: Being adaptable, right? And rolling with being adaptable, I mean and by that I mean rolling with it, right? We're gonna have we're not every day is gonna be a good day. But at the end of the day, did we improve our bodies today in some way, shape, or form? Whether that's yeah, supposed to do intervals and I go easy because that's what my body tells me, or I feel good today, but I only have thirty minutes. So I'll do my warm up, I'll do my intervals and I'll cut it shot short. It's just being adaptable.

Carrie Tollefson: Nice what you can and I would say twenty five dollar you know an hour babysitter is a great gift to yourself. I mean just think of that. Like that it's good for the baby, it's good for the parents. You know, get out the door and if you know there's grandparents or there's friends that say, What can what can I get you? It might not Mm, it's nice to get diapers, it's nice to get this and that, but it's also really nice to get maybe just a handwritten gift certificate that says, I will Venmo your babysitter for you to go for a workout. So there you go. Four different little reasons to get out the door.

Kate: Thanks for listening to the RunDot Podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on your listening platform of choice. For more opportunities to learn from our coaches, check out our YouTube channel and follow RunDot Training on social. Ready to train with us? Head to RunDot.com and get started for free. Until next time, happy training.