Dimity McDowell and Sarah Bowen Shea, the authors of the popular “Run Like a Mother“, have released another book… this one about training for specific race distances.

Train Like a Mother: How to Get Across Any Finish Line – and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity

Not only do you get Dimity’s and Sarah’s signature humor (You like how I call them by their first names? It’s because they write in a such a personable manner, I almost feel like I know them!) but you get multiple training plans for races distances from the 5K up to the marathon.

I still remember following along with Dimity and Sarah when they trained for the Nike Women’s Marathon several years ago.  They had a whole series in Runner’s World about their triumphs and struggles of balancing family life, training and everything else while working toward 26.2.  I think that was my first exposure to a running dress as well!

They’ve built a whole community online where moms and moms-to-be can chime in and share their experiences.  They’ve carried some of that over into the book.  So in addition to their straightforward and frank descriptions of being a running mama, you get the perspective of SEVERAL real running mamas.

The training programs are written by Christine Hinton, a long-time running coach AND mother, so she’s qualified in more than one area when it comes to knowing how to provide training plans to mothers. Each distance has two versions of the plan as well, a “finish it” version and an “own it” version.

I like that the book also helps define a “Bad Ass Mother Runner”… especially since I qualify because I am pregnant and I run! (If I ran a half marathon during pregnancy I’d get gold-status, but that’s not going to happen. But if I run on the day I go into labor I can also achieve gold-status! I may run a few steps that day, just to give myself that honor. And I say that without having ANY IDEA how that whole day will go down! LOL!)

The book provides realistic training plans, information on cross-training and recovery and how those can fit into family life, TMI topics and debates on underwear with running gear, as well as nutrition for running success combined with feeding kids and a spouse help round out the essential information.

My one complaint* is that sometimes it feels like the advice is geared toward stay-at-home moms.  Like when it recommends training for a marathon when you have toddlers because you can nap together in the afternoon and the kid is too small to be involved in lots of school activities.  I want to be able to nap in the afternoon with the kid instead of working! 🙂

(*Maybe I just say that because I’m jealous. Staying at home to write about running and fitness while hanging out on social media sounds like the ideal job to me. I’m sure they have deadlines and stress that I am not thinking about. Grass is always greener, right?)

Legalese: This book was sent to me for free for the purpose of review. Thoughts posted here are completely my own!