This is Ask Coach Parry. Our question today comes all the way from New Zealand. It is from Sebina. A while ago we spoke about Phindile who wants to run the Comrades Marathon again a couple of years after giving birth.

Sebina has a 6 month old son and wants to start back with a 10km race in 2 months time, she is planning on taking the pram with in the race. Currently she can run 7km’s in 60 min with a pram.

She can run for 10 but with no time on that. She wants to know if she should train on a beginners schedule or can she start adding some interval, fast paced training? She only manages to run 2 – 3 times a week because she works full time as well.

Brad Brown: This is Ask Coach Parry. Our question today comes all the way from New Zealand. It is from Sebina. A while ago we spoke about Phindile who wants to run the Comrades Marathon again a couple of years after giving birth.

Sebina has a 6 month old son and wants to start back with a 10km race in 2 months time, she is planning on taking the pram with in the race. Currently she can run 7km’s in 60 min with a pram.

She can run for 10 but with no time on that. She wants to know if she should train on a beginners schedule or can she start adding some interval, fast paced training? She only manages to run 2 – 3 times a week because she works full time as well.

Lindsey Parry: She is well outside of the window where she has to worry about prolactin and those type of hormones interfering with joint stability. The one thing she doesn’t say in here is whether she breastfeeds or not.

The notable difference

That will make a slight difference because obviously your general energy consumption during the day is much higher if you are breastfeeding a child than if you are not. That shouldn’t make a difference as to whether she should start doing some intensity work or not.

I would say based on what she is doing now, she can add in a run a week where she can add in some intensity. But you should not do more than 10% of your weeks training at high intensity. Just work out what your total mileage is for the week and make sure that your intervals don’t add up to more than 10% of that. If you are breastfeeding, just monitor your recovery.

If the intensity makes you feel bad, you feel lethargic and tired and don’t want to get out of bed – you may want to rethink that intensity. There is no reason for you not to try it and I don’t think a beginners programme is appropriate for you where you are right now.