I signed up for a 100-mile ultramarathon.
Yes, you read that correctly: 100 miles.
The plan is to tackle the race next March, hopefully with a support team alongside me. It is a pretty huge goal, especially considering that I am a mom of four, have been out of the racing world for about a decade, and only really started getting back into racing consistently within the past several months.
But this goal isn’t just about running 100 miles. For me, training for an ultramarathon has become part of a much bigger transition in my life—one that has involved motherhood, closing the chapter on pregnancy and birth, rebuilding my fitness, and figuring out what I want this next chapter to look like.
So today, I want to take you through one of my hard training days: heavy squats, running-specific accessory work, and running intervals.
This workout is a great example of how I am approaching strength training as an endurance athlete. I am not lifting simply to get stronger in the traditional sense. I am lifting to build the durability I need to handle the repetitive demands of running while continuing to progress my mileage.
And, as I learned the hard way years ago, you actually have to train for an ultramarathon.
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Why I Signed Up for a 100-Mile Race
Before I get into the workout, let me give you a little background.
I am a perinatal fitness trainer and a mom of four. My youngest is almost two years old, and she was my final baby.
We planned to have four children, and I genuinely feel content with our family. I don’t want more children.
But that doesn’t mean closing the pregnancy and birth chapter has been easy.
For the past decade, my fitness journey has revolved around pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and starting over. Every couple of years, I would get pregnant, have a baby, recover, and eventually start rebuilding my fitness again.
I loved that season of my life. I love my babies, and I loved having little kids.
But after my fourth baby was born, I realized that what I was struggling with wasn’t necessarily the idea of not having another baby. It was the idea that the chapter was actually ending.
And when one chapter ends, you become very aware that other chapters will eventually end, too.
That was difficult for me emotionally.
Running and fitness have helped me navigate that transition. For the first time in a long time, I have been able to focus on fitness goals without immediately having to pause them for pregnancy and postpartum recovery.
I can work toward getting stronger.
I can work toward getting faster.
I can sign up for races.
I can see what my body can do when I give it several years of consistent training rather than constantly resetting.
And that has been incredibly exciting.
So, naturally, I decided to sign up for a 100-mile race.
Because apparently that’s what I do.
My History With Ultramarathons
This isn’t actually my first experience with ultramarathons.
Before becoming a mom, I was in the military and was an Army officer. I was also on my installation’s 10-mile race team and competed in the Army 10-Miler in Washington, D.C.
After that season, one of my teammates asked if I wanted to run a trail 50K with her.
A 50K is approximately 31 miles, so it is longer than a marathon but still relatively short compared with the distances that ultramarathoners can tackle.
At the time, my longest run was only around 13 miles.
But I had recently completed a pretty substantial endurance training cycle, had experience with long ruck marches, and had learned a lot about endurance nutrition and logistics through my military training.
So I thought, Sure. Why not?
I put together a nutrition plan, packed snacks and a restock bag, prepared a foot-care kit, and showed up ready to go.
And somehow, I won the women’s 50K.
I wasn’t trying to destroy myself during the race. In fact, I ran it pretty strategically. I walked the hills, managed my effort, and focused on making smart decisions.
But I won.
And that created a tiny problem.
I started thinking of myself as an ultramarathon champion.
Then I Tried to Run 40 Miles With Almost No Training
After the 50K, I deployed for about a year.
When I came back, another teammate asked if I wanted to run a 40-mile race with her.
And, remembering that I had previously won an ultramarathon, I thought:
Hell yeah, I do.
There was just one tiny problem.
I hadn’t trained for it.
During my deployment, my running mileage had been extremely limited. Between the environment, weather, my schedule, and safety concerns, running wasn’t something I could consistently do.
At one point, I was getting around five miles in when I could.
I had done some longer ruck marches, but I certainly wasn’t prepared to run 40 miles.
And yet, I showed up to the race thinking I could just recreate my previous success.
I went out with the lead pack.
I stayed with them for a while.
Then I rolled my ankle a few miles in.
At that point, I knew I wasn’t going to win.
But I still had roughly 30 miles left.
I finished the race, but it was absolutely miserable.
That experience taught me a very important lesson:
You actually have to train for an ultramarathon.
So that’s what I’m doing now.
Why Strength Training Is Such an Important Part of My Running
One of the biggest differences between my running during my college years and my running now is strength training.
I was a collegiate distance runner, and I dealt with injuries fairly frequently.
Now, as a mom who runs for fun and is training for increasingly longer races, strength training has become a huge part of my approach.
I don’t just want the cardiovascular fitness to run a certain distance.
I need my muscles, tendons, joints, and connective tissues to tolerate thousands and thousands of repetitive steps.
That’s where strength training comes in.
My goal isn’t necessarily to become as strong as possible. Instead, I want to develop durability.
I want my body to be able to handle the demands that I am placing on it.
And I’ve found that strength training has allowed me to meet my current running goals without needing to simply pile on more and more mileage.
As my mileage increases for the 100-mile race, I expect my strength training to shift. I will probably maintain around two lifting sessions per week, with less emphasis on very heavy lifting and more emphasis on maintaining strength and durability.
But right now, I am still in a heavier strength phase.
My Heavy Squat Workout
For this particular workout, I was working through a 5/3/1-style training cycle.
The goal was to build toward a heavy squat and potentially establish a new one-rep max.
The progression was:
- 5 reps
- 5 reps
- 3 reps
- 5 reps
- 3 reps
- 1 rep
The heavier sets allowed me to work on maximal strength while the overall training cycle was helping me build the durability I need for my running.
I ended up working toward a 185-pound squat, which was a lifetime PR for me.
And, naturally, there was a little bit of chaos involved.
At one point, I realized I had actually miscalculated the weight on the bar. I thought I was lifting one weight when I was actually lifting 10 pounds less.
So I had to reload the bar and try again.
The final attempt wasn’t perfect. My depth wasn’t where I wanted it to be, and I was still getting comfortable with the mental side of lifting very heavy weights.
But it was still a huge milestone for me.
I had never squatted that much weight before—not just postpartum, but ever.
And that was a pretty cool reminder of what can happen when you give yourself the opportunity to progress.
Why I Pair Heavy Lifting With Running
After my heavy squats, I moved into a series of running-specific accessory exercises.
Then I finished the workout with running intervals.
This is something I intentionally do with my hard training days.
Rather than spreading my hard efforts throughout the entire week, I stack my difficult workouts together.
For example, my week currently looks roughly like this:
- Monday: Hard lifting + hard running
- Tuesday: Easy running
- Wednesday: Easy running
- Thursday: Hard lifting + hard running
- Friday: Easy running
- Saturday: Long run
- Sunday: Long run
The exact schedule can change, but the concept is consistent:
Hard days are hard, and easy days are actually easy.
This allows me to protect my recovery days rather than constantly asking my body to recover from another moderately difficult workout.
As my ultramarathon training progresses, I want to build toward approximately 60–70 miles per week.
Right now, I am running around 30–40 miles per week, so there is still a lot of mileage to build.
That increase in running volume will eventually become the biggest time commitment in my training.
Which is why I want my strength training to support my running rather than compete with it.
Running-Specific Accessory Exercises
After my squats, I moved into a small accessory circuit designed to support some of the specific demands of running. You can check out the video below for the entire circuit.
The exercises targeted my quads, calves, tibialis, hamstrings, hips, and pelvic rotation.
These aren’t necessarily glamorous exercises.
They’re the little things that help build the foundation underneath the big movements.
Stability Ball Runner Accessory
The first exercise used a stability ball to challenge the stance leg and the swing leg differently.
My stance leg is responsible for controlling pelvic rotation while also strengthening the quad.
At the same time, I actively press my other leg into the ball, working hip abduction and internal-to-external rotation.
I use a small range of motion and focus on control rather than trying to make the exercise look impressive.
It is surprisingly challenging.
This is particularly useful for runners because running requires us to repeatedly control the pelvis and hip while transitioning from one leg to the other.
VMO Step-Downs
Next, I moved into VMO step-downs.
The VMO, or vastus medialis, is part of the quadriceps muscle group near the inside of the knee.
For this movement, I used a small range of motion, lowering down and then stepping back up with my working leg.
Running doesn’t require huge amounts of vertical movement.
Instead, we spend a lot of time repeatedly controlling relatively small movements at the ankle, knee, hip, and pelvis.
So after doing heavy squats through a large range of motion, I wanted to use my accessory work to strengthen some of the smaller supporting structures that contribute to running durability.
The goal isn’t to completely isolate one muscle.
It’s to strengthen the system that helps me repeatedly control my knee and pelvis while running.
Soleus Lunges
Next were soleus lunges.
The soleus is one of the major muscles of the calf, and it plays an important role in running.
For this exercise, I held the bottom of a lunge isometrically while working through calf strengthening.
The isometric hold creates a different stimulus than simply performing repeated calf raises.
I like incorporating this kind of work because tendons and connective tissues respond well to progressive loading and controlled exposure to tension.
For runners, developing the capacity of the calf complex is particularly important because your lower legs absorb and produce force over and over again throughout every run.
And during an ultramarathon, that means a lot of repetitions.
Reverse Nordic Curls
I also included reverse Nordic curls.
These are a quad-focused exercise that can be surprisingly challenging.
Initially, I used a band to help me complete the movement because I didn’t yet have the strength to perform it completely unassisted.
And then, during this workout, I decided to try it without the band.
Apparently, I could do it.
Sometimes you just need to believe in yourself a little more.
The reverse Nordic provides another way to strengthen the quads through a controlled range of motion and gives me another tool for building knee-supporting strength.
Tibialis Raises
Next were tibialis raises.
These target the muscles on the front of the lower leg.
I like thinking about my accessory work as covering the entire lower extremity rather than just focusing on one muscle group.
In this circuit, I had:
- Quad strengthening
- Calf strengthening
- Tibialis strengthening
- Hip strengthening
- Pelvic rotation work
- Hamstring work
Running is repetitive, so I want to make sure my body is prepared for that repetition from multiple angles.
Staggered-Stance RDLs
I finished my accessory circuit with staggered-stance Romanian deadlifts.
I like using a band around the legs during this movement to add some inner-thigh activation and create another demand on the hip.
The hamstrings and adductors have to work together while I control the hinge.
I also use different variations on each side based on what I am trying to accomplish.
This is something I frequently do in my own training: the exercise doesn’t necessarily have to look identical on both sides.
Our bodies aren’t perfectly symmetrical.
Sometimes we need to make small changes to the resistance, stance, or loading position to address what we need on a particular side.
My Pelvic Floor Also Influences How I Train
Because I have a history of pelvic floor dysfunction, I am particularly intentional about how I approach my warm-ups and strength training.
One thing I want to emphasize is that the pelvic floor isn’t simply one giant muscle that is either “tight” or “weak.”
It is a complex group of muscles, and different areas can have different levels of tension, activation, and coordination.
In my own training, I use asymmetrical exercises and different loading strategies to address what I need on each side.
For example, I may use more adduction and internal rotation on one side, while using more abduction and external rotation on the other.
The goal is not to randomly make an exercise asymmetrical.
It’s to use the exercise intentionally based on what my body needs.
I also incorporate pelvic mobility into my warm-up because running requires the pelvis to move well on the femurs.
That distinction is important.
Hip rotation refers to the femur moving relative to the pelvis, while pelvic movement involves the pelvis moving on the femur.
For a repetitive activity like running, I want to have good control and mobility of both.
Finishing With Running Intervals
After lifting and accessory work, I finished with my running workout.
This particular session was approximately 60 minutes and included longer intervals.
Because I’m training for a distance event, I don’t spend a lot of time doing very short sprint intervals.
Instead, I like longer intervals in the four-to-five-minute range.
These give me an opportunity to work on speed and aerobic capacity while still keeping the workout relevant to my endurance goals.
I use a treadmill for a lot of my running.
With four young kids, getting outside for every run isn’t always realistic. I don’t have a stroller that can safely accommodate all four kids, and there aren’t always convenient or safe running routes available to me.
So the treadmill has become a practical tool.
And honestly, I’ve learned to enjoy it.
I use classes to make the harder treadmill workouts more engaging, and during easy runs, I can sometimes read on my Kindle.
If you had told college-aged me that one day I would willingly spend two hours running on a treadmill while reading, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
But motherhood changes your definition of “ideal training conditions.”
Sometimes you use the equipment and environment that allow you to actually get the workout done.
The Bigger Reason I'm Training
Ultimately, this 100-mile race is about much more than running.
It is about discovering who I am in this next chapter.
For the past decade, my body has been in a cycle of pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and rebuilding.
I loved those seasons.
But now I get to see what happens when I stay in a training cycle long enough to actually progress.
I get to see my running pace improve.
I get to see the weights on the bar increase.
I get to set goals that would have seemed ridiculous a few years ago.
And my kids get to see me do it.
They get to watch their mom work toward something difficult.
They get to see me train.
They get to celebrate the little victories with me.
And hopefully, they get to learn that fitness doesn’t have to be something you do because you dislike your body or because you think you need to change it.
It can be something you do because you are curious about what your body can do.
Final Thoughts: You Don't Need to Run 100 Miles
I know that a 100-mile race sounds completely ridiculous to some people.
And honestly, sometimes it sounds ridiculous to me, too.
But the lesson I’m taking from this training isn’t that everyone needs to pursue increasingly extreme fitness goals.
You don’t need to run an ultramarathon.
You don’t need to squat 185 pounds.
You don’t need to train six days a week.
You don’t even need to run.
The important part is finding a goal that is meaningful to you.
For me, running has become a way to move forward into a new chapter instead of constantly looking backward at the chapter that ended.
Strength training has helped me build durability.
Running has given me something to work toward.
And fitness has given me a way to reconnect with myself outside of pregnancy and motherhood.
That has been incredibly valuable.
So whether your goal is to run your first mile, return to running postpartum, get stronger, complete a race, or simply feel more capable in your everyday life, the process is worth celebrating.
You don’t have to train for 100 miles to experience the benefits of setting a big goal.
You just have to start where you are and keep building.
And for me, right now, that means squatting heavy, strengthening all those little running muscles, logging the miles, recovering when I need to, and slowly working my way toward 100 miles.
One workout at a time.
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