On the New Balance Falmouth Road Race Weekend, I was fortunate to interview elite mother runner Steph Rothstein Bruce, here is Part 2 of my interview. Part 1 of the interview dealt with Steph’s training during pregnancy and the birth of her son, while Part 2 will include information on her return to training, her company Picky Bars, and her coaching business.
Are you going to stick with the marathon? Yeah, that’s the main goal for the Olympic Trials, but I’ll race like a lot along the way because you can’t run that many marathons competitively. If I was healthy I would have done this race, I’ll do anywhere from 5k up to the half–you can do a lot more of those.
How are you going to deal with the whole child care issue while training/racing? Well, I’m lucky because with both of our jobs (husband Ben Bruce is a professional runner as well), we have a good 50-50. It’s kind of not like a mom and dad goes to work. We both, our work is running. We trade off so much. He lets me nap and takes him (baby Riley)…We have a couple of people in Flagstaff that are kind of going to be our “on call” babysitters. So, if both of us wants to go do a workout, we would have them come over. His mom (Ben’s mom) is basically pretty flexible..we might take her on some of our racing trips.
So, Picky Bars, let’s talk about that– are you going to continue full speed ahead? I’m actually very lucky, because the company’s based in Bend (OR), so we try to get out there whenever we can, but basically we just have a team that works on it, and I don’t really do any of the day-to-day stuff any more. As the owners (with married couple Jesse Thomas and Laura Fleshman)…I help with big decisions and just try to promote wherever we go. It’s more I’m like an ambassador for us now. It’s a huge part of my life and always will be.
Are you and Lauren (co-owner of Picky Bars and another fabulous elite mother runner) going to have play dates? (Lauren has a one year old son) Hopefully! We want them to be best friends. Right now they’re a little different and they’re a year apart, but it will be awesome.
Are you still going to do coaching? Yes, so we have a coaching business called Running with the Bruces and we have about 15-20 athletes at any given time. I just met one of our athletes actually, in person– she’s running Falmouth, and she came down and met us for coffee, so that’s cool. I’ve been coaching her through email and Google Chat and now like in person. We’re hoping to create almost like a little team that we have of our athletes, and it just gives our life balance. As we get to be invested in other people’s goals and we get to see other people accomplish their dreams, I think it complements our lifestyle a lot better than just running. That’s been our whole goal– to leave a lot more on our sport than just fast times…We love the sport.
What’s your ideal runner for coaching? Do you coach recreational runners, professional runners? It’s a combination. We coach anywhere from like starting marathon, someone maybe that’s never run a marathon or a 5 hour marathoner all the way down to two girls that are trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon, and so they’re trying to run under 2;45, so it’s a really cool range. It allows us to make training programs for someone who might be running 15 miles a week just starting, all the way to someone that’s running 75-80 miles per week, so it’s a really good balance. We have a big range.
Thanks so much to Steph, her husband Ben and Riley for allowing me to steal her for a bit for this interview! To find out more about their coaching business, Running with the Bruces, click HERE. Many of you are already familiar with Picky Bars, but if not, check them out HERE!
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