Six things I changed to stay consistent with ultra training when my life got a lot busier, and the results that followed.
In 2020, I opened my gym.
I went from coaching at someone else's facility, clocking in, clocking out, to being the owner, operator, and coach all at once. My days filled up fast. On top of writing training plans and coaching clients, I was handling marketing, leads, consultations, accounting, licensing, and maintenance. And in a twist of irony I did not see coming, the fuller my schedule got, the harder it became to make time for my own training.
I was helping other people build their running fitness while quietly losing my own.
On paper, I had "flexibility." In reality, owning a gym meant 10 to 12-hour days, often all on the floor coaching, followed by more work in the evenings. I learned quickly that flexibility as a gym owner mostly just meant I got to choose which 50+ hours of the week I worked. I had less time and energy than I'd had working for someone else, and I hadn't expected it to hit training the way it did.
I'd been consistent with 5am runs, but I hadn't accounted for how different it would feel to wake up for an early run knowing a full day of physical coaching was ahead of me. I'd lie there thinking about how tired I already felt. How much more tired the run would make me. How I'd have to coach through that exhaustion all day. So I'd snooze the alarm. Go back to sleep. Miss the run.
Then wake up an hour later frustrated, but also knowing there was truth to the resistance. A 5am run would have made a full day of coaching harder.
After enough snoozed alarms, I realized something had to change. I was training like I still had 30 to 40 hours a week when I had 50+. And until I was honest about that, I was going to keep falling short of the goals that used to feel natural.
Here's what I changed, and what those changes made possible.
Six Things That Kept My Training Consistent During the Busiest Years of My Career
1. Being Realistic About How Many Days I Could Actually Run
I stopped trying to force three or four weekday runs into an already packed Monday through Friday. That expectation was setting me up to fail every week.
Instead, I leaned into my weekends. I ran every Saturday and Sunday, and kept weekday running to two days, sometimes one. During my busiest stretches, those weekday runs were capped at 45 minutes, and sometimes they were 25. I saved my longest miles for the weekend, when I had more time, felt less depleted, and could actually be present for the run rather than just surviving it.
2. Using Lighter Workdays as Running Days
Not every workday looked the same. I usually had one or two lighter coaching days each week, fewer clients, less time on the floor, and I started treating those as my running days rather than trying to fit a run into my heaviest days.
That meant staying flexible, because lighter days shifted week to week depending on cancellations and schedule changes. But it also meant I stopped dreading the days I ran. I started looking forward to them because I knew I'd actually have something left to give.
3. Using Intensity to Compensate for Lower Mileage
When I could only run two or three days in a week, I focused on getting more out of the time I had. That meant adding tempo work, threshold efforts, speed intervals, or strides and accelerations at the end of easier runs.
A little intensity goes a long way when overall volume is limited. It's not a permanent substitute for consistent mileage, but it helped me maintain fitness, strength, and durability through the weeks when training simply couldn't look the way I wanted it to.
4. Switching From Miles to Minutes
This one was simple but made a bigger difference than I expected. Time-based runs are easier to slot into a busy day because you know exactly what you're committing to. I could look at my schedule and see a 35-minute window and know it was enough.
Mileage-based runs felt unpredictable. A 5-mile run might take 45 minutes one day and over an hour the next, depending on how I felt, the terrain, or the weather. That uncertainty made it harder to plan around, and easier to skip when things got tight.
Switching to time-based runs took a specific kind of pressure off. The runs felt more doable, more worth saying yes to, and easier to fit into days that didn't have much room.
If you're training for a marathon or ultra with a packed schedule, this is one of the first adjustments I make with new coaching clients. Learn more about how I coach →
5. Getting Clear on What Actually Mattered Each Week
For the weeks that didn't go as planned, which was most of them, I had to know what actually needed to happen to keep moving toward my goals, and what could get pushed without real consequence.
Not every run carries equal weight. Some weeks, the only non-negotiable was the long run and one quality session. Other weeks, it was just about staying consistent with whatever I had. Having that clarity meant I could finish an imperfect week and still feel like I was moving forward, rather than feeling like I'd fallen off track every time the plan didn't hold.
6. Letting Go of What Ultra Training Was "Supposed" to Look Like
I had a picture in my head of what a serious ultrarunner's training looked like. When my training didn't match it, I'd tell myself I wasn't doing enough. That I was falling behind. That maybe my goals were too big for the life I was actually living.
Once I let go of that picture, I could focus on what was real: showing up consistently, building slowly and sustainably, and trusting that the work I was doing, even when it looked different than I expected, was still working.
It was. From 2020 to 2024, during the busiest years of owning my gym, I finished seven 50Ks across Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and New York, plus a 50-miler in California.
Not despite my schedule. Because I learned to work with it instead of against it.
You Don't Have to Give Up on the Goal
If you're in this right now, wanting to run, wanting to train, but feeling like your life is pulling in a completely different direction, I want you to know it's not a reason to give up on running. It's a reason to train differently.
Maybe you just started a demanding job or accepted a promotion. Maybe you went back to the office after years of remote work and lost the training windows you'd built your routine around. Maybe you've started questioning whether the marathon or ultra you've been thinking about is actually realistic for your life right now.
It probably is. Not by forcing your old training approach into a new schedule. But by being honest about what you actually have to work with, your time, your energy, your week, and building around that instead of fighting it.
If you're training for your first marathon or stepping up to an ultra and want a plan built around your actual life, here's how 1:1 coaching works, or take a look at the marathon training program specifically.
When you're ready to talk, schedule a free consult here. No pitch. Just a conversation about your goals and what getting there actually takes.
Abby Heffern is a 14x ultramarathoner and online running and strength coach at Wild Dog Athletics. She specializes in marathon and ultra training for ambitious adults managing demanding careers and full lives. Her 1:1 coaching includes custom run and strength plans, weekly adjustments, and daily access to Abby directly. Schedule a free consult →
