On August 15, Alysia Montaño will host a birthday party for her one-year-old daughter, Linnea. Three days later, she'll get on a plane and join Team USA for the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, where she'll headline the U.S. 800-meter squad.
For Montaño, who's been in the spotlight as a mother runner since she ran the qualifying round in the 2014 USATF Outdoor Championships while 34 weeks pregnant, the two roles go hand in hand. Montaño won the 800 at this year’s U.S. championships, even though as of the June 28 final she was still breastfeeding.
That victory was one of Montaño’s six national outdoor titles at 800 meters. She was fifth in the 2012 Olympics, and fourth in each of the last two world championships. At age 29, Montaño has made a quick post-pregnancy return to form: She won the indoor 600-meter title in March, six months postpartum. Her winning time at the U.S. championships in June was 1:59.15, making 2015 the sixth year she’s broken 2:00. (Her best is 1:57.34, which she ran in 2010.)
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Still, Montaño’s comeback has included bumps in the road. At the U.S. championships, she wore RockTape on her abs. She says that's because she's still building back her core strength post-pregnancy, and also because of a Mother's Day accident when she fell down the stairs carrying a tray of food.
"I didn't take the fall super seriously but it slowly started to pull everything out and I figured out how serious it was a week before [the] Prefontaine [Classic]," she says of the late May race where she finished tenth in the 800 in 2:03.72.
"I'm almost a year postpartum and I'm still rebuilding my core," Montaño says. "In the grand scheme, for a 'normal' postpartum woman, my core would have appeared to be relatively strong. Not so for someone who's trying to run around the track fast two times leaning left." Her husband, Louis, who has a background in Olympic lifting, has helped her to continue working on her core strength. For now, at least, she wears a brace when lifting weights.
In July, she ran 1:59.76 to win the silver medal at the Pan American Games. Her goal going into the race was to break 2:00. She extended her stay, too, to run the opening leg in the 4 x 400-meter relay. The team won gold.
"Pan Ams was the one I needed," Montaño says. She referred not just to winning silver, but racing in a format that required a qualifying round and then a final, and running under 2:00 against an international field in that final.
"The rounds really helped me solidify my confidence in running the 800—being able to run it one day and make corrections the next day, think about it on a rest day and then execute on the final day," she says.
To prepare for Beijing, she has continued to build her base and also worked in plyometrics and jumping activities. She's still adding speed work, including 50-meter sprints, back into her routine.
She says she's continuing to take her time getting back into her peak form, and doing more speed and plyometrics as she feels ready.
"I'm a professional runner and part of my job is to not get hurt. I have to not get hurt in order to compete," Montaño says.
Her time in Canada for the Pan American Games meant being separated from her daughter. Montaño intentionally did not race in Europe this year because she wanted to be closer to her family in Linnea's first year, and not go through the stress of overseas travel while still training, breastfeeding, and getting back into peak shape.
Linnea will stay home when Montaño travels to Asia for 10 days, first for a U.S. training camp in Tokyo, then for the meet in Beijing.
"My husband is going to stay home, and that's crazy too. He's my crew and my dream would be to bring them, but that's a long trip for a one-year old," she says. The timing, though, is perfect. Linnea is being weaned and will stop being breastfed on her one-year birthday.
"She doesn't care about my milk right now," Montaño says with a laugh. "I really feel like motherhood is for me. She just brings so much joy." When Montaño works out, Linnea sometimes comes to the track and plays in the long jump pit or dances to the music that Montaño plays on her portable boom box. "It' really motivates me to do better and have her see mommy do well," Montaño says.
Montaño's goal in Beijing in the same as always: "To do my best," she says. "I'm not really huge on being a big talker. I just want to go and compete. I love having my goals just within myself.
"I don't think it's a cop out or it's a safe zone,” she says. “It's how I've always approached racing and seeing how far I've gotten. It's about just being present in that time and letting it happen as it does."
