Life During Lockdown: Steph Bruce
I first met Steph in 2011 when I worked at the Los Angeles Marathon. Since then we’ve become friends and creative collaborators, first when she was with the McMillan Elite team and since 2014 as a member of HOKA NAZ Elite. I’m on the board of directors there, and working with professional athletes on media and marketing is something I love to do. Steph has done an incredible job not only as an athlete, with multiple USA Championships to her name, but also as a role model, mom and entrepreneur. She’s a co-founder (with Lauren Fleshman and Jesse Thomas) of the successful food business PickyBars, and she lives in Flagstaff, Arizona with her husband (also a pro runner and coach) Ben Bruce and two children.
1. Give me some highlights and lowlights from your first month in lockdown mode
Highlights: I have had so much more time to check the boxes of tasks that we have in the Bruce house. Ben and I tackled the garage together, we rearranged rooms, created a more inviting learning environment for our boys in our “play room.” I set up my office and inspiration board. I have connected more with friends on FaceTime and Happy Hours on zoom meetings. Really my creative juices have been flowing during this time.
Lowlights: Being at home with my kids all the time has been rougher than I imagined. On one hand I have loved the extra time with them that I miss during heavy training periods of my year, but I admit I’m not the best stay at home mom. I lack the skills to properly set a teaching schedule for my kids and have resorted to throwing on the tv or screen time to entertain them. Obviously I miss training and seeing my teammates, and the stricture of knowing when races are occurring but the health of the world is more important at the moment. And I miss my mom.
2. Do you have any new routines that help you get through each day?
We started using a whiteboard to divvy up the responsibilities of who is teaching one day, who has the day off, and when our workouts and runs will be occurring. This schedule has really helped keep Ben and I on the same page and manage the extra workload that we are facing. We also use another whiteboard to set up the boys’ school day so they have something to look forward to. At the top of the board written in bold letter is OZARK because we are engulfed in thats series right now and watch 1 episode a night.
3. How have you grown personally and professionally during this disruption?
I have always had a hard time assessing my self growth but I do know it’s happening. To what degree I’m not sure, but I’m starting to home in on the things I’m good at, the things I need to keep working on, and the things I crush. I believe that has been a great parallel to my life as a pro athlete.
4. Has your relationship with running and fitness changed as a result of training alone with no definite races on the calendar? I know when I head out the door it’s based on my own motivation right now. Since we aren’t meeting as a team we don’t have that accountability from our teammates or that extra push on workouts. So you have to look internally right now to find your whys. I like to think having gone through pregnancy and come back from injuries throughout my career I learned how to find that intrinsic motivation because my timeline was uncertain. That very much mirrors what I’m feeling right now.
5. Can professional athletes create positive change in the world during the pandemic? I’d like to think we can. I believe everyone has the chance to wake up everyday and decide what they’re gonna do to enrich their lives and the lives of others. I make a conscious decision to be fired up daily and that energy motivates me to keep training, taking care of my boys, getting the chores around the house done, and impacting individuals on social media when I can.
