Track and field athlete Allyson Felix is ready to have a baby at any moment, but that isn’t stopping her from keeping up with her fitness routine. Felix, 38, shared a reel of herself wearing leggings and a tank top, doing a variety of exercises like tennis, running, and hiking. “Whew lemme tell you! Life looks so different this pregnancy! Keeping up with a 5 year old, running a business, traveling for work, being a wife and trying to keep up with all of the thingsš But, moving my body makes me feel like meā¦so I’m doing my best to make it a priority. š„¾hiking šš½āāļørunning š¾tennisšš¾āāļø pilatesš§āāļølots of stretching. Anything I should add? Drop your go toā¤µļø,” she captioned the post. Here’s how the athlete stays so fit, strong, and full of energy.
Felix uses visualization techniques to keep herself focused. “My typical training schedule is about six days a week, five hours a day,” she told Vogue. “I approach it very seriously and also do some visualization, where I am really putting in mind [the results] I want to see. I ask myself, ‘What is the perfect race? How did things come together?’ Every four years I have this opportunityāfor only about 21 secondsāto get it right.
Felix overhauled her diet after getting tested for deficiencies. “So now I have a kind of very planned-out system: I wake up. I usually start my day with Chobani yogurt [which is one of her sponsors]. ā¦ For lunch I’ll have a salad with some type of protein in it. ā¦ And then my dinner is a bit bigger. I eat a lot of fish, some red meat, a lot of vegetables, brown rice. I try to keep everything pretty balanced. It’s important to make sure I have enough nutritious food to fuel me through the intense days.”
Felix protects her skin from the sun and enjoys hot baths. “I’m in the sun every day, I’m trainingā¦so I’m very basic with my skin-care routine,” she told Vogue. “I typically use Honest Beauty products. I’m always making sure that I’m cleansing, using a moisturizer with some SPF, like Cetaphil’s combination formula, and doing self-care rituals. Anytime that I can take some time just for myself, I love a bubble bath and just soaking.”
Felix loves sprinting as a way to train and also get a high-energy workout in. “I love a very ballistic workout where you run [aka sprint at top speed] 6 x 150 meters [a little less than half a track lap],” she told Women’s Running. “You run a 150 and walk around the track back to the start. When I do that workout, I feel like I know I’m ready to go.”
Taking time for recovery is key to Felix’s performance. “We’re always saying go harder, no days off. But for me, my approach is that recovery is just as important as the work I’m putting in,” she told Vogue. “I dedicate a day to active recovery, definitely wearing my Saysh sneakers to make sure my feet are able to do their best. It usually looks like a 20 minute, getting in my Normatech boots, and using my foam roller; doing all the little things and then seeing my massage therapist and chiropractor.”