Q: What advice do you have for injury-prone runners? I know you suffered from several injuries during your career. I’d love to know more about your cross training—what carried over best? How did you “translate” hard workouts to the bike/elliptical?
A: I used the bike a lot and tried to keep RPMs at 90 to mimic my running cadence. The great thing about the bike is that you can do a hard workout almost every day and recover quickly. You can do intervals, or you can mimic your long run without the pounding on the legs. The elliptical was okay, but I had Achilles issues and so that sometimes irritated it. After the bike, aqua jogging was probably the next best option and one that I used to mimic running mechanics.
When I was running, I’d often use the bike to replace an afternoon run. Many of my teammates would double and run a morning workout and then follow it up with an afternoon run. Instead of that second run I’d hop on the bike and do a 45-60 minute ride with 10x1 minute hard or a ladder workout. It would reduce the pounding on my legs and help me stay healthy while adding to my total weekly “mileage.”
Q: You’ve overcome quite a bit of adversity/injuries over your career. What advice do you have for someone who may be sitting out a much-anticipated fall marathon on account of injury?
A: I’m not sure what’s worse—sitting out when you haven’t planned to do a race or getting injured right before the one you are doing. But either way, I tell people they need to find knowledgeable experts to work with to get healthy. You should never leave your appointment until you’ve asked: “What caused this?” “How can I prevent this from happening again?” and “How do I get back to where I want to be?”
Then you are ready to work really hard to get back to being healthy, you need to be okay with where you are at and not always push, push, push. You need to let it come to you.
Q: What was one unique/creative/out-of-the-box piece of your training that you believe helped you be successful?
A: Everybody puts in the work, puts in hours, and gets the miles in. But the thing that really sets people apart is not only setting the goals and going after them, but going after them with purpose. Having the positive attitude and mantras to go along with those goals that you set.
I used to say, “I’d really like to make the Olympics.” But before the Trials, I switched it and said “I’m going to make the team—I’m going to be an Olympian.” I switched it from it being “a nice thing to do” to “that’s what I’m going to do.” It sounds like a really small, insignificant thing but when you actually flip your brain into thinking that way, it’s an amazing burst of confidence and power that you give yourself.
Having the mantras to go along with those goals is key as well. No matter what you are doing—whether it’s in practice, during your long run or just psyching yourself up to get up out of bed in the morning to get your run in, you use those mantras. We always had five mantras. Mine were: “I’m strong,” “I’m a fighter,” “I’m a champion,” “I belong,” and for my fifth one I changed it up depending on what I was training for. You have to have something that makes you stand a little taller, and something that you could use all the time—not just on race day. Pick a mantra or two and use it every day to tackle your goals with intention.
Q: We are entering the beginning of Fall Marathon Season where runners are gearing up for their last big chunk of hard work before they taper. How do you get through the last big push in training? Any tips on staying motivated those last few weeks before the race?
A: For folks in our training program, it’s showing up on Saturday and having 200 people who are running with you. You know that if you aren’t there, someone’s going to wonder where you are. For those training participants, it’s having that accountability and knowing that you don’t have to do it alone, other people are in the same boat—and you’ll have a group there waiting for you at the end.
For me, personally, I ran in a half marathon the other weekend to get my miles in since I was struggling to get in 21 miles by myself. So I jumped in there and used that race as motivation. Sometimes you just need a change of scenery, to find other people to run with or even to jump into a race to put you in a race environment and get you excited about what you have coming up.
Q: How do you approach training for a challenging marathon, like Atlanta Track Club’s Publix Georgia Marathon?
A: A lot of the courses for our training runs actually run through the same areas as the Publix Georgia Marathon, so we get quite a bit of practice on the actual race course. We also run a lot of hilly courses since most of Atlanta is hilly, but we’ll give our participants a flat course once in a while to break it up. People that live in flat places like Florida who are running a hilly marathon can benefit from incorporating hill training or hill repeats into their program at least once a week to prepare their legs for the course.