Photo courtesy of Eliterunning.com
RM: How has the weather been in your area the past few months? Has it affected your training at all and if so, what changes were needed?CG: The weather in Boston hasn't been too bad. It started off a little rough with some big snowstorms in December, but after that it never got any worse. We had some cold days and some snow here and there but it wasn't anything that significantly affected my training. There were maybe two or three days where I had to change locations of a workout in order to get on some clear footing. For example, after snowfalls the path along the Charles River would be covered with a layer of snow on top of a layer of ice so I’d have to switch my workout to a ¾ mile loop that runs around the perimeter of the parking lots at the Harvard athletic complex. That loop is almost always clear in the winter so it’s a good go-to location for workouts when everything else is too dangerous to run on. Actually, I’ve found that the best places to run during snow storms are around the college campuses (Harvard and MIT in particular).
RM: Do you think training with a group gives you an advantage(s) over the women who train solo? What are some of the draw backs of training in a group that you have encountered?CG: I don't regularly train with a group, at least not with the regularity that I did when I ran for Hanson's-Brooks. Many of the members in the B.A.A. live outside of the city of Boston and all of us have full-time jobs outside of running so group runs typically take place on the weekends when people have more flexibility in their schedules. I would say that half of my training is on my own and the other half is a combination of training with some of the B.A.A. women and some of the local guys from several New England running clubs. The person I train with most is my boyfriend, Terry Shea. He has done quite a few of my workouts with me – some where he sets pace and I’m forced to sit on him to practice running in a pack and some where I take pace so I can practice running solo. I think that is an advantageous situation for me because he is coaching me and knows me as a runner better than anyone else. He can get instant feedback when we run together.
With regards to the drawbacks of group training, the only real drawback for me personally is compromising easy/recovery days with running too hard to keep up with others. I run really slowly on my recovery days. Now that I've had a few years to figure out what works best for me I often tend to run by myself on easy days so that I can go at whatever pace my body wants to without being influenced by someone else. This tends to ensure I'm recovering properly.
RM: What workout has given you the most confidence as the trials are almost here?CG: I don’t really have a workout that has given me a big boost of confidence. I was injured for pretty much the entire month of March. I went from March 2nd until April 6th without having done an actual running workout. However, I put in a lot of time pool running and I think that my efforts were comparable to what I'd be doing on the roads, at least I hope that's the case. I think that I maintained a good bit of fitness with what I did in the pool. To be honest, I may have gone a little too hard at times but I didn't want to slack off too much just in case I was able to get to the line healthy. Now that I've had a full week of healthy, pain-free running and have backed off on the high intensity pool workouts, I am seeing that I didn't lose too much while I was in the pool. I'll probably need the entire two weeks left until the trials in order to gain confidence that I can run a marathon, but I'm keeping my thoughts optimistic.
RM: What would you say is your greatest strength/advantage going into the trials and why?CG: I guess my greatest strength is my cumulative strength. I've run six marathons and I've now had six years of high mileage training (when I'm healthy). Each time I start a new segment of mileage or marathon training I find that it gets easier to handle the miles and the high volume workouts - both from a physical stand point as well as a mental one.
Even though this particular marathon build-up didn't go at all to plan, I still feel that I have the cumulative base that will allow me to run a decent marathon...if my body holds up.
RM: What do you think is your biggest weakness going into the trial and what are you doing to limit that weakness?CG: Well, that would probably be the fact that 80% of my March training was pool running and I had to do an entirely experimental marathon prep. However, I'm not going to go to the line and think "There's no way I can run this, I was in the pool for a month". I think that would be completely counterproductive and would set a bad mindset going into the race. I’ll be realistic about what I can run, but I'm not going to let this setback mentally limit me in the race. I'll try and run as smart as possible and do what I can with the fitness that I have.
RM: What would it take for you to walk away from the trials happy/content? If you are willing to say, what is your goal for the trials?CG: Given what happened in the '04 trials, I would be very happy to be able to cross the finish line in these trials. I know it sounds trivial, but it's the most important goal for me going into this particular race. I don't have a goal time since I'm not entirely sure where my fitness stands. I'm just going into this race hoping to compete as well as I can. If I fall flat on my face, then I'll just try again in '12.
RM: What are your thoughts on racing in Boston? How bid do you think the crowd will be and what do you think the overall atmosphere will be like? CG: I was so psyched when they first announced that the trials were going to be in Boston, which happened shortly after I moved back to the area. This is a great running city with lots of local support. The weekend of the Boston marathon is always such a fun and exciting time to be here and now that the trials will be a part of that weekend, it's going to be even more special.
If the crowd for the trials race is anything like the regular Boston marathon, it's going to be quite energetic and motivating. This city really gets involved with the marathon, so I don't doubt it will be just as involved with the trials race.
RM: What are some of the foods that you just cannot get enough of during this heavy training phase? Are there any foods that you try to avoid during such a heavy training phase?CG: As most of our former Hanson's-Brooks teammates know, Terry and I are big on pancakes, particularly during marathon training. I would say that the kinds I've enjoyed most during this segment are pumpkin chocolate chip and raspberry white chocolate-chip. I'm also big on the pollo diablo pizza from diMio, a pizza place here in Cambridge. And I've also been enjoying some of the fine microbrews from Avery, Great Divide, and Southern Tier during this segment. Pizza and a good IPA or barleywine are quite satisfying after a hard workout or long run. In terms of foods that I limit, I try not to go too crazy with desserts, but I find that with running high mileage I can't restrict or limit things too much because I'm constantly hungry. I feel like crap if I'm not getting enough calories in.
RM: Have you had any setbacks with your training leading up to the trials and if so, what were they and how did you deal with them?CG: The theme for this segment, and most of the past year and a half, has been setbacks. I've had some bad luck with staying healthy. I've had a few hip and lower back injuries off-and-on since the summer of 2006 that disrupted several training segments. This past fall I wasn't able to race or do workouts because I was having some serious breathing problems, which were partly a result of lung damage from the pulmonary emboli I had a few years ago. I finally got that under control and then I ended up with a compound back and ankle injury at the beginning of March. Despite these setbacks, I've tried to maintain as positive an outlook as I could. I figure it's only a matter of time before I get completely healthy and start seeing some better race results.
RM: When do you see your last hard workout heading into the trials being and what will it be? CG: I'm not really sure on this one. Since I haven't done any real workouts for a month (not including the pool workouts) and I'm just now getting back to full speed on the roads I don't know when my last workout will be and what it will be. Right now, we're playing things by ear and going day-to-day. We'll see how things go the next few days and evaluate what I need to do and how to squeeze it in with the time remaining.
RM: When will your last long run be heading into the trials and what will it be? How long has your long run been so far?CG: Again, I'm not sure about this. I think I need workouts more than I need a really long run at this point, so I may not do anything longer than 16-18 in the remaining weeks. Like I said above, we're going day-to-day at this point. Prior to getting injured, my longest run was 21, with quite a few 20's thrown in. I also did a 3 hour cross-training block two weeks ago where I did a 2 hour pool session (with a fairly long workout in the middle), followed immediately by an hour on the eliptical. I know it's not quite the same as a 3 hour run, but I still wanted to do something to get my body used to a long stretch of exertion. Actually, most of my pool sessions were pretty long. I wanted to put in pool time that was equivalent to the time I'd put in running 110-120 miles/week. I have no idea if what I did was adequate because this is the first time I’ve been in a situation like this. I guess I’ll find out on April 20th.
