Sara Hall: My Future In the Marathon!
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #5)
Posted March 21st, 2008 at 10:00 AM by Sara Hall
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Elite Athlete Blogs, Sara Hall
Welcome to the official blog of U.S. middle-distance runner Sara Hall. Sara’s list of running accolades include being a former NCAA All- American at Stanford, the 2006 USA 5K road champion, and the 2006 champion at the Continental Fifth Avenue Mile. Check back every other Friday for her latest entry at http://sarahall.thefinalsprint.com/
As I sat down to write my blog, I realized I rarely write about my training (I guess it kind of seems egotistical to me), but for those who are interested, here you go!
Since Indoor Nationals, my training has definitely ramped up (As Steve Slattery would say, taking it up a notch!)! Living in Big Bear Lake, I have gotten to experience what it’s like to “live high, train low” in the full sense of the term. One of the reasons why Ryan and I bought a home in Big Bear is the benefit of living at 7,000 ft elevation, yet being able to drive down to a nice track at sea level in an hour (or less, depending on how fast you tear down the mountain!) It has been a good compromise for Ryan and I, as he imagines himself going into oxygen shock when at sea level (I always joke I’m going to buy him a pressurized space suit he can wear around), whereas I crave the rhythm of the track with my lungs full of air. So this month I have experimented with training in Big Bear, driving down twice a week to do intense track work and on the weekends doing a mini “marathon simulation” as our team calls it (a medium effort run, followed by a long tempo run) up at altitude.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not training for the marathon. Not yet anyway, Ryan jokes it’s his goal to one day retire and train me to run the marathon. Though I doubt a marathon is in my near future, I have gotten to experience a taste of marathon training through this long tempo run, and I have to say it makes me excited to one day train for and race one!
I think the only reason I enjoy this run is because of watching Ryan do something similar - he just makes it look so fun and easy. Never mind that the distance I am doing (14 miles total) is almost half of what he does, I still feel like I am part of the cool club when I do this workout. Normally, ever since I started training for the 1500m, I feel like the softie in the group - the first one to stop on long runs, always doing less mileage than everyone else on easy days. Granted most people are training for the 10k to marathon distance, but it still feels slightly unsatisfying to be the first one picked up in the van. But now that I have started doing “marathon simulations” I visualize myself coasting along like Ryan and I feel that, “I could do this one day!”
Today I did one of these runs- a 5 mile run faster than training run pace going into a 6 mile tempo with a 3 mile cool down. Although this isn’t the usual type of workout I get excited for (I love the all-out speed stuff!), I was actually excited because yesterday I drove along with Ryan on his 15 mile tempo run, and though he was running really fast, it looked like he was just cruising and having so much fun! Before my run today, Ryan asked me, “When do you want fluids?” (normally he takes them every 3 miles), and I was like, “Nah, I don’t need them”. However, on second thought, I pictured how Ryan looks when he grabs his bottle and drinks on the side of his mouth all suave-like, and decided I wanted to try it too. So I had him give me a bottle halfway into the tempo, and I tried my best, but had to choke the Cytomax down. I definitely need some practice before my debut!
Another thing I was thinking about out there was Paula Radcliffe. Ryan was watching one of the old London Marathon videos the other day, the year where Paula debuted and won in a time under 2;20. Near the end of the race, she was dropping miles under 5:15 all by herself! Whenever I see Paula run, I am so inspired by her focus and tenacity. So while I was tempoing, I pictured her gutting out those last miles all alone. I came away even more impressed with her performance (she had run a lot further than me that day!).
It’s exciting to think a whole other chapter of running awaits me one day, with completely different training and racing. But for now, it’s just fun to take a dabble in it, I’m having too much fun on the track!
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Photograph: Courtesy of NYRR
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Tags: 1500m, big bear lake, blog, elite athlete, elite athlete blog, elite athlete blog series, elite runner, marathon, marathon training, paula radcliffe, professional running blog, running, running community, Ryan Hall, sara hall, tfs elite athlete blog series, the final sprint elite athlete blog series, thefinalsprint.com elite athlete blog series, track and field, weblog
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