Run Faster

There’s a huge running event happening in a couple of days - and no, I’m not talking about the Boston Marathon. I’m talking about something that happens only every 4 years - the U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials, which will be held this Sunday, March 20, the day before Boston.

Deena Kastor, the U.S. women’s marathon record-holder, seems to be the favorite, with a qualifying time 12 minutes faster than anyone else in the field.

Other notables who have met the qualifying standards and have declared their intention to race include:

• Blake Russell, who qualified with a 10-K time of 32:31
• Kate O’Neill, the current U.S. Half Marathon record holder
• Elva Dryer, who had the second fastest qualifying time in the field

  All of these women are fantastic runners and are sure to make the trials a great event to watch. However, the woman I’m most excited to see out on the course on Sunday is the great Joan Benoit Samuelson, who at age 50, qualified for the trials with a time of 2:46:27.

  Although the race is being run in and around Boston, the course is not identical to the Boston Marathon course. The trials course is quite a bit flatter, with the bulk of the course being a six-mile loop which the runners will cover 4 times before ending up on Boylston Street, the same place that the Boston Marathon course ends.

  If you want to learn more, Runner’s World has put together an entire mini-site devoted to the trials.

  If you want to watch the trials live, point your browser to http://www.nbcolympics.com/marathon/ at 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday.

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Kara Goucher, #203, in the 2007 Great North Run
By Conor Lawless via Flickr

For those of you not familiar with her, Kara Goucher is an outstanding American middle and long-distance runner who has excelled at distances ranging from the 1500 meters to the half marathon. In her college days at the University of Colorado in 2000, she was the NCAA Outdoor Champion in the 3000 meter and 5000 meter events, and the NCAA Cross Country Champion (source: wikipedia). She is currently coached by Alberto Salazar and hopes to make the 2008 Olympic team.

Recent Career Highlights

Kara’s early professional career was plagued with injuries, but since she and her husband Adam Goucher moved to Portland, Oregon to train under Salazar, her fortunes have changed. Here are just a few of her 2007 career highlights:

• In September, she set a new PR of 8:34.99 in the 3000 meters in Rieti, Italy. (source: EliteRunning.com)
• In Osaka, Japan in August, Kara won a bronze medal in the 10K, becoming the first American woman to ever medal at that distance in the IAAF World Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
• In September, Kara took first place in the Great North Run, her half-marathon debut, in a time of 1:10:17.

See Kara’s bio on the IAAF web site for more information about her PR’s and running history.

What We Can Learn from Kara

Unlike Kara Goucher and other professional runners, most of us don’t have access to star coaches and anti-gravity treadmills, nor are we able to spend the bulk of our day training. Even so, we can still learn a lot from Kara:

• Mental toughness is one of the keys to good running performances
  

  I remember thinking, I could just step off right now and say it was my heel or my IT band. . .It would have been true. They were bothering me, but I was able to get through that.
  
  - Kara Goucher speaking about her victory in the 2007 Great North Run half marathon (from an article on the IAAF web site)

• Drills, stretching, and strength training can help you run faster and avoid injury - Before moving to Portland to be coached by Salazar, Kara suffered multiple injuries. Since then, her program has changed to include “exhaustive regimen of supplementary stretching, mobility drills and strength training” and she has set PRs at four different distances, from 1500 meters to the 10K (source: Boulder Daily Camera).

If you’d like to take a virtual run with Kara, try out Kara Goucher's Endurance Kara Goucher’s Endurance Boost, one of Nike’s Sport Music mixes on iTunes, where she talks you through an interval workout with the help of some decent music.

If you want to learn more about Kara (and Adam) Goucher, watch Keeping Up With the Gouchers (Episode 1 is below).

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