Camelia Mayfield
Two reasons you love training and racing on the road and two reasons you love training and racing on the trail.
Road/track- it doesn’t lie. I love track workouts and road workouts because you can tell exactly what your times can equate to for racing. When I ran the 10k in college, I loved that each lap you could just focus on a lap split and nothing else- no elevation, no huge variables, just the pure competition. My road marathon was the same way. It was a huge mental advantage to be able to just focus on one mile at a time.
Trails- the trails have always had my heart. There is nothing as satisfying as looking at a mountain from the bottom then getting to the top and taking it all in. I love the unknown of a trail race as well. The time is relatively meaningless from one course to another or even one year to the next depending on conditions so it really is about pushing yourself and enjoying the journey as much as possible. I love being able to see remote areas as well. Sometimes it hits me on a long run that I could be miles from the nearest human and it’s both exciting and scary to have that sort of independence.
Favorite type of workout, and why it benefits you and distance runners in general.
Long runs. I think long runs whether you are training for a 10k or a longer trail race are important. These are just as mental as they are physical. I can either dread my long run after a week of workouts and work or they can be a retreat into the wilderness. It also is a good chance try to meet up with friends and just explore and also test out nutrition for racing.
Whats one training mistake you have made in the last few years? Describe what you learned from it.
Something I am still struggling with in my training is not taking enough recovery time after races. I ran my first road marathon in May 2016 with a pretty exciting performance and time. I was eager to get back into training for a big trail marathon in Slovenia about 6 weeks later (on top of dealing with moving apartments and other life stress) and ended up hurting my hip flexor pretty badly. I still finished the race, but it wasn’t the performance I was hoping for. I have always had some imbalances in my hips, so if I could go back in time I would have taken more downtime after my road marathon to make sure everything was firing normally before ramping up training again. Following my first 100k, it has been a similar situation. Now, even 7 weeks post-race I am still feeling some fatigue when I try to push it. I’m learning to not have too many expectations for training and go with the flow.
Sarah Bard
Two reasons you love training and racing on the road and two reasons you love training and racing on the trail.
I love racing on the road because on the road I feel free and unencumbered and fast. I can turn my mind off and just relax into a pace. I like training on trails because I feel like they require me to listen more to my body and to the world around me, instead of focusing on a specific pace. The terrain becomes an additional challenge to explore, and with which to adapt. Both are beautiful places to be and provide diversity in both training and racing.
Favorite type of workout, and why it benefits you and distance runners in general.
I have a love/hate relationship with wave tempo workouts. I think they can be one of the more challenging, and daunting to see on a training schedule. However, I think they build a lot of confidence and help athletes hone in and feel comfortable with their goal race pace. I like to structure my wave tempos so that the ‘slower’ portions align closely with that goal race pace, so that the athlete (and myself) associate race pace with recovery. Inevitably, these workouts always leave me feeling strong and settled, and happy with my efforts!
Whats one training mistake you have made in the last few years? Describe what you learned from it?
I’ve been running and racing since I was young and feel that I know my body, my strengths, and my weaknesses better than anyone. Because of this, I coached myself for a number of years. I had good results, so I don’t think this was necessarily a ‘problem’, but in retrospect, I may have shown more improvement with a coach by my side. As I’ve transitioned from primarily racing the marathon distance to ultramarathons of 50 – 60 miles, I realized my mentality toward training made its own (unconscious) shift.
Having a coach is not necessarily to tell you more about your body than you already know. But coaches can be useful guides, excellent cheerleaders and motivators, and good advisers. They’ll help save you from yourself when you want to push too hard, and they’ll be more realistic about your strengths and abilities and bolster your confidence to expand your goals. They have experience and will do the background research to help you navigate workouts and races, so that you can focus on yourself. I believe in myself more when I have a coach, someone alongside me helping me both physically and mentally.
