I think it surprises a lot of people to learn that when I run easy it's to make sure that my body's recovering enough for the hard workout. What tempo are you usually doing these runs at?Įasy runs are actually really slow. And then was we get further into the build, the workouts get a lot longer, into the 15 to 18 mile range, And then I'll generally do four to six in the afternoon. I'll usually do my longer run in the morning.

Then a long run on the weekends of anywhere from 20 to 24 miles. That comes out to generally 16 or 17 miles a day. Though she surprised even herself, Seidel says this “ability to push a little bit harder than the people around me” is something that started all the way back to fifth grade, when she ran a six minute mile, and helped carry her to multiple individual national championships at Notre Dame. What she was doing was running her way to an unexpected second place finish. “When I realized I was out ahead, it was like, shit, shit, shit, what are you doing?” “I felt good-or as good as you can at mile 19 of your first marathon-everybody else slowed down on the hill, and I just kept going the same pace,” Seidel remembers.

Then, as they raced up a hill, she and one other runner, Alphine Tuliamuk, separate from everyone else. But 19 miles into the race, Seidel finds herself tucked into the leading pack of runners. A difficult task, made even more challenging by the fact that it was her first ever marathon. When distance runner Molly Seidel lined up to race the Olympic marathon trials, she knew she’d have to finish in the top three to make it to Tokyo.

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