My running story
- Liubov Lomonosova
- Oct 31, 2019
- 6 min read
In August 2014 my husband and I moved to US. We’ve being living in Austin, Texas for 5 years now and I wasn't a runner back then.
Since school I hated running and thought it was not for someone like me, just because I couldn’t run without stopping even a half of a mile. About 5–6 years ago my husband started running and encouraged me to run with him. I didn’t want because I was afraid of feeling again that side pain and metallic taste (taste of blood) in my mouth. But my husband was very persistent and just explained me how I should start running and what I was doing wrong. In addition I really wanted to lose weight and the only missing part in my weight loosing process was correction my diet and adding cardio.
I’ve decided to start doing something unreal for me at the moment. I knew it would be very tough but I wanted to give it a try. I chose the most simple training plan for the beginners. The main idea was to get used to run. The plan consisted of 8 weeks. I had to run 3 days a week starting with 20 minutes very-very slow run, almost in a walking pace. Each week I had to add 2 or 3 minutes of running time in order to run 40 minutes by the end of 8th week. My pace was about 13:30–14:00 min/mile. But the pace wasn’t important at the time. I was so happy to be able to run my first 5K distance even at that slow pace. At least I could run. So at the end of that training plan I started feeling a pleasure from running, which was very funny and weird for me.
Later I wondered: what if I could do more? So I’ve decided to start training for 10K, after that for Half Marathon and Marathon.
After finishing my first marathon (I did Austin Marathon in February 2017) in 4:04:04, I’ve decided to get qualified for Boston Marathon next year, which sounded like a crazy idea. At first, I thought it would be nice to improve my speed at a shorter distances. So I started training for 10K. I did it in 46:58 (15 minutes PR from same race in 2016 (01:01:46). Then I started training for Navy Air Force Half Marathon in Washington D.C. I did it in 1:42:48. Then I picked my next marathon and started training for it. During my training cycle I did couple 5Ks, my best time was 20:57 seconds, I couldn’t break sub-20 :(. Also I did several Half Marathons.
Now interesting part: my Boston qualifying race was Mesa Phoenix Marathon. That was my only second marathon. The weather was great with about lower 40F (4–5 degrees in Celsius). The race was mostly downhill with few hills in the first part. I started the race as planned and by the half felt great, continued sticking to the plan and last couple miles speeded up. That was the best race in my life. It felt so good and really enjoyed the race with no suffering, which was so awesome. My time was 3:27:46.
After that race I found a coach, who also recently moved to US. She is a former track and field coach from Ukrainian National Team. Iryna was really impressed with my dedication and how fast from non runner I became a Boston qualified runner and did it all by myself. I trained with her for several month and learned a lot from her. She helped me improve my running form and introduced me to real track workouts.
Last year in summer my husband and I had a little trip to Colorado. We really fell in love with Colorado and especially Boulder, its beauty and how every place is runnable up here. We felt this is the place we would like to come back to. So later after some discussions we’ve decided to come to Boulder for altitude training. While staying in Boulder I decided to get certified for running coach and took classes from Road Runners Club of America in Denver where I met Louis Orta.
We’ve spent about 6 weeks last fall in Boulder. I was training for CIM marathon. During that training cycle I was coming back from 3 weeks off, then got sick and was left out just with 8 weeks till CIM. I decided to get back to self coaching and did just what felt right. Last year I worked at Boulder Running Company where I met Sid Vaughn and bunch of other cool guys, including you Hugo :). Sid told me about his coach at that time, Brad Hudson and his Black Book. I decided to read more about Brad and found that his has another book called Run Faster From 5K To Marathon. I liked the name of the book and decided to read it. People, book, training on altitude, my personal feel and knowledge that I gained from running coaching courses helped run CIM with another personal best — 3:14 which was huge PR for me.
After the race I had to start Boston Marathon training and I’ve decided to train with Rogue Running group in Austin and coach Chris McClung. It was a really great experience of training with people. I got to meet so many amazing people and it was so good to be surrounded by runners. Though Boston Marathon didn’t go very well for me. I finished it with time 3:21. It was a really hard race for me with very tough weather conditions. My mental game fell apart at the race starting line. My mind played a trick and I decided to go slower than I planned. So all my training well for nothing. After analyzing the race I came to the conclusion that I learned a lot from Boston marathon and it me made me stronger.
After Boston Marathon I decided to take some time off from running and to do some biking instead. I’ve been following Brad Hudson on Instagram for a while, so I knew he was in Austin. I decided to reach out to Brad and ask if he would coach me. He agreed and I was so happy about it, because I got to be trained for Chicago Marathon by the person who coached olympic champions. YAY!
Right away I liked Brad’s coaching methods. It felt very natural and matched my methods that I apply for coaching my runners. Coach Hudson is very intelligent, he knows the answers for all my questions. I’ve learned so much form Brad. The most important thing that I learned from him is how to be patient and pace myself on speed workouts. I really like his guidance in mental training and love the way he builds my training schedule where I do have extremely hard session but as well very easy, so everything feels just right and well balanced. In Chicago marathon training cycle I hit my highest ever weekly mileage — 80 miles. It is amazing to know what I am capable and explore my limits.
On October 13, 2019 I raced Chicago Marathon and crossed the finish line with time 3:04:15. That was on of the best race that I have ever done and I am so proud of myself, as well as thankful to Brad for his coaching. My mental game was strong and each mile was executed very smart.
As for my online running coaching business, I started training at the end of January. Most of my runners are people who are completely or almost new to the running and either want to improve their results or learn how to start running from zero. I truly believe that everyone can become a runner (of course if there is no health issues), it just a matter of dedication and right approach.
At each stage of my journey I had doubts and fears about what I can and what I can’t. But every time I found support of friends and internal strength to stand up and keep moving.
See you at the Olympics! :)
Everything is possible if you are committed and dedicated.
Be careful — dreams come true!
P.S. Check out The Dig Deep Podcast by Chaskis where I was invited as a guest speaker to share my running story.
Comments