Michelle Lilienthal's Journal

May 27, 2008 (Posted May 28, 2008)

The Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Marathon is over and although it did not go well, I’m happy that I was able to be on the starting line and that I gutted through and finished. Dropping out of the race did cross my mind and I debated what would be worse – to finish with a demoralizing place and time, or to quit and drop out.

I decided to swallow my pride and tough it out. I knew I would regret the decision to drop out. Plus, I logged an insane amount of cross training hours and for what – to drop out?

I took two weeks completely off after the race on April 20, which I have never done before, but I was in desperate need of a mental break. Now I have been back running for three weeks and I think my plantar is basically all healed up. It is still a little tender at times but it’s manageable.

My plan is to do some shorter races this summer, race my way back into great shape and then decide on a fall marathon.

March 18, 2008 (Posted March 20, 2008)

Despite getting a bit of snow the last two days, spring is slowly arriving in Minnesota. The trails and roads are wet, sloppy messes, but it's great. It has consistently been above 30 and we even had our first day of the year above 50 degrees last week! I survived my first Minnesota winter….phew.

More importantly, my foot is feeling really good. I got a new pair of custom made orthotics which has helped tremendously. Dealing with plantar fasciitis has been extremely frustrating but I have managed it and altered my training a bit by not only running on the roads, but also running on an underwater treadmill and cross training.

The underwater treadmill is really great because I can do quality workouts with little stress on my foot. The tread is built into the floor of a small pool and the jets can be adjusted to make the resistance and effort more difficult. The water level can also be raised and lowered depending on how much impact you want or need. It's a great training tool and is the only one of its kind in the Midwest.

An extra amenity is the flat screen TV. If it's a morning run, I watch Ellen and catch up on the most important current events. If I run in the afternoon, I watch ESPN. I've watched a lot of ESPN; let's just say I should dominate all of my March Madness bracket competitions. I am so thankful to Chris, Jeff, Mark and everyone at Accua for being so helpful and fitting me into their schedule!

My most exciting news and the highlight of 2008 thus far is my recent engagement. In the words of Brian Sell, Jacob "bit the bullet" and proposed two weeks ago at the Twin Cities Marathon host hotel, where we met in 2006.

January 16, 2008 (Posted January 21, 2008)

I met the girls yesterday morning for a run around the lakes. It felt like four degrees, but we got going at a good clip and stayed warm by having a heated discussion for about nine miles. It was sunny and not windy so it was a pleasant run. Today we were totally pumped to run in the warm weather…it was 18.

Training is going really well. I have been getting my mileage up the past couple months, feeling really good about my workouts and am encouraged about my progression towards the trials. My mileage has been above 90 miles a week for four weeks now. I ran my biggest week ever last week; I finished at 95 miles with a day off!

I got a nasty flu bug and couldn’t move for a day so I was forced to rest for a day. The next day I felt a bit weak and struggled through two six mile runs but my body bounced back pretty quickly the next day and I made it through a 14 miler in the morning and a short 4 miles in the afternoon, both with Jacob.

The flu wasn’t pretty, but everything happens for a reason and my legs personally thanked me for the day of rest, especially after my long run that weekend. I ran 24 miles, my longest run ever, and I am pretty proud of it because I ran all 24 miles on a treadmill. I know it sounds crazy, and it is, but there is good reasoning behind it (right Dennis?). Besides the mental challenge it is useful for heat acclimation and practice drinking fluids every 15 minutes.

My legs are adapting to the mileage and my workouts are starting to come around. I crushed my 8.5 mile tempo last week. I felt comfortable and strong but still need a bit more time before I’m ready to race. I opted not to race Houston because we thought it would be more of an interruption in training but I am really excited to race the Austin Half-Marathon in February.

A few of my teammates are going to Austin for a break in the cold weather to get some good training in the two weeks before the race. The weather in Minneapolis has not been awful and on the really bad days running in the cold just makes us tougher. However, this weekend I increase my long run to three hours and Saturday’s high is -2. Needless to say, I am going to enjoy being in Austin for a couple weeks.

I will most likely race a few more times in February and March before the [U.S. Olympic] Trials [women’s marathon] but I am more concerned with training for the next couple months and hitting my peak at the right time.

Introductory Entry (Posted November 13, 2007)

Second to running, procrastinating is my greatest talent. Which is exactly what I have done in regards to writing this journal entry for at least a month. In my defense, I spent August and September nursing plantar fasciitis, and didn’t think anyone would find the psychotic amount of pool running I was doing interesting. After six weeks of running and a solid weekend of training I now have something to reflect on.

Today I woke up at 7:30 and waited until 10:30 to go out for an eight-mile run around Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun. It was glorious outside this late in the morning and I’m glad I waited for it to warm up a bit. This is not procrastination, just good planning. It was sunny, almost 60 degrees, and too warm to be November, so the trail was packed with people. My teammate, Matt, would have been pleased with the amount of eye candy out running today.

Yesterday my coach, Dennis, let me run for an hour and a half. It was awesome. I’m so happy to be out of the pool and running again that I’ll do whatever he tells me to do without laboring over it. Dennis told me last week about the long runs I am going to be starting soon – three hours…on the treadmill…solo. Please don’t judge my sanity for saying this, but part of me can not wait for the first one. Anyhow, Jenelle, Emily, Carrie, Katie and I met up for yesterday’s long run and it was the most enjoyable run I’ve had in a long time. Good company and conversation really makes me happy to be a part of this team. We were at 42 minutes before the first glance at my watch.

I should have begun with an introduction but I’ll stay consistent and work backwards. I came to Team USA Minnesota in August after spending two years in Philadelphia for graduate school, and after a mediocre running career at the University of Wisconsin.  At City High School in Iowa City, Iowa, I was a seven time state champion in track and cross country and a sixth place finisher at the Foot Locker Cross Country championships in 1999.

The fall after graduating from Wisconsin I decided on a whim to run the Philadelphia marathon, “just for fun.” We all know saying this is really just a disclaimer for poor performance or an embarrassingly slow time, but I really had no clue what to expect and wanted to give myself a cushion.

Given my lack of training and level of fitness at that point (not very), and claiming to run for fun, I still didn’t want to completely loaf it so I set a goal of 2:59. I finished in 2:49 feeling unchallenged and craving more so I ran Boston in the spring hoping to break 2:47 and qualify with the B standard for the Olympic trials. I was ecstatic to finish in 2:40 but still not content being so close to the A standard (2:39). In the fall I finished the 2006 Twin Cities Marathon in 2:35 and finally learned to never underestimate myself.

I’m very happy with my progression so far but not satisfied. I decided to focus solely on training until the marathon trials in April and joining Team USA Minnesota seemed like just the thing to do. I honestly couldn’t ask for a better place to train. My teammates are hard workers and good people and I find myself smiling, laughing and enjoying running and life whenever I’m with them – an essential key to success. Dennis is very calculated and knowledgeable and I’m excited to see how fast I can get under his training.

The support system surrounding the team, from our team doctors, chiropractor, physical therapists, Life Time Fitness and Pat Goodwin – the team’s all-around superstar - made for a relatively easy adjustment during an injury. It is a great place to get fast and I consider myself lucky to be a part of it!