Getting to  Know Your Fellow Trail Runner (GTKT) Episode 2: Olivia Rissland

Ok ok. I hope everyone is enjoying the continued winter freeze, and ya’ll have been getting in those miles as spring time races approach! I have been sidelined with an injury and have been enjoying a lot of R&R but that will all change this weekend.  

Here we are for the next installment of 'Getting to Know your Fellow Trail/Ultrarunner/ Getting to know the TARC'. This episode features Olivia Rissland, a member of the Trail Animals Running Club and an ultramarathoner who traveled over seas to run a 75 miler in Mont Blanc (how sweet is that?!?!).  I think that we will have Olivia jump onto a full episode of DFL to go through her race report while I substitute for Eric during his training hiatus. Anyway, who cares about us at DFL-- let’s hear from our guest!

Olivia,

Thanks for joining us here at DFL. I hope you are well!

Are you enjoying the winter? What do you do for training during these cold, snowy months?

In general, winter is actually one of my favorite months, and so I’ve been enjoying the snow, especially when I can get out for some skiing. That said, I do find it a little trickier to get in quality sessions in January/February, and I’ve had to resort to the treadmill fairly frequently. When I do run outside, if the footing is bad, I start thinking in terms of “perceived effort” rather than pace, and time rather than distance. I find this mentality is especially important during recovery runs to ensure that I don’t make those sessions too hard.

Tell us about your run at Mont Blanc?  Was it a beast of a run? Was this your longest run, to date? What was the atmosphere like, and how did it compared to races here in the states (crowds, aid stations, fellow runners)? Did you have a pacer? How was the party at the end?

The race at Mont Blanc that I did was the Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (or ‘TDS’), which is 75 miles from Courmayeur, Italy to Chamonix, France. This was my longest run to date (both by distance and by time). I knew it was going to be hard, but, looking back, I really had no idea exactly how hard it was going to be—if I’m being entirely honest, had I known, there’s no way I would have signed up!  At times during the race, I swore off running entirely. Of course, that mindset lasted for less than 15 minutes after I finished…

The race ended up taking me 30.5 hours, and, of course, as we all know, it really is the mind that is the weakest point in a race of that length. I definitely had a rough moment about 16 hours in and came very close to stopping, but somehow my pride kicked in, and I found a way to keep going. Once the sun rose on the second day, things started looking up, and I knew that I was going to finish. Incidentally, it was around that point that Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” started playing on my iPod—this song will always have a (non-ironic) soft spot in my heart!

The feeling of the race was really different than races here. First of all, I was one of only a few Americans! Happily, most Europeans speak English, and so I was able to talk with my fellow runners. Second, 90+% use poles; since I didn’t, this was a conversation starting point throughout the whole race. Third, the aid stations do have different food than I’ve seen at US races. Although there was a lot of sausage and cheese, I ended up sticking to the old stand-byes of chicken soup and bread. 

The biggest difference, though, was the general gestalt of the race: it really was an Event, complete with a helicopter at the start. More seriously, what struck me throughout the entire experience was how invested everyone in the region is. People came up into the mountains in the middle of the night to cheer us on. Our bibs also had our names and nationalities on it, and so I heard things like “Bravo, Olivia!” and “Nice job!” more times than I can count. This whole feeling was then magnified about 100-fold during the last kilometer of the race. The course goes through the center of Chamonix and is lined by various cafes and restaurants. As I made my through, everyone stopped talking to cheer and clap for me. A pretty amazing feeling for those of us mere mortals! This is one of my best memories, and is something that I will always treasure. After my race, I was talking to the manager of our hotel in Chamonix about this. She shrugged as if such support was the most natural thing in the world and said, “Everyone deserves to be cheered in.” I think this comment exemplifies the community and support that permeates the entire race and makes it so special. 

What did you do for your mountain training?

Going into the race, I had no idea how to train for a course with so much ascending and descending (7300+ meters!), and so the first thing I did was to hire a coach. Ian Sharman was amazing, and I know that there is no way I could have done this without his help in the months leading up to it.

Of course, specificity is key in training, but the big question/worry I had was how to prepare the insane elevation changes, given that I live in Boston. For the uphills, it’s relatively easy—I could just use everyone’s favorite machine, the treadmill, and set it to 10%+ incline. For the downhills, though, the workouts would have to be a little more creative. Luckily, Ian has two amazing tricks up his sleeve. First, I did a lot downhill repeats on Summit Ave, where I went all-out (mile pace or faster) on the downhill and then recovered on the uphill; doing 6-7 repeats is serious session and did a great job of preparing my legs for mountain races. This workout was a staple of my TDS training. Second, I also did sessions with a 10-15 lb weight vest on. The increased weight mimics the extra force that legs absorb on the downhills and helps build muscle. Together, these sessions are probably one of the main reasons I was able to handle the amount of descending in the TDS—in fact, my legs didn’t really start aching until I had already done about 6400 meters of descending. 

What does your training regime look like these days and beyond?

Currently, my training regime is on the light side, actually. I’ve spent the last month and a half interviewing for faculty positions, and so my running has taken a bit of a hit. Because I haven’t been able to do as much volume, I’ve been focusing much more on my speed. Once spring comes around, I’ll get back to focusing on the endurance side of running again, specifically with some serious back-to-back long runs. These workouts are especially important since the big race of 2014 for me is going to be the Squamish 50/50 in August; this race is 50 miles in the mountains on a Saturday, followed by a 50K race the next day.

Of course, nothing really compares to getting out and running in the mountains. I try to get up to New Hampshire (or other mountains) once a month to get some practice on the much longer descents. Sometimes this involves repeats at Mt Wachusett; otherwise (like this summer) I pick races in the mountains and plan a running mini-break!

Are you planning any races across the pond in the near future?

Alas, I don’t have anything planned in Europe for 2014, but I’m beginning to think about how to make this happen in 2015. Although it’s hard to say for sure right now, I would love to the do the full UTMB in 2015 and, maybe, at some point, one of the really long Alpine races, like the PTL or the Tor des Geants.

What does your race schedule look like this season?

Since I’m traveling about the country right now, my racing hasn’t quite been finalized yet and won’t start in earnest until the summer. In June, my boyfriend and I are going to take a running vacation out in California, which will be capped by being a pacer for WS100. I’m then going to do Speedgoat in July and finally head to British Colombia for my peak race, the Squamish 50/50. I’ll definitely do some races at the back end of 2014 as well, but those haven’t been decided yet.

“10 questions  in 60 seconds” (We are going ask Olivia to do another set of these for our next episode of DFL)

1.       Favorite race? TDS—easily!

2.       Music during a trail race?  Yes, but only at the end. I use it for that pick-me-up when everything feels pretty rough.

3.       Favorite aid station snack? Pretzels (especially the ones filled with peanut butter) and orange slices.

4.       What is your dream race? The UTMB—it’s the race that got me into ultras.

5.       Any TARC races this year? Not yet, but hopefully one in the fall, if I’m still in Boston.

6.       Trails or roads? Trails!

7.       Favorite trail/road to train? When I can get there, hill repeats at Wachusett; otherwise, the reservoir trail in the Middlesex Fells.

8.       Do you use a pacer for 50 or 100 milers? I used a pacer for the first time in a 50M in December. In a word: revolutionary. That being said, I do like the purity of finishing a race on my own.

9.       Do you incorporate any strength training into your preparation? No, although it’s amazing what running with a weight vest will do.

10.   Will you train on a treadmill? Yes. (Unfortunately.)