Golden’s Brianne Nelson has impressively grown to be one of the country’s top road runners. She’s had a busy 2015 and we caught up with her following a big PR at the half marathon, a disappointing race at the U.S. cross country championships, and just ahead of the LA Marathon. Nelson talks about all of it below.
Bri, I’m incredibly impressed with what you’ve done the last few years. I’m mean, you’re one of the country’s best road runners, and you ran at Fort Lewis College! I remember when you first started winning some Denver-area road races a few years back. Back then did you have any idea the level you’d reach, or did you even aspire to this level back then?
I got a taste for competitive running when I was running cross country for Fort Lewis College. At the time I was looking forward to mountain running and racing, but moving to the Front Range opened up more doors for road racing. I really started running hard after I had kids. Not being able to run when I was pregnant, and having two kids close together kept me from running much for a few years. Not being able to run really motivated me to get after it once we got a handle on the whole parenting thing. When you can’t do something you love, it really puts things in perspective, and my passion grew from not being able to run. After some success at the local level I really thought I had a chance if I could keep training hard and stacking up the years of work I would eventually be able to race at this level, it would just take some time.
You’ve already had a few big races this year – BUPA Edinburgh cross country, the Houston half marathon, and then U.S. cross country. And all this after a coaching change. Both you and Alisha Williams changed coaches at the same time actually. Was it just a matter of “oh wow, finally Mike Aish is coaching” and you had to make the change, had you hit a plateau under your former training, or what?
I did change coaches from Scott Simmons with the ADP to Mike Aish. This was a big decision for me, I had run well with ADP (the American Distance Project) and I improved a lot under Scott. I would not say that I hit a plateau, but rather I saw an opportunity that could really work better for me with Mike Aish. Mike has a lot of experience and really knows the game from an elite runner’s perspective. Mike has helped me immensely with the mental game associated with hard training and racing and I’m pretty excited to see where he can take me.
Houston was a big success and 1:10.16 a big PR. What do you attribute the breakthrough to?
I feel like I have been strong for this kind of run for a while now. Mike tweaked a couple of things specifically for this build up that I had not done in my previous training and I seemed to respond really well. I have never felt so strong and controlled like that in a race before. It all came together that day!
That 1:10.16 half marathon is probably equivalent to a 2:25 marathon, which I think is about nine minutes better than your current best. Are you hoping for big things at the LA Marathon in a couple of weeks then?
Absolutely, I have high expectations for L.A. so we will see how it goes.
What’s your marathon training looked like, mileage, speed workouts, etc?
Mike Aish gives me my training weekly, depending on how things are going or what he thinks I need more or less of and adjusts workouts. His main concern is rest for me which I am trying really hard to work on. He has even asked to watch my kiddos so I can nap. It’s hard when you’ve got kids that have a ton of energy and are on the go all the time, I really have to force myself to stay off my feet. Funny you ask about mileage, I am not one to total up the mileage week after week, I just do what is on the schedule. I did ask the other day and I think 115 miles, I do 2 a days, speed workouts, hills all different fancy combos and of course long runs.
As good as Houston was, U.S. cross had to sting a little. Any thoughts on what went wrong that day?
Yeah that sucked! U.S. cross was not what I was hoping for, I really wanted to make that world team and have a good race this close to home. I went in feeling strong workouts were going good, but after the first lap I felt horrible, like a wounded animal trying to survive, it was not pretty, everything hurt. What went wrong who knows there are so many variables that add up to a good race and bad one. Bad races happen and you just have to move on. The funny thing was I had a great workout two days later… so who knows? Guess they all can’t be perfect…but now I’m running a marathon in less than two weeks so maybe it will all make sense soon.
Bri, thanks and good luck at LA!