3.16.2008

Sam McGlone

I knew that there was a chance that Sam McGlone would be in Tucson as Cliff English was one of the coaches for the camp (and Sam's coach and fiance). Sure enough Saturday morning here comes this slender strawberry blond over to the group kickoff. My first thought was this is cool if she'll be riding with us. My thought as we were flying in the pace line with Sam pulling at the front on the backside of Gates pass on day two was crap this little lady is fast.
In all seriousness she's a pretty complex woman. Quiet and disarming and then she'll throw out a zinger out of no where that some could take as a little offensive (my sarcastic and slightly off color sense of humor found these hilarious). She's a small woman I'd almost say tiny but she's powerful (even though she won't admit it) and really fast. Above all when you get to spend a little time with her she is really cool and friendly.

I had the chance to chat with her on our run in Sabino Canyon. On the ascent up the telephone trail there wasn't much chatting as she and I really pushed the pace. I'm not sure how hard she was working to stay up with me but at least it made me feel good that I could lead her up the canyon. On the descent on the road I had the opportunity to chat with her about her run training, experience at Kona, and some of her hard training rides.

Specifically I asked her what she was thinking in the last miles of the Ironman Hawaii. I wasn't sure if she was thinking I just want to get to the finish line or I'm not going to catch this girl. She said it was a little bit of both. She was hoping that Chrissie would come back to her in the final miles but realized that she wasn't going to and was really just wanting to get to the finish. She also relayed the fact that if you get to Kona to really soak up the experience of running along Alii drive to the finish because there are few if any other experiences like it in the world.

We talked quite a bit about run training in particular how long her long runs are. Much like me she doesn't like to go much beyond 2.5 hours as that pushes you up around 20 miles and much more is really just too hard to recover from and really makes you prone to injury. We also like the long hard tempo runs. Six to eight miles at a hard tempo. She also talked about her transition runs off the bike which she does pretty consistently and are no longer than an hour.

I was very impressed with her bike training. She described doing 3 hour hard rides doing double loops up and over Gates Pass in Tucson. These just sound brutal but these are the efforts and workouts that make a champion. I can relate as when I was in my running prime I would hit the track and do 6-8 400's at sub 60 seconds and not surprisingly I would have great fast races in the following weeks.

All in all I was totally impressed by Sam and felt privileged to get the chance to spend some time riding (I won't go so far as to say training with her) and getting a chance to chat and get to know this talented woman. I was a fan before but now I'm definitely a fan.

Now just to see how close I can come to her in Kona in May. Yeah Sam I'm going to be gunning for you. If nothing else you can rest assured that you've provided motivation for me for the next couple of months of training. See you in Kona.

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