Interview with Blake Russell
By Beth Whitney

Above: Blake Russell running for the New Balance team. Below: Blake Russel running in the 2006 USA XC Championships, where she won the 8K All Photos: Alison Wade/New York Road Runners

Blake Russell, 30, won the 8K at last month’s national cross country championships, and returned the next day to take third in the 4K.. A former University of North Carolina track team walk-on, she now resides in Marina, California, with her husband, runner Jon Russell. Consistently placing in the top ten at major championships and road races, Russell has slowly worked her way up through the running ranks. A 1999 Pan American Games bronze medalist at 5,000 meters, she finished 7th at the 2000 Olympic Trials in the 10,000 meters, and fourth at the 2003 USA outdoor 10,000-meter championships. In a breakthrough performance later that year, she won the Twin Cities Marathon in the fourth fastest U.S. debut ever (2:30:41).

As a member of The Big Sur Distance Project, under the tutelage of head coach Bob Sevene, Blake has established herself as a national-class force. After leading the 2004 Olympic Trials Marathon for 17 miles, she faded in the latter stages of the race, and finished an impressive but agonizing fourth. Unbowed, she returned to high-level training and made the 2005 world outdoor team with an aggressively run second-place PR performance (31:35.25) at outdoor nationals. After placing 22nd in August’s world championships, Russell won the national 20K road title in September, and set a PR of 2:29:10 at October’s LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon.

Fast-Women.com: First of all, congratulations on a great couple of races in New York City, at the national cross country championships. I was wondering how you liked having a taste of East Coast weather again after being in California.
Blake Russell: I am such a weather wimp. It was pretty brutal for me. I'm glad it went well, but it was cold. Nothing like California, that's for sure.

FW: You won the 8K and also qualified for the world team in the 4K. Are you planning on running both races at the world championships in Fukouka in April?
BR: I am. Last year, I ran the 4K, and I came back saying, "I really want to be strong enough to run both events next year," because I really like how the schedule is set up. The 8K is the longer, and probably harder, race, but I can come back the next day and just run as hard as I can. I definitely plan to do it, and hope it will go okay. You don't have time to get sore between races, and you're not as nervous as the day before.

FW: How's your recovery been?
BR: Oh, good. Well, it's been okay. I'm a little tired—running both races and flying across the country. I feel tired also from still being a little sick.

FW: Right, I'd heard you'd had somewhat of a forced taper going into race weekend.
BR: Yes, for most of December and into January, I was able to run a little bit, but I was hardly able to do any workouts or finish them. I had two solid weeks of running and then the week of the race, so it wasn't ideal.

FW: Your front-racing strategy certainly paid off. Did you plan on winning the 8K race from the front, or did you just find that the pace was slower than you felt comfortable with?
BR: Well, I thought the race would break up the way it did, with Colleen [De Reuck], Katie [McGregor] and me. My first goal was just to make the team. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel once we started running, and it just happened to work out to be a faster pace. I actually ended up feeling better than I'd planned, and I realized in the middle of it that I could win the race. If I could get a good kick down the straightaway, it could work out.

FW: You tend to look most comfortable when you're leading races. Actually, you look comfortable all of the time. Do you do a lot of form work?
BR: Umm, well mostly I just end up concentrating on my form a lot when I'm running. I run by myself and there's nothing else to do [laughs]. A lot of times if something feels weird, like when I get tired at the end of a run, I'll try to correct it while I'm running, It helps having ten years of solid running—you become efficient on your own. I think training for a marathon helps you think of as many ways as possible to be efficient.

FW: Does he ever share stories about what it was like to work with Benoit Samuelson? Do you feel like he directly applies a lot of that experience to your own training?
BR: I don't know if it's just her. He definitely uses everyone he's worked with and shares funny little stories. Everybody's been pretty unique, and to try and duplicate workouts she used to do would just be crazy. She was obviously so talented, and so before her time.

FW: How and when did you and Sev start working together?
BR: My husband and I were training in North Carolina. We went out to the 2000 Olympic Trials and decided we needed a coach [laughs]. Jon knew Sev from growing up in Boston, so we called him and asked him to coach us. We went out there in October of 2000.

FW: When you first started working together in a coach/athlete relationship, were there any bumpy moments, or did you just click right away?
BR: I think we definitely clicked when we first talked on the phone. I'd never talked to him; he'd never talked to me, but we hit it off right away. It's kind of scary, but we have a lot of the same personality traits, which my husband sort of pointed out to me one day. We're both kind of emotional, fiery people. We do have our moments, but we get along really great for the most part.

FW: You are literally a student of the sport. You have undergraduate degrees in psychology and exercise science, and a master's degree and career in physical therapy. Sev comes from a background filled with years of experience and training philosophies that have developed over time through working with other athletes, looking at his own athletic accomplishments, and probably a little bit of trial and error. I was wondering how your backgrounds complement each other when mapping out training schedules and analyzing results, and how much input you have into all of that as well.
BR: Since I had a couple of coaches before him, and I coached myself for a while, I kind of came up with some things that worked well for me. But I always stick to his philosophy, which is that consistent hard work is going to pay off, and as he says, it's not rocket science—it’s run hard, race hard, and the results are going to come.

I think I've been running with him for five years now, and our relationship has definitely evolved. He would say it's more of an advisory role—he helps me out with the majority of the workouts, but I like to do certain things. He lets me have that input, since I understand and know my own body, and he'll let me do things if I think I need them, physically or even psychologically, in workouts. In that respect, he's evolved to let me give my own input, whereas some of his newer athletes, they're still learning, they still do pretty much exactly what he wants them to do.

FW: Do you feel like you're the type of athlete who needs to be pushed more, or held back more?
BR: [Laughs] Oh, definitely held back more. That was one reason I wanted to have a coach. I needed someone to have a long-term vision. Not being really, totally in the sport, I just didn't understand how to get myself to where I wanted to go. Also, I often pushed too hard and would get nagging little injuries, so I think that's one of the great things about a coach. It's somebody who can stand there and tell you to ease off. Sometimes less isn't less. It's hard for an athlete to always remember that.

FW: Yeah, I was wondering how difficult it is to be objective about, say, your own injuries, even when coming from a background in physical therapy where you're actually applying that knowledge to other people. For example, decisions about when to back off or push through something.
BR: It is hard, I think. I can treat myself on some of the smaller things, but I've learned through the years that if it's something I'm not really sure of, I need to have someone else look at me and take their word for it, rather than try and self-diagnose. I think it's hard, and if anything, I'm not a very good patient. I try and get back out there a little too quickly, which is kind of why I got this sick over Christmas—wanting to run when I should have taken off a few more days so I wouldn't have relapsed.

FW: You're now part of The Big Sur Distance Project. How has the move and the environment, other than the nicer weather, affected your training? You mentioned earlier that you do train a lot on your own still.
BR: Yeah, I do everything by myself, and from doing that the last eight years I'm used to it, it doesn't bother me at all. The training is great, coming out here to train before the Trials, well, the trails were amazing. Which is my favorite part of running—the beautiful scenery, just beautiful places to run. We've got trails, the mountains, I'm right on the beach. The weather averages 50-60 degrees during the day, a little on the cool side, but still perfect for running.

I really liked Boston, but my husband and I talked and we definitely wanted a quality-of-life change. Someplace where we weren't sitting in our cars on the way to work for an hour every day, then turning around and doing it again at the end of the day, driving out to Reggie Lewis [indoor track], running a race or having practice at 8:30 at night. So that, that's been really nice. We get to see each other a little more, and it's more laid-back out here, which is great.

FW: Over the last few years, you've had an increasing number of breakthrough performances I was originally going to ask you why you're a relatively late bloomer. But then, looking back at your progression, you appear to be as much of a hardy perennial as a late bloomer, that keeps getting a little bit stronger every year. How methodical has your progression been? Had you mapped out a career plan that had certain incremental improvements every year based on a long-term goal, or has it just worked out this way?
BR: : I think what's happened is I've just been really lucky to have, even when I first started racing, great coaches. I've been almost injury-free—I’ve missed, oh, three months of running once when I couldn't run at all. In high school, I improved in every single race, and even all through college. Luckily I've had good training, and I'd like to keep going. It makes a difference having consistent training and just getting a lot stronger. I added things very slowly, only going up like five miles or ten miles per week in mileage. I've maybe added some different stretches or core things, but I think I never trained really, really hard in high school, college or even a couple of years after. It gave me a lot of room for improvement

I think that along with the strength issues, I, well...Just after the Olympic Trials, that marathon, well, I finished fourth. I just remember thinking to myself, "I can't believe I was so close." And I was still thinking of running as a hobby, and I guess I finally realized, "I've got to stop thinking of this as a hobby, and I've got to start thinking of this as a job, because I almost made an Olympic team." I think I even said out loud to myself, "Get in gear and start to think of this very seriously." I kind of convinced my husband to move, and finally, after two years here, just started to put running first instead of putting my job first. Letting my job support my running.

FW: Is that scary?
BR: Yes, it was scary to do. You've got a little more riding on races, or you're sick and think, "Oh no! I can't race!" It's hard, even just to go running, since I'm used to working full-time and just fitting the runs in where I can find time. You don't have time to think about how tired you are that way.

FW: Looking ahead, since there are no outdoor world track championships this year, do you have any key races that you're focusing on?
BR: Probably I'm just going to run Gate River, the 15K, which is coming up pretty soon. I'm going to just focus on the track this summer. I haven't run a 1500 in, like, four years. I'm looking forward to doing some 1500 meters and some 3Ks and 5Ks, which I've actually never raced, other than cross country and the world championships, in Europe. I'm hoping that that might work out. I'd like to get in a fast 5K, and maybe a 10K if I can find something. Then nationals, and I'll probably focus on a fall marathon. That's my ultimate goal, it's the event where I think I'll ultimately do best.

FW: I assume with your performance at the last Olympic Marathon Trials, the marathon is your focus for the Olympics in 2008.
BR: It definitely will be. It's a hard event, but I think it will be real fun and worthwhile to go after the marathon after focusing on the 10K on the track again.

Interview Conducted on February 27, 2006 and Posted on March 14, 2006