New on WRS: Live! With Stephanie Bruce, Erica Stanley-Dottin, Dot McMahan, on Mental Strength; and In My Training Diary: Steady Progress
plus, in Recommendations: Choosing to Run: A Memoir, by Des Linden with Bonnie D. Ford
New on WRS: LIVE with Stephanie Bruce, Erica Stanley-Dottin, Dot McMahon, on Mental Strength for Marathons, and More
This is a live recording from Sunday, April 20 at the Boston Marathon Expo. Once again, I teamed up with Julie Sapper and Lisa Levin from the Run Farther and Faster podcast to co-host an excellent panel.
This year's panel was titled Mental Strategies for Mastering the Marathon, and it featured exceptional masters marathoners Stephanie Bruce, Erica Stanley-Dottin, and Dot McMahon.
These women shared wisdom and experience on strategies for developing mental strength and resilience, mental approaches to the marathon, how to build confidence when you have self-doubt, and so much more! Whether or not you’re running marathons, there was so much from this conversation to take into your own racing and training. My mile and 5k training will benefit for sure!
This is an episode to listen to again and again!
About the panelists: Stephanie Bruce, 41, has been racing professionally for over 15 years. Among her many racing accomplishments, she’s placed 6th at the Chicago Marathon, and 10th at the London and NYC marathons. Bruce has also earned 3 national titles on the road, one in the half-marathon and twice in the 10k. Additionally, Bruce placed 6th at the Olympic Marathon Trials in 2020. Bruce started a new chapter in her running career this year, signing on with Tracksmith. She now runs for them professionally and will be helping to mentor younger runners going after big goals.
Erica Stanley-Dottin, 51, came to marathoning later in life, at age 35. In her early 40s, she began to train seriously and joined the Black Roses racing team. She then learned about The List: an accounting of all the American-born Black women who have broken 3 hours in the marathon. As she continued to get faster at the marathon, this became her goal. Erica met that goal with room to spare at the 2022 Berlin Marathon where she ran 2:52, at 48 years old. That came just six months after running 3:01 at Boston. This year, Stanley-Dottin ran the Boston Marathon as a member of Team Bevans, in honor of marathon pioneer Marilyn Bevans.
Dot McMahan, 48, has been running marathons for 19 years and she’s run for the Hanson Brooks Original Distance Project team for 20. Among Dot’s many accomplishments over her long running career, she’s qualified for and run 5 Olympic trials marathons, and she has placed in the top 10 at two of them. Last year, she was the oldest woman to compete in the marathon trials, and she qualified for last year's trials by running 2:35 at the 2023 Grandma’s Marathon. Dot is also a running coach. She works with private athletes and as an assistant track coach for Oakland University.
You can listen to this episode on your favorite podcast app, like Apple, Spotify, or YouTube, or you can listen here:
From My Training Diary: Enjoying Steady Progress
A reality that is starting to emerge as I continue on in this new training cycle is that less, for me, really is better. Some people thrive on big miles; I am not one of those people. I operate better when I have hard workouts followed by enough rest to recover before I go again.
Sometimes that rest involves easy recovery activities; sometimes that rest involves total rest.
I am also someone with a tendency to work too hard in workouts. I will give 110% every time. That’s led me to some mighty burnout.
These days, I have been taking the rest I need and also giving enough, but not too much, in workouts. The result: I feel great and I am steadily progressing.
My training week breaks down to something like this: two quality workouts, one longer run (no more than 9 miles), a couple easy runs, one cross-training session (usually a 1-hour bike ride—not too hard, not too easy), and one day totally off. I also have three gym workouts: a band routine, a body weight routine, and a lifting weights routine—the only one of those gym sessions that requires recovery is the lifting weights routine. I always schedule at least one day between gym sessions.
I’m also more mindful about taking note of other stresses in my life, and other activities, especially walking. I don’t have a car, so I walk a lot, and I regularly carry heavy groceries about a mile. I’ve adjusting training here and there to account for this extra load and for especially stressful times.
I’m now in week 7 of the 12-week program I’ve been following, and I can feel the progress. I’m getting faster, and I can feel the strength work kicking in: from cycling, weights, and hill repeats.
This is so gratifying!
I am also sticking with the terrific but often hard to follow advice to meet myself where I am at today. Like Dot McMahan said in the current episode, “I try to just feel, instead of getting caught up in the numbers.” She also said, “I accept myself for what kind of shape I am in on the day.” In other words: live in the moment.
This is serving me well. So much of my past angst and frustration has been about thinking I “should” be able to do something I can’t or being worried that I won’t be able to meet a goal I really want to meet. That sort of thinking has never, ever helped me.
Because at the end of the day, what I remember most is my feelings, good or bad. I love running fast and being competitive, but what’s becoming very clear is that being tougher on myself doesn’t help me run faster, it just makes me unhappy.
I keep reflecting on the indoor mile race I ran earlier this year. How I went into that race knowing I wasn’t going to run a PR, which had been my original aim. In training, I just wasn’t going that well.
So I gave myself some achievable goals for the day, goals I had confidence in. I met those goals and I had so, so, so much fun. To this very day, thinking about that race fills me with happiness. That’s what I remember.
Getting back to training today, I’m delighted to see my fitness and speed improve with this new “less is more” approach. I’m very curious where it will land me on race day. One thing I know is that whatever the clock ultimately says, I am going to have a lot of fun every step of the way.
Recommendation: Choosing to Run: A Memoir, by Des Linden, with Bonnie D. Ford
In honor of Olympian and Boston Marathon Champion Des Linden’s announcement about retiring from professional road racing after the recent 2025 Boston Marathon, it felt like a perfect time to highlight her book, Choosing to Run.
This book is personal memoir woven through the race story of Linden’s 2018 Boston victory. I love a great race report, and I (clearly) love learning details about women’s running lives, so for me, this is a must read.
Co-written with the terrific sports writer Bonnie D. Ford, this book is wonderfully written and the storytelling keeps you turning the pages. An outstanding read.
Coming Up …
Coming up next Tuesday, a truly magical 50-mile race journey as told by Angel Tadytin. Tadytin had never wanted to run 50 miles, but then she had a sudden change of heart. Tadytin’s preparation was most certainly unconventional, but as it turns out, she had just the approach, background fitness, and connection to the land to deliver a healing, bonding, life-expanding experience.
Tadytin’s episode is gorgeous and I am so excited for you to hear it.
After Tadytin, you’ll hear from me, in a new update on my running life. Then, the terrific running story of Jessica Mena. Mena has been driven from a young age to see what she is capable of as a runner. These days she’s focused on trail ultras, and she shares the story of running her first 100k, in addition to all that came before to get her to where she is today. That backstory includes running her first marathon at age 12!
There’s so much to look forward to on WRS! Subscribe to the podcast today so you don’t miss an episode.
And, that’s a wrap. Until next week, I wish you healthy, joyful strides forward.