Runner Profile: Louise Kelley

Finishing 2nd in the US for age 55-59 twice in 2019, Louise Kelley had high hopes for the 2020 Track season.  She was going to compete in the World Masters Championships held in Toronto in July 2020...

One of the most knowledgeable runners I coach is Louise Kelley.  Louise is not only a Silver Medalist in the 2019 USATF 1500m Outdoor Championship for age 55-59, she is also a physical therapist who has helped several of my runners.  Her website is https://kelleypt.com/.  At an earlier age, Louise was a 35 minute 10K runner.  Now, at 55 years young, in the age 55-59 category, she was the Silver Medalist in the 2019 USATF 1500m Outdoor Track and Field Championships.  She was also the Silver Medalist in the 2019 USATF Indoor Track and Field Championships 1 Mile, as well as the Bronze Medalist in the 800m.

Louise' PRs (age 50-59):
800m: 2:37 (2019)
1500m: 5:23 (2019)

We began working together in the winter of 2017, when Louise started to compete in womens championship races for age 50-54.  In 2018, she was 5th in the 800m (age 50-54 category) in the USATF Indoor Track and Field Championships.  At the time, she ran 2:46.  Now, she has run nearly 10 seconds faster.

Coaching Louise is an enjoyable process, because she knows her body well.  Being a PT gives her an advantage to help prevent injuries.  Still, I have to be mindful of how far I can push her without over-training her.  In between track sessions, she takes an easy day of running, and a complete day off.  Having 2 days between hard sessions has been more beneficial for her.  We started working on the 800m, but eventually I convinced her to try the 1500m/mile.  She has bounced between both the events since and the 800m helps her leg speed for the 1500m.  Her best performance to date, in my opinion, is her 5:23 1500m at the 2019 USATF Outdoor Nationals (equivalent to about a 5:45 mile).  She was also 2nd in that race to Lorraine Jasper, 5:22.46 to 5:23.07.  Shortly after USATF Nationals, Louise made the trip to compete in a big masters meet in Toronto.  She ran her new PR in the 800m there, in 2:37.

With these races under her belt, we were really excited going into 2020.  We have been working on everything from her aerobic capacity to her sprint finish.  Thanks to Silvia, Louise has had someone to chase during workouts.  The way I work this out is while I will have Silvia do mile repeats in 5:40's, Louise will do part of that interval such as 800s or 1Ks with her.  She also will sprint next to me for part of a straightaway during a 4:40 pace mile I am running.  I tell her, "See!  You can sprint with me at this pace on the straight - just think of that when you are trying to out-kick someone!"  Her sprint is improving, but there is more to improve and I am learning a bit more about sprinting as a coach (I am currently taking a new certification - stay tuned for updates!).  Even though it is a very small portion of the race, the alactic energy system of sprinting can make the difference of winning a race for an 800m-1500m like Louise.  Even in the half marathon, we can learn to use this system (only several seconds worth) at the end of a race.  I was able to out sprint a few competitors at the end of a 1 hour 5 minute half marathon in Houston, even after consecutive 4:59 miles.  It was probably the last 75 meters of the race.  You only want to do this at the end of a race.  You can see the switch to the sprint on my Garmin Data here:

Louise and I planned out her 2020 schedule, which focused on peaking for the World Masters Championships held in Toronto of July 2020.  She was going to compete again in the US Indoor Championships, and the Outdoor Championships.

Unfortunately, the World Masters Championships have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 (insert cusswords #$%&^*@!).  The 2020 USATF Masters Championships have not been cancelled yet, which are also held in July.  While pretty much all of Louise' season is cancelled, we are balancing developing her as an athlete now in what I am calling an off season.  As a coach, due to COVID-19, I have had to really look at things with a different eye with my athletes.  I've shifted my mentality now to using this period as an off season opportunity to work on development.  There is always opportunity.  During the racing season, we can't work on all aspects of development.  We have track meets, road races, etc.  Races, in a way, have a lot of benefits, but we also must balance development with racing.  As a coach, I constantly work on balancing these two.  I have athletes race a certain limited amount each year in order for them to get all the necessary aspects of development in.  There are also periods where we should race more, and when we should race less.  Typically with Louise, I will shut her season down after a few fun 1 Mile road races during the fall.  She will take a few months off from racing, and then resume in January with something low-key.  The winter is more of a base building phase for her, as it is cold out and she won't be able to run as fast.  Her biggest time of year is From March - July.  With that all being cancelled, it is difficult to not get excited about upcoming meets.  But we are training.  We have just needed to shift things to a new paradigm.  My goal for Louise right now is to get her stronger aerobically, but to also get sharp/work on her sprint speed and I am hoping we can do some "simulation" runs, or time trials this spring.  These I feel are important because while they are not races, they are hard efforts that are a step towards a race.  The body and mind respond to stress and rest.  Races are also a form of stressing and pushing the body in a different way than training is.  If we do not stress the body enough, it will not respond or develop.  But also, if we do not rest it enough, it will not adapt to the training we put it through.  So while we are unable to race, I have to figure out a way to stress the body without over training it.  When we have little or no races, we are susceptible to over training because we think that we have all this opportunity now, and we tend to do too much.  This is because during a race week, we do little to no workouts at all.  But some races I like to train my athletes through, so that they aren't able to go "all out" on race day so that they don't sacrifice their development, especially in the early season.  The best example of this I can recall is when Silvia ran a 65+ minute 10 miler in February of 2019 (the RRCA 10 Mile), and she felt terrible (weather was terrible and course is really hard).  I also trained her through that race.  I said to her, "throw the time away, effort is what matters and this race is not an opportunity to run fast-it is actually GOOD you didn't run that fast here." Then, when I rested her at the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, she took full advantage of her fitness and ran 59:34 (59:48 converted from the 9.96 mile course), a gigantic new PR.  She also PR'd in the Half Marathon (1:20) and 10K (36:51) that spring.

Obviously for the big peak races, I rest my athletes.  But also one of the best things we can do is resist racing too much, because we can get some really great development in!  Now is a great time to do that and I am excited as I continue to coach and train Louise this spring.  It is my hope that the consistent work we are doing now will pay off when racing season resumes.