Lindsay from Chasing the Kenyans is one of the most active and welcoming running bloggers out there. She is also super fast.  Thanks Lindsay for filling this out!

Name:  Lindsay

Website: chasingthekenyans

Twitter: chasingkenyans

Sex: Female

Age (at the time of first BQ): 24

Height:  5’7”

Weight (at the time of first BQ):  144

At which marathon did you get your first BQ? Tell us a little about the race.

Atlanta Thanksgiving Day marathon (no longer held – only a half-marathon now).

Pretty hilly race, ideal weather (30 deg at the start, sunny), small field of runners in the full marathon

You can read my race recap here. 

How long had you been running when you ran your first BQ? Did you run in college or high school?

I ran 2 yrs of high school XC (98-99), did not run in college but rowed (NCAA) for a year and ran ‘casually’ (I wouldn’t even say 10mi/week), started “really” running again (regularly 4-5x/week) junior year of college (04-05).  So you could say I’ve been running for 13 years, or you could cut out the years I didn’t really run and say 10 yrs.

What was your approximate lifetime mileage at the time of your first BQ?

I haven’t always tracked my mileage, but since I was “on/off” from high school thru most of college – I am only calculating the mileage for 2005 until BQ. There were periods in that time frame where I didn’t track my mileage either so I took the liberty to round up a little.   4500miles

How many miles did you run in the year before your first BQ?

~1400

Approximately how many races did you run in that year?

I BQ’d in Nov 2008. I ran 7 races in 2007. I also ran 7 races in 2008 prior to my BQ.

Did you follow a canned program? If so, which one? If not, can you give us an idea of what your training philosophy was?

No. At the time I loosely used Hal Higdon’s plans to create my own. I knew what mileage I wanted to maintain and what my peak was going to be, so I filled in the holes around that. I did Yasso 800’s (3x/month) because they’re a decent workout and it’s handy to aim for your goal marathon time (as long as it’s within reason of course). I also did mile repeats (1x/month) and tempo runs (1x/week). At the time I was really training for the Goofy Challenge and was running a medium-long run on Saturday (ie 10) and a long-run Sunday (ie 20). I would do tempo miles as part of Saturday’s run and do Sunday’s long run slow and easy.

Again I wasn’t technically training for the race I ended up BQ’ing in, but if interested you can see my Goofy plan here. 

Did you run with a running club or utilize a coach?

No.

Did you run with a running club or utilize a coach?

No.

Did cross training play a role in your training? If so, how?

No.  Hated XT back then.

Any other thoughts you would like to share with those of working towards a BQ?

Don’t give up! It took me 3-4 tries. Find a training plan that works for YOU – not everyone can run 6-7 days per week (myself included) and not everyone can run 80-100 mile weeks (myself included again!). There’s nothing wrong with cross-training and lots of people have succeeded with the FIRST plan.  Eat well balanced meals and maintain a healthy weight. Dropping a few pounds can also drop a few seconds off your average pace (to an extent of course! If you lose too much weight it won’t help). Don’t skip your speed/workout days!