Interview with Shalane Flanagan

By Pat Goodwin

Shalane Flanagan, 25, will represent the United States in the 5000 meters at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan, starting with the prelims on August 29. And if her performance at the USA Outdoor Championships in June is any indication – she won the 5000 in a resounding 14:51.75 – Flanagan will also line up for the finals in Osaka on September 1.

It has been an interesting two years since Flanagan last participated in the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. A foot injury that had been bothering her since the 2004 Olympics put her on the sidelines in late 2005 and through a surgery in April 2006 to remove an extra bone in her foot. It was just a year ago that the promising distance star out of the University of North Carolina began to run again. On Thanksgiving Day, she tested her fitness by winning the 4.75-mile Manchester Road Race in Connecticut, and there’s been no stopping her since.

Flanagan ran 8:33.25 in the 3000 last January at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games to set a new American record. She followed that performance with another American record of 14:45.35 in the 5000, which she posted at the Mt. SAC Relays in April. In between those two races, she won the 2007 USA Indoor 3000-meter championship, she was second in the USA Cross Country Championships 8K, and then reclaimed the USA Outdoor 5000-meter title she held in 2005 by winning that event in June. During July she made the rounds of the European track circuit to prepare for Worlds.

In addition to her 2007 performances, Flanagan’s credentials include two-time USA Cross Country 4K champion (2004 and 2005), two-time NCAA Cross Country champion (2002 and 2003), 2003 USA 5000 meter runner-up, 2003 NCAA Indoor 3000-meter champion, and 15-time NCAA All-American. She was also a USA Junior Cross Country champion in 2000 while at Marblehead High School in Massachusetts.

Flanagan is coached by former George Mason coach John Cook and runs for Nike. She is married to former University of North Carolina runner Steve Edwards. After spending a year in Portland, Oregon, during 2006 for crosstraining and rehabilitation, Flanagan and her husband returned to North Carolina.

Fast-women.com: Let’s start with your race at the USA Outdoor Championships in Indianapolis in June. Your win in the 5000 meters was impressive with a start-to-finish lead. Was that your plan going into the event?

Shalane Flanagan: I approached USAs like I felt I would need to do at Worlds. Obviously I wanted to win, but mentally and physically it was a prelim for Osaka so I needed to push myself. To run 14:51 on any given day is what it may take to get to the final round at Worlds. I know I need to run under 15 and to go out there and be aggressive every time I toe the line. I represent my family, myself, and my coach and I don’t like to give mediocre performances.

FW: You’ve certainly had some excellent performances already this year with American records in both the 3000 and 5000. Was that your expectation when you started competing again on the track in 2007?

SF: It wasn’t my plan necessarily to run records in the 3000 and 5000. I would have just laughed a year ago when I was coming back from the surgery if you had told me I would be setting records. For most people the best hope after a long layoff is to just stay healthy and be competitive and regain some confidence. I viewed this year as a leaping-off point toward the Olympics in 2008.

FW: After your surgery in April 2006, what did you do to stay fit?

SF: I was biking, swimming, doing yoga, and strength training. We focused on developing a lot of core strength. That’s one of the first things to go, especially when you are coming back from injury. You have weaknesses and instabilities. I needed to do a lot of strengthening overall before I could even run. The mixture of yoga with other activities was fun. It’s another core strengthener using your stabilizers. When I first started doing yoga I was falling over with every move. It is important to just gain strength.

FW: Tell me what you did for biking and swimming. Were you biking out on the roads?

SF: I was doing spin classes with the bike. There was good music going on and I had really intense sessions on the bike but it was all on a stationery bike. I don’t even own a road bike so I wasn’t out biking on the roads. I actually probably wouldn’t be very good at that. As far as swimming, I swan all throughout high school except for my senior year so I could draw on my swimming background to make the workouts interesting. I would use the kickboard and do some other creative things. My hands start to wrinkle after about 45 minutes in the pool, so about all I can do is be in the pool for a maximum of an hour.

FW: It sounds like a good combination of activities for crosstraining. How did you feel when you actually started running again?

SF: Swimming, biking, and yoga was a good combination. After awhile, I felt like I was ready for a really good triathlon, that I had become a good overall athlete and reached a really good fitness level. But my first workout back was a threshold run of three miles and it felt excruciatingly long and painful. I started running at the end of July in 2006. I took it easy coming back. My foot would get really cranky and it hurt. I had to do a lot of physical therapy. The extra bone that was removed was up in the arch.

FW: You were in Portland for a year while you had your surgery and then worked on your recovery. Why did you decide to move there and then why did you move back to North Carolina?

SF: I was enticed to go to Portland by the support of Nike. My husband and I evaluated the fact that we needed to make a big change and commit to getting healthy. The rehabilitation and facilities they had there were top notch. Once I could get back to training, we came to a realization that with running going well we could make the transition back to North Carolina.

FW: What brought you back to North Carolina? What type of training area is there?

SF: We enjoyed our time in Portland and we miss it, but we wanted to head back home toward family and friends in North Carolina. My husband grew up in North Carolina and we both went to school at the University of North Carolina. Our home is right outside of Chapel Hill. My house doesn’t have tons of trails right out of my doorstep, but we do have tons of trails in the area. We can drive in a half hour to a great trail in terms of saving my legs. There is a great trail system in the area and some places are very hilly.

FW: How frequently do you see your coach and who are your training partners?

SF: I see my coach about every three weeks. This winter we did some training in Arizona and then in Florida and then this spring we’d meet up in Chapel Hill. We are always up for changing the scenarios. My training partner is Erin Donohue, and she resides in New Jersey. We get together fairly frequently.

FW: Does your husband run with you as well?

SF: Steve has been a huge asset to my training and support and everything. He is primarily my support and coach when Coach Cook isn’t in town. Steve can run the workouts with me. We also have a lot of support from the North Carolina program.

FW: By all accounts, your training seems to have been going well. Has it given you the confidence you’ve needed to race successfully?

SF: I have a lot of confidence in my training so that transfers into my racing. It is not a conscious effort to be leading in a race but the result of the training is that I believe that I can run hard and fast. When I step on the line I am going to give it a hard effort. You have to have confidence in the training that you have done.

FW: Was your European track effort a success this summer?

SF: My adventure went pretty well in Europe. My first race was a little off, a little shaky, but it was better after that. I was based in Cologne, Germany. I wasn’t in Leuven, Belgium, where everyone else was but it wasn’t too far away. Cologne is where my agent, Peter Stubbs, has his base. There were a mix of sprinters and jumpers there along with Erin Donohue and Alice Schmidt and a variety of other athletes. I raced less than most people because you don’t run the 5000 as frequently as you do the 800s, so I was in Cologne more than others were. My husband was there with me. We left the U.S. on July 2 and came back to the states at the end of the month.

FW: Have you given a lot of thought to how you will race in Osaka?

SF: I have and I haven’t given a lot of thought about what to do in Osaka. I take one day at a time. My focus is just the first round of the 5000 and then after that I will learn a lot from that specific race and use it to my advantage for the final. I need to put myself in a position to succeed. I am happy to give advice to the others, but everyone representing the U.S. in this race has to run their own game plan.

FW: Finally, what are your plans after Worlds?

SF: I have one track race scheduled after words, a 1500 in Zurich. I have also committed to running the USA 5K Road Championships in Providence on September 16. After that, if something is enticing, I will prolong my season, but it has been a long year. I want to end it on a good note and just really be able to enjoy some down time before the long haul to Beijing.

Interview conducted August 14, 2007, and posted August 30, 2007.