Lisa Rainsberger has the dubious honor of being the runner who came
the closest to going to the Olympics without actually making the team.
In a competitive athletic career that lasted over 20 years, Lisa
qualified for and competed at 5 Olympic Trials events, once in swimming
and four times in the marathon. She finished 4th in 1984, 1988, and
1992.
Lisa is the last American woman to win the Boston Marathon and was a 2-time winn er of the Chicago Marathon.
Some of the insights Lisa reveled in our conversation were:
The importance of sticking to the pace that you have trained for regardless of how fast others in the race are runningHer use of a 9-day training cycle to spread out hard workouts and add more recoveryThe importance of strength training and cross training in addition to running volume to improve performanceLisa’s coaching and her conservative, goal-oriented approachBouncing Back from a Dissapointing Race: How Lisa Rainsberger Won Boston After Missing the Olympic Team