Pace Setter : April 2023

Tricia Longo: Athlete of the Month

What is your age, occupation, background, hobbies, and other sports?

I’m 33 years old, and work as a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry. I ran cross country and track all throughout high school (Shenendehowa grad!) and for three years in college. While I stopped racing prior to my senior year of college, I kept running, and ran my first marathon “for fun” while in graduate school in 2013. I got more serious about running and training again when my husband John (also a runner) and I started dating.

Most of my hobbies other than running involve doing activities outside. I really like biking, skiing, and hiking. Most of the hikes I do these days are easier ones so I can bring my corgi along too!

When and why did you start running?

I started running when I was 11 years old. I was very into soccer at the time, and started running a mile or two around my neighborhood a few times a week during the soccer off-season. As I got a little older, I started participating in track and field at school, I think 8th graders were allowed to start running? Maybe 7th grade? Either way, it didn’t take long before running took over as my primary sport, and I did all three seasons (cross country, indoor and outdoor track) throughout high school. I loved training and racing, and had a great group of friends.

What’s your favorite race to date, and why?

Last July, John and I went to Oregon to watch the Track and Field World Championships. We raced a 5k that started a few minutes after the men’s marathon started and followed the same course as the marathoners for a mile or so! That’s probably my favorite race, it was such a cool experience.

What is your approach to training? Do you follow a particular training plan, or do you work with a coach and if so, who?

I do work with a coach; I have been working with him for about 4 years now after initially starting because I wanted to get faster at shorter distances. This has been super helpful, I have PR’d in every distance from the mile to the marathon over the last 3 years! The approach to training mostly depends on upcoming races and changes based on the race distance focus at the time. For the last two years, I have mainly been focusing on marathon/half marathon training, jumping in shorter races from time to time for fun.

What is your weekly mileage in peak racing/marathon training season? What is your approach to the off season?

For marathon training, I usually hit a max of around 80 miles per week for 2-3 weeks during the specific training cycle, with the other weeks of the training cycle ranging from 65-75. When I’m not in a marathon specific phase, typical weekly mileage varies from 50-70.

My off-season approach depends on whether it’s a planned off season, or mandatory due to injury. Either way, I spend a lot more time cross training, mostly biking. I don’t typically take long periods (i.e. more than one week) of time totally off from running unless I need to due to injury, but sometimes I do need a break from structured training. One of the more fun off/unstructured training periods was in January of 2022, I participated in a series based in NYC called “Chase the Throne”, put on by Trials of Miles, which was basically organized segment chasing on Strava. The event was set up in a bracket style competition, so each week you would be paired against someone and whoever ran the segment faster would advance to the next round. This was a fun, low-key and unstructured way to get back to some harder efforts after some planned time off and mostly easy running following a marathon build and race.

During our cold winter days, do you brave poor weather conditions or stick indoors on the treadmill? If you do run outside, what safety measures do you take?

It depends! If I have an easy run planned and there is less than an inch or two of snow, I’ll usually go outside. I wear trail shoes on snowy days for better traction and take corners a little bit more slowly! If I have a workout planned and the weather is really cold or snowy, I’ll run on the treadmill to make sure I can safely get the miles in. If the streets are really icy, I’ll run on the treadmill no matter what type of run I have.

List your PRs: Race, time, year:

1 mile: 5:13 (2020*), 3000 m: 10:21 (Twilight Indoor Track Meet, 2023), 5K: 17:49 (Boilermaker 5K, 2022), 10K: 37:36 (Troy Turkey Trot 2022), 15K: 57:51 (Boilermaker 15K, 2021), half marathon: 1:21:58 (Helderberg to Hudson, 2022), marathon: 3:01:01 (CIM, 2021)

*Covid time trial but I still count it!

What is your favorite distance?

This changes quite frequently, but for the past couple of years I have really liked racing half marathons.

Your favorite shoe for training and racing

I try to keep a diverse shoe rotation going. Right now, I think my favorite shoes for easy miles are the On Cloudmonsters, and favorite shoes for racing are the Vaporfly Next % 2’s.

Ever run in a costume?

Nope, the opportunity hasn’t presented itself!

What are your favorite pre-race and post-race meals?

All of the breakfast food! For longer morning races I usually have a bagel with peanut butter, followed by some sort of breakfast food again (or second breakfast, as I usually call it) after the race.

What challenges / races / adventures are you planning for the coming year?

My focus right now is the Jersey City Marathon at the end of April! Hoping for a new marathon PR. After that, I’m planning to have fun doing some shorter races with my CREW Racing teammates.

What is the greatest piece of advice you've ever received in the sport?

Keep the easy days easy so the hard days can be hard!

             Tricia with fellow CREW Founder Karen Bertasso Hughes

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