Training, Kvasnicka Keeps On Running

While most runners try to make it through the winter months with distance runs, cross-training and days off, Susannah Kvasnicka hits her training just as hard as she can.

Kvasnicka, from Great Falls, is preparing for the women's Olympic trials marathon in Boston on April 20. At 36, she'll be one of the oldest competitors, so no day -- be it raining, snowing or 30 degrees -- can be spared.

"I don't have a lot of time," she said, meaning both until the trials perhaps as well time to tap her prime. "I've got to keep training, even harder than the other girls."

Kvasnicka started running after two children only seven years ago, completing her first marathon "with earphones, long pants and a jacket," she said, in the low-key George Washington's Birthday Marathon in Beltsville in just under four hours.

With the encouragement and eventual coaching of her chiropractor, Ronald Kulick, Kvasnicka knocked an hour off that time at the 2002 Chicago Marathon, missing the trials qualifying standard by just a few minutes.

A seed had been planted -- hard work yielded strong results. Kvasnicka more than doubled her training mileage but became injured and missed most of the next two years. She recovered, worked her way up to 120 miles per week and ran 2 hours 47 minutes 50 seconds on a warm day at the 2005 Twin Cities Marathon. Feeling that she hadn't tapped her fitness level, she unexpectedly entered the Marine Corps Marathon four weeks later -- and won.

High mileage, personal bests and success kept Kvasnicka training hard, and she won the 2006 Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pa., qualifying for the '08 trials in another personal best of 2:45:06. But again, something wasn't right.

"I was sick, struggling to train and exhausted," she said. "Ron wanted me to keep at it, and he wouldn't budge. I just couldn't do it anymore. I needed a change, and we made a mutual decision to stop working together."

One coach and one year later, Kvasnicka and Kulick are a team again, and while marathon training version 2.0 is no less intense, some things have changed.

"I have more of a say now," said Kvasnicka, who still runs 100 miles per week. "We're both more cautious, and the schedule is more doable. I don't come from a running background, so I rely on my coach to guide me. It's a strange relationship, but I think now it's working."

¿ CHICAGO MAXIMUS: After last fall's weather and safety meltdowns, the Chicago Marathon named a new title sponsor, Bank of America. Registration for the Oct. 12 event opened last week.

-- Jim Hage

hagej@washpost.com