Mary Denholm is an athlete and coach based out of Santa Barbara, CA. She scored one of the highest VDOT performances for a female athlete on V.O2 in 2021 with her 5:03 mile (58.7 VDOT).

What does a typical training week look like for you?

Depends! I was doing a ton of aerobic high mileage and mixing trails and roads in 2021 as I was training for an ultra. I did several 100+ mile weeks and larger vert weeks (10K etc.) while living in Flagstaff. I did R2R2R in May 2021. When I moved to Santa Barbara I started doing more road workouts again but continued mixing roads and trails as I trained through the summer and fall. 2022 I am returning to the road marathon and racing shorter distances along the way. I won’t be doing as much volume as I focus on more intensity during the next training block.

What was your most memorable workout of 2021? 

It was a double long run peak weekend (40 miles total over 2 days in prep for a 50 mile race). I did 22 miles total. 5 mile WU, then a 12 mile tempo: 3 x (3 miles @ road 50K, 1 mile @ road 50 mile), 5 mile CD. I had done an 18 mile long run the day before at 6:46 average.

Did the V.O2 app provide benefit to your training and racing?

Yes. I love the workout feature that syncs automatically to my Garmin watch. I can focus my workout days on simply the effort and I know what the beep sounds mean (too fast/too slow) so I don’t have to look down at my watch multiple times during a workout. It’s helped me have much more consistent workouts and not miss a rep due to miscounting while working hard or having to memorize a workout in advance.

Who is your coach?

Nick Klastava @nklastava on Instagram

What is your handle on Instagram?

@eatrunandbemary

What’s next for you?

Boston Marathon 2022! Some other shorter distance races along the way too but that’s my goal race for the spring of 2022.