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Flannery Davis Love - Pre Sunapee Scramble Interview
From track workouts to technical mountain trails, Flannery Davis Love defies conventional categorization. The current record holder on Colorado's iconic Long's Peak joins the Steep Stuff Podcast to share her unique approach to the upcoming Sunapee Scramble US Mountain Running Championship.
Flannery takes us inside her training methodology that seamlessly blends road marathoning with mountain athleticism. Rather than abandoning speed for the trails, she recently completed a "mini speed roadblock" including her first-ever track 5K at Stanford before transitioning to more specific trail workouts. This hybrid approach has her discovering that road speed translates remarkably well to downhill trail sections, while she continues working on what she considers her weakness – pushing the pace during uphill hiking sections.
The conversation dives deep into race strategy for Sunapee's challenging two-loop course. Drawing on her experience from Cirque Series races like Snowbird, Flannery reveals her plan to use the first loop as a controlled threshold effort before truly racing the second loop. "I do better later in races... it just takes me a while to really warm up and get into something," she explains, offering valuable tactical insights for listeners approaching similar race formats.
When asked what making Team USA would mean, Flannery shares a surprisingly poignant childhood connection: "I was that kid growing up where you'd ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I'd say I want to play for Team USA. But I wasn't talking about running, I was talking about soccer." Her journey from soccer dreams to elite mountain running showcases how athletic aspirations evolve in unexpected and beautiful ways.
Join host James Lauriello for this candid conversation about balancing multiple racing disciplines, adapting to East Coast humidity, and the ambitious calendar ahead that includes Broken Arrow and potentially the Berlin Marathon. Whether you're crossing over between road and trail or simply fascinated by high-performance mountain athletes, Flannery's practical wisdom and refreshing honesty offer something for every runner to take to the mountains.
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What's up, fam? Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. I'm your host, james Lauriello. So we're excited to bring you guys another episode for this Sunday, june 1st, sunapee Scramble, us Mountain Running Championship, mountain Classic Selection Race. This episode is going to be with none other than one of my favorite people in the sport. Flannery Davis Love.
Speaker 1:The Boulderite was kind enough to come on the pod to chat all about her build for centipede. You guys might be familiar with that name. Flannery is the current record holder on long's peak. So for you coloradans and anyone really in the mountain west that recognizes that peak's name, that is a very serious record to hold. Flannery is also best known for some top 10 finishes, both at circ series a basin, as well as circ series snowbird, which was the us mountain running championship last year.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, flannery and I caught up all about. We talked all things centipede as well as her build. Um, what it's like getting ready for a race in the northeast I know this is going to be a lot of folks first time going out to the northeast and dealing with that humidity coming from the mountain west. Um, we chatted, uh, we chatted just all about marathons. Uh, flannery kind of doubles back and does both. She's a road marathoner as well as a mountain athlete, so it's fun to kind of talk about her build, how she's getting more specific and just where things are going right now. Um, for sanitas, for the um. Uh, what was it this? Uh, la sportiva um sanitas challenge that took back a few weeks ago. So flannery's downhill is legit dude. Um, really looking forward to seeing her race and where her race is going to take her. Um, it's going to be a fun one. So, without further ado, I hope you guys enjoy none other than flannery davis love. Flannery Davis Love. Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. How's it going?
Speaker 2:It's going, yeah, hanging in there, I don't even know what day it is Thursday. Yeah, huge track Thursday Woo.
Speaker 1:I know Time goes by so fast now I don't know.
Speaker 2:It does. Yeah, really a whirlwind. It's going to be back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, for sure, For sure. Well, we're having this conversation in the lead up to the Soonapiece Scramble. I know it's right around the corner, just a couple of weeks away, or a week and a half away, and I can't believe we're already here. How's training going? How's everything in your build?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. I can't believe we're already here. I feel like I was just talking with you and I was like I've got so much time to train and now here we are and I was like, wow, I feel like I could have done more, which is a good segue. Yeah, I ended up doing a little bit of a mini kind of speed roadblock. I ran like a 10K and then I ran. I ended up just hopping in a 5K because I wasn't really super stoked about the 10K one and did a track 5K. It was my first 5K ever.
Speaker 2:Um, uh, the Peyton Jordan tracked me at Stanford. It was actually super fun, Um. But so that did delay my you know, honed in trail time, so to speak, Uh, and so I really didn't start doing kind of trail workouts and getting back into trail till the last week of April, Okay, so, uh, we'll see how it goes. I've definitely just been trying to kind of get some faster efforts at uphill. Definitely that's like my. I think my my area to improve is uphill hiking in particular. I've definitely been getting my downhill legs back underneath me after being on road and I've been actually really happy with how my downhill speed from, or my speed on roads and track has transferred over to trail, so it's a long way of saying you always wish you had more time, Um, but I'm excited. It should be really fun and I know the competition will be really high.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be such a it's going to be wild race, it's it's going to be fun to follow along. You know, I don't't I it's funny you say this so like I at one point in time was like, oh man, like april's too late, you know, to do road and stuff like that. I don't think so. I think there's something to be said about these races, like, specifically, like the mountain classic, like that 10k and maybe a little bit longer distance, to where, like I think, like you don't have to do too much trail stuff to be show up super fit to these races. I mean, obviously, little things here and there for like technicality but, I, think like it's just going to be.
Speaker 1:this race in particular is just going to be like a track meet in a lot of ways, so it's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:It's going to be a ride, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, for sure, for sure. All right, let's get into the course itself. So one of the questions I've been asking everyone to kind of conceptualize and think about especially all the elite men and women is like this race is weird. It's two loops, right, and I almost think of it as like a broken arrow, maybe like a 46K broken arrow, right. When you think of conceptualize that course. Where it's a two loop course, usually the person leading the first loop is not necessarily the person winning the race. There's usually epic blowups that happen. Obviously this is a much more condensed course, but very fast. When it comes to a strategy perspective, like if you conceptualize maybe some strategy around that, like maybe take it a little easier in the first loop and then let it go on the second loop, obviously these races are really hard. If you don't put yourself in the race immediately, the race can get away from you. So how do you? What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's such a great question. Uh, and it's funny, cause I am running both Sanipi and Broken Arrow um, with probably more of my A race being Broken Arrow Um. As much as I cringe because I wish I was better at the shorter stuff, I think I actually have more. Uh, I have more strengths in the longer stuff. I just have some endurance built up in that distance, I think, unfortunately. So, all to say, I am kind of using Sanapi as that primer just to get used to that double loop mentality. And, to your point, I do better later in races.
Speaker 2:Um, I've just noticed across the board marathon running, road running, trail running it just takes me a while to really warm up and get into something.
Speaker 2:And so I know that I'm going to be taking more of that stance of just hang in at, you know, at threshold if you can, or a little bit above, and so I can go into the second lap feeling like, oh, I'm ready to race now, like the second lap should be the race. But you know, I think it's really important that if I wait too long or if I settle in too easily and comfortably, I'm going to miss my chance. And I did notice that even at um, at the Cirque series races when I was running Snowbird is, I I think I took it a little bit too easy on the uphill and then I was slamming the downhill, but by that point it was too late and I I couldn't catch like the two, the three girls in front of me. So it's definitely, I think, a balance. Um, I am hoping to just kind of go to that second lap feeling warmed up, like ready to rock.
Speaker 1:I think it's a smart way to approach it and it's interesting too because I think like probably the best place where you can draw, I think, where anyone can kind of draw, unless you haven't raced soon, to be in 2023, which is most of this, the group racing this year.
Speaker 1:I think you can draw a lot of experience from like Cirque series races specifically, and I think even Snowbird would probably be the best example, just because there's so much climbing to it and it's it's obviously it's one big loop but it's, whereas, like some of the other Cirque races are just like one simple up down with like a longer climb, some of the you know this one's a little bit different, kind of mixes it up with an up down, up down.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I think there's a lot of things that you can draw from from like maybe like a Cirque series race that I think will actually help like strategically, to kind of play, you know, into race planning and stuff like that. It's going to be crazy.
Speaker 2:Cool, that is so helpful. I'm getting some good data right now, cause I was like I give me some more information on the race course.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, so we'll be. I haven't figured this out yet. We're still working on it. I was so like you knew this we had talked about I was supposed to be there. Now, like the race directors kind of expected me there to help with like some commentating and stuff like that as well. I'm probably not going to be there, so I think I'm going to like see if we can work out something to where I can be a kind of like the ears and eyes and commentator on the live stream, but just not in New Hampshire, maybe from Colorado. We'll see how that works, um, but yeah, yeah, we've done a lot of studying of the course. It's. It's very interesting. It's the East coast is so mountain west, just because it's like the trails are way techier. Obviously there's a lot of like grass, ski, slopes and like, uh, it's weird, I don't know. It's uh, it's a different place to kind of race, if you will.
Speaker 2:So yeah, this will be my first trail race on the east coast, so we will see how it goes a little bit different right how do you?
Speaker 1:how do you adapt to like um? I almost said altitude, but we're not at altitude. How do you adapt to humidity?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm not a huge fan of humidity, I like a dry heat. I was born and raised in the desert landscape of Western Colorado so I much prefer, like the Grand Canyon, heat, like I can kind of be a lizard in that. Yeah, humidity for me, for my hair, for my energy levels, is not always great, um, so that would definitely be something I need to think about. I know it being a shorter race, I'm not going to need to be super super, I think, honed in on that. But I still want to know, like, okay, electrolytes wise, like how much salt should I be getting in before the race? What's that going to look like from, you know, electrolyte standpoint and making sure I feel hydrated? Yeah, I think the biggest thing is I'm not having my hair in a rat's nest.
Speaker 2:That's like what I'm most nervous about because I have spent hours untangling my hair after road races on the East coast hours.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Yeah, it's something I didn't think about. Oh man, I don't have much hair interesting.
Speaker 2:yeah, it's something I didn't think about.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I don't have much hair, so yeah, it's a little bit different. That said it's, it's definitely something I just think of, like the electrolytes and the cramping and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:It's just a whole different ballgame.
Speaker 1:Are you gonna go out? It seems like everybody I talked to is either going out on thursday or friday before. Are you going out early? Or like what's your, what's your game plan?
Speaker 2:I'll be heading out friday night, yeah, so pretty quick transport out there. But it's nice that the races on Sunday. Can you know, it's so close to Boston I'm flying into Logan, so I feel like it'll be at least a good amount of time to get up on Saturday, do a little scouting of the downhill and then get ready to rip.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's actually smarter. I feel like, in order you like people should do it either two ways Like it's almost like that sweet spot where you're in you don't really have to worry about adjusting to like much, especially because, like it's on the East coast, right, so it's a two hour difference. But if you're in and out, like your body, you don't even give yourself a time to adapt, whereas if you, I feel like if you come out a little bit further, it almost like catches up to you quicker with dealing with that time change. So, yeah, I think, what's your what?
Speaker 2:is exactly, I think I mentioned this to you earlier in our year in our interview is just putting myself in the mix, seeing where I end up pushing myself on the climbs. I think for me is this a personal goal that I I was joking with someone this morning on during a workout that my legs, when they start hiking, it's just like, oh, it's time to go slow and like hiking should be time to like push it. So that's, I think, a personal goal for me and what I hope to do is just kind of keep myself in the mix once again. See, you know what happens come WAP2. Don't get hurt, don't get too humid, and just enjoy it. Yeah, I have. I think I'm trying to keep myself at lower expectations for this race, just going into it, seeing where I can set myself up for broken arrow.
Speaker 1:I think that's smart. You know it's funny. I was thinking about this today and I was like man, we only get so many times to do races like this and cause. You know, the window is so finite for like to make the world's teams and stuff like that. I think the most important thing is just have fun.
Speaker 1:Right Just like, enjoy it Like soak. It's so cool, you know, right, yeah, I, and it's interesting too. Like I think one of the things that you had said was, like, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how, like, people take it out and stuff like that. You know, who knows the weather? It's going to be muddy, the weather sucks usually up there. So, like, I think all those different things like that has like will play a factor in almost like maybe slowing down the race in places. So I don don't know it's going to be. It's going to be interesting to follow along. What, um, what uh? What's your race shoe Like? What are you going to rock for shoe day or for race?
Speaker 2:day. This is a great question. I have been on the fence about it. Uh, my Cirque series shoe was the Saucony Riff and I've really enjoyed that shoe. Uh, I definitely like a shoe that's low to the ground for these techier races. I'm really comfortable in the shoe overall, um, so I'm probably gonna go with that. If not, I might run in something a little bit clunkier, like a lost for team immutant, which I would love for the downhill, but for the uphill I think would feel a little bit more sloggy. Um, so yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. I'm not really sure I've been hopping back and forth a little bit with it, but I'm leaning towards the Sockany rift.
Speaker 1:Nice, I like it. What, um, if, if the day goes your way and you end up one of those four women on that make the team like? What would that mean to you? To make Team USA?
Speaker 2:I would probably not believe it if you told me that's just like so far out of mind for me. But once again, put myself in there, right, put myself in that situation. Oh, yeah, that'd mean a lot, I think. Something I think about is and this is kind of corny, you know I was that kid growing up where you'd ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I'd say I want to be, I want to play for Team USA. But I wasn't talking about running right, I was talking about soccer.
Speaker 2:So it was like such a lifelong dream for me to like be on an Olympic team or be on a team USA, and so it does feel kind of full circle in a really poignant way to say, oh, like to be contending for a spot on a different team USA is still really neat, um. So, yeah, it would mean the world be super cool, um, I just love the idea that we are at this level where you have such incredible athletes competing for these spots, um, and the competition has just grown so much in this sport. It's really fun to be a part of into witness, um, here for the women's race, right, so, uh, it'll be, it'll be really fun and it would mean a lot not getting my hopes up, but of course kind of put myself out there and then see how it goes.
Speaker 1:For sure For put myself out there and then see how it goes. For sure, for sure. So we talked about Broken Arrow a little bit. We talked about Soonapy. I know you and I had messaged personally about maybe some marathons later in the year. What else do you have? What are you thinking about like on the schedule for this year other than those?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the plan kind of is I'll run the Son of Peace Scramble, soonapy Scramble, and then I'll do Broken Arrow and I'm kind of like speaking of kind of putting myself in the mix, right, I know how competitive Broken Arrow is going to be, but I knew I didn't want to book flights for any marathons until Broken Arrow is over, Because if I book the flight speaking of the marathon I'm considering and probably going to do is Berlin it would be the same week as Worlds. And so for me, if I, you know, after Broken Arrow is over, I'll kind of make next decisions. But I have an entry for Berlin and we'll probably end up doing that, which is September 21st, I believe. So that's kind of on the calendar. And then if I'm feeling really good and really bright after a, you know, late summer, early fall marathon block, I might hop in something going into the into the late fall.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe a Javelina fun run. Some people are like do a hundred.
Speaker 1:I'm like I'm not sure I want to do a hundred again yet, or like a JFK.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure where I'll be at after marathon training. It's always kind of hard to tell. But yeah, that's kind of the main three races right now. I'm sure I'll hop in some some fun stuff like miles around boulder um half marathon. I was always a good primer before a marathon, before a marathon. But that's kind of where I'm where I'm at, keeping it pretty simple dude.
Speaker 1:Jfk would be sweet, like that's such a fast race and like plays off the marathon block so well, just because I feel like like marathon blocks are so specific and so hard. Um, you know that like obviously that fitness transfer as well for trail, but still like you're pretty beat. I would imagine you're pretty toasted after that. So I wonder if JFK would just play super well and he could just roll that block over. That makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'd probably have two months, which would be pretty good, yeah, so we'll see. I take it day by day.
Speaker 1:That's true. That's true. Let's talk Broken Arrow a little bit. I know I'm still on the fence of what I'm going to do with Broken Arrow as far as maybe calling all of you guys back up to do pre-Broken Arrow interviews. But, that said, it's hard for me not to talk about that because it's just going to be such a crazy race weekend. I'm sure you've kind of game planned for this. Training-wise, it's not a long time between Soonap P and then going into broken arrow. Well, you probably take some downtime in between. Or are you just going to treat soon to be more as like a hard workout and then continue through on the block Like what are your, how do you, how do you like? Game plan for that?
Speaker 2:It's a great question. Uh, yeah, I did not think about the timing and like the recovery period coming off of you know son of P into broken Arrow and I was like, ooh, yeah, it's a little tight. Um, I am, full transparency, going to be treating uh Sunapee like a training race. I mean, if I'm having the day of my life I'm going to go for it, but for the most part wanting to really kind of just gain the, the race experience to really kind of work towards Broken Arrow Um. So I'm going to probably just try to train right through.
Speaker 2:I'll do a mini taper to some degree leading into it, but my goal is to then be back training, probably the following Wednesday or so, um, just to kind of get right back into it. Then I'll probably I'll have one more weekend of solid kind of volume to put in and then we'll be back starting to like taper back down Um. So yeah, I'm I'm a little nervous about the. You know I haven't done a 50K in a long time. I know I've done tons of marathons, so I'm hopeful that will come through. And it's a 46K, so it's a little bit shorter than a 50K, but yeah, that's definitely going to be an interesting transition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you'll be fine. Honestly, like it's just, broken Arrow is such a fast course, but it's not. I don't know. I've never thought it to be super technical, like I never thought any of that course really was that bad, so it's just so fast. I think that's the big takeaway is just going to be, you know just how speedy it comes down to, so cool.
Speaker 1:Well, listen, I uh I think we got everything.
Speaker 1:I want to wish you the absolute best of luck. We'll talk after soon at PM, before broken arrow. Um, like I said, I'm leaning, know, because there's so many damn braces at Broken Arrow, so I got to figure that out. But, that said, wishing you the best of luck and we'll be cheering you on and, yeah, hopefully we'll chat after race day and yeah, go get it done. Thanks, james, really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you, flannery. Listen up, guys.
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