With Spain 2010 coming up on us, we thought it might be fun to interview past athletes that have come to Strong Like Bull in the past or athletes who are coming to Strong Like Bull this year. To get the ball rolling here is an interview of Anna Fyodorova that I did a lil’ while back….
Anna Fyodorova is the USA Track and Field 50k champ. She is also the US Ultra Grand Prix Series leader and the NY Road Runner Ultra Marathoner of the year. Beyond that she can play a pretty good game of bocci, and lift more than her fair shair of a sofa. She is funny, dark and fast; and pretty much a one of the people I feel I resemble the most when I train and race. I “get” Anna and I hope after this interview you do too.
Anna, you are a total bad ass. um, I guess that’s not a question is it?
no its not, jackass.
one of the reasons you are such a total bad ass is that you won the 50k US Track And Field National Championships. How did that race go down and what winning that was like?
The 50K nationals was a great race, it was cold, windy, long, miserable but as always with things of this nature, AWESOME. It took place on LI and the course was just over 2.5M so we had to loop it quite a few times. I remember standing at the start before the race, checking out the competition, as we always do, and several guys came up to me and began telling me who to watch out for, who to stay with, and I’m thinking, ok, I’m just going to run this thing and see what happens, having said that, of course, lining up at the start behind/next to the girls who looked like they’ve done this before and can run. With each loop I was able to see how far behind me the competitions was when coming out of small lolli pop loop, with each lap the girl behind me was further back, and after about 4 loops I could no longer see her, but I think that made me go even faster, fearing an attack from behind, who knows when people ‘turn it on’ for a 50K?!?
You also won the NY Road Runners Ultra Marathoner of the year this year. Was that easier or harder than winning the usatf 50k, I mean you had to dress up and stay up late?
The NYRR Ultra Runner of the Year was a hard title to deal with! Not only was there a 60K involved, I had to get my hair & nails done, buy an extremely expensive dress, wear heels, which are never comfortable, I don’t care what anybody says, and stay up way past my 8pm curfew, you know that is, it was hard stuff. So now I’m in training to try to claim that title again, but it should be easier this time around cause I know where to get a good dress now and I know what hair do not to get.
I though of myself as a high volume person until I meet you. How many ironmans, marathons and ultra do you do a year?
Yes John, compared to me you’re a slacker J Lets see, this year it was 2 Ironman races, should have been three but the kidney stones came, 2 marathons, 2 50Ks, a 60K, 2 70.3s.
you share a common trait in all the ultra runners. You don’t like to sleep. You never want to sleep. What’s up with that?
Sleep is good but having an actual job, running 80M weeks, coaching, and oh yeah, swimming and cycling for way too many miles during the season, there’s not much time for shut eye, I too come to a point of crashing every so often, then you recharge and trot on.
I have said for years that metal makes humans run faster. When I got in your car you had on the cd changer Manison, Rise Against and Ramstien. Metal makes you faster right?
Oh Man! Metal makes the world go faster!!! Metal gets you energized, angry, pumped up, it’s the perfect recipe for racing, training and anything that requires you to go FAST! Manson, NIN, Rise Against, Metallica are def. some pre-race favorites.
We have raced a few times together and I was shocked when I saw you on the course. Outside racing you are a funny, nice, easy going person. But you race completely anrgy. I ran faster thinking if you caught me you might also serve up a beat down on my ass. I hang out with killers at work. You got that “if I catch you, I am gonna stabe you” look. Where does all that darkness come from?
How do you tap into it and use it on race day?
LOL, its funny you pose that question. I was just explaining that to someone the other day, like you see people angry after a race, how?, I don’t know because like you said, I’m so intense, focused and angry, I guess, during the race that once its over, that has to go away and I smile again other wise it may just kill me. I guess it’s the inner racer in all of us, some feed on smiles, some feed on being pumped up, some have this ‘I want to kick ass’ anger inside them. One thing I can tell you for sure, I don’t practice it or work on it, or even so much as think about it, it is what it is when the gun goes off at the start. But I really am happy people, just don’t try to beat me in a race J
Do you train to metal, and train all rage-full?
When it comes to training, its def. metal ALL the WAY! As to the anger issue, it depends on the day, if it’s a long, hard day out there, or if I’m going long and fast and am super focused, I’m def. angrier, other days I’ll actually smile at the people around. You know, these questions are making me seem like a psycho, serial killer wearing Nikes!
Hey, thanks for helping me move. Ya know NYC has a pretty good subway system. Wanna tell that story?
You guys rock and thanx so much for the subway advise! LOL. Ok, so John was moving and so I totally offered to help! I was in the middle of a 90M running week and so I needed to get mileage in that day, so, I mixed business with pleasure, so to speak, I decided to run from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to the UWS, 125th street in Manhattan and then help my crazy triathlete friends carry furniture and other junk into their new apartment, good times, good times! I will always thank you for feeding me granola bars so I didn’t pass out, it was a 20M run J
Let’s talk training. You run 90+ mile weeks. That’s sick. Explain your training philosophy and practice a bit. Rumor is you aren’t keen on recovery weeks, tapering or days off.
Yes, I do like my mileage nice and high!!! I guess it’s the Anna Theory that the more miles you put it in, the more your legs will be used to the pain and so when you race, you can go faster and it will seem short, no matter how long it is. When it comes to endurance sports, it’s a suffer fest and its just a matter of suffering out the competition, I think this may be a quote from a book, I love it! The recovery thing, ummm, not a huge fan, as long as I can walk pain free, I’m good to go and tapering, you don’t really ever need more than a week J I know you pose these questions so people think that I’m completely NUTS, lol.
Please rank the following: skulls, flames,black nail polish. And explain why.
Black nail polish is my trade mark, I guess its one of those things that makes me bad ass. Skulls are beautiful, you guys have to check out a new wallet I got the other day, all skulls, its awesome! Flames are ok, but not as great as black nail polish and skulls.
Who would you rather date, Trent Reznor or Macca? Btw do you mind if I tell everyone that you have a huge crush on Macca. You were sending out texts when he won. Are you gonna go crazy stalker type?
OMG! I love Macca!!! Thanks Ken Shultz for giving out texting info! So yeah, Macca is primarily way hot cause he’s wicked fast, a bad ass and has an awesome Aussie accent, I think I’d totally date Macca but back I still think Trent is god when it comes to musicJ
He is pretty small I bet you could kidnap him. Maybe keep him in your basement? I could help, I owe you for helping me move.
All stalked jokes aside, he’s going to be in NYC next week, he’s staying at the Essex house, likes Starbucks and will be at SBR on Wed. around 5, are you thinking what I’m thinking!!! We can lock him up in my new apartment and only let him out for training rides and runs, accompanied, of course.
You train and race out of Brooklyn, yo. That’s bad ass. You think its part of why you are so tough?
Yeah, us Brooklyn girls have to be hard core, only the tough survive!
