How They Train: Shelby Houlihan
By: Michael Mcmillan
Tags: Runner Profile, Running, Track And Field, Runners, Runner Community

Photo courtesy of bringbackthemile.com

Shelby Houlihan is a 27-year-old middle distance runner who currently runs professionally for Bowerman Track Club — Pro. Houlihan grew up Sioux City, Iowa, went to college at Arizona State University, and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. She holds the women’s American records for 1500 meters (3:54.99) and 5000 meters (14:23.92). Houlihan is also an Olympian, who qualified for the 2016 Olympics 5000 meter race.

In high school, Houlihan was the 2011 Iowa Girls Track and Field Runner of the Year and the 2010 Iowa Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year. She won eight Drake Relays crowns during her high school career and in 2011 was named the Drake Relays Outstanding Female Performer for winning three events in one year.

During her college career, Houlihan was a 12-time NCAA Division I All-American. She was the 2014 NCAA champion in the 1500 meters and holds Arizona State University school records in the 800 meters, 1500 meters, and 3000 meters.

Since turning professional in 2015, she finished first at the US Indoor and Outdoor Track Championships in the 1500 meters, 5000 meters, 1 mile, 2 miles, and 10K runs. She also earned a second place finish in the 1mile race.

Houlihan’s American 5000 meters record was set this past July in a time trial at the Bowerman Track Club.

How Houlihan Trains

Let’s start with her volume. Since she is a middle distance runner, she doesn’t run quite the volume the marathoners run. When she started college at Arizona State, her volume in her freshman year was 30 miles per week. Her coach had her add 10 miles each year and by the time went pro and began running for the Bowerman Track Club, she was running 60 miles per week.

After a few years as a professional, Houlihan is now running 85 miles per week and she credits this increase in volume with her recent successes: “Strength…is the secret to a great kick. I’ve always had the speed, but I was never aerobically strong enough to use any of that speed at the end of races.”

Houlihan’s training schedule depends on whether or not she is in racing season. Her racing season schedule is built on a 12-day cycle, where she does a hard workout every third day, with recovery days in between (see below for more about Houlihan’s recovery routines).

During the off-season, Houlihan runs on a typical 7-day cycle, where she does one longer endurance workout, one speed workout, and one long run during the week with easy days in between. The specifics of the speed workouts include repeat 200 and 300 meter runs, mile repeats, and tempo runs.

One of the things that stands out when looking at the training routine of middle distance runners is the difficulty of their hard workouts. Here is an example of one of Houlihan’s speed workouts which she credits with helping her set the American record in the 1500 meters.

The workout consists of three sets of 1200 meters with three minutes rest. Then she runs 400 meters with one minute rest, followed by another 400 meters to finish the set. This is followed by three minutes rest and then the next set.

The pacing she was supposed to run for this workout was 71 seconds per 400 meters for the first 1200 meters, then 70 seconds for the second 1200, followed by 69 seconds for the third 1200 meters. The 400 meter runs were supposed to be at 68 seconds.

In a workout she ran right before setting the American record, she ran each 1200 meter run one second faster than her schedule pace and she ran the 400s two to three seconds faster than her scheduled pace. These paces let her coach (Jerry Schumaker) know that Houlihan was ready to run at record-setting pace.

Another workout Houlihan runs regularly is a four-mile tempo run followed by a set of 8x400 meters or a 2x800 meters followed by two 400 meter runs. For long runs, Houlihan will do a 2-hour run where the last hour is run at 6:00/mile pace.

Altitude Training

Like many professional runners, Houlihan spends some time with the Bowerman Track Club training at altitude. She has trained in Mammoth Lakes, California (famous for where Meb Keflezighi and coach Bob Larsen did their training), Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Park City, Utah. These towns are at elevations greater than 6,000 feet and some reach an altitude of over 8,000 feet.

These training camps are important for runners as they allow them to get the benefits of training in the thin air away from their home base, and the distractions runners fight against when at home.

Houlihan finds going to train at altitude great for making positive changes to her lifestyle: “I cut out alcohol and sugar. At home I have a hard time because no one would know if I were to have a drink or eat sweets. I could cheat if I wanted, and I probably would. But up here we keep each other accountable.”

Houlihan’s altitude training usually lasts up to nine weeks. Most of her and the team’s work is done at the camp but they will occasionally move down to a lower altitude so they can do a few speed and tempo workouts at a faster pace and closer to the altitude they will be running in at their target race.

How Houlihan Recovers

Recovery is an important part of her training plan. She gets some rest during the week, and usually has two to three days per week where she only runs easy. These easy days are always the day after a hard workout.

Houlihan says that she doesn’t run easy by pace but instead by how her body feels. She says that she runs as slowly as her body feels like running and that paying attention to your body and responding correctly to how you feel that day is the most important thing you can do when you are training at a high level.

Previously, at the end of a racing season, Houlihan would take one to two weeks completely off and not do any running at all. Now she tends to run three or four days of the week for 30 to 40 minutes at a time. She feels doing this little bit of running doesn’t impede her rest and it helps manage the transition back to racing when a new season starts.

Besides completely resting and doing easy runs, Houlihan also relies on massages, ice baths, and recovery tools such as foam rollers, Normatec boots, and massage guns. She finds massages extremely painful but loves to roll out her muscles and rest in the boots after hard workouts and long runs.

Houlihan also does more warm-up work than she did when she was in college. Back then, she would just jump out of the car and start running, skipping any sort of warm-up routine. Now, she does the typical runner’s 30-minute or so warm-up before starting a workout.

Diet is Also Important

Like some runners, Houlihan had a less than stellar diet before she became a professional. In high school, she ate fast food as often as twice a day. Her typical breakfast would be a sausage and egg McGriddle and a Dr. Pepper and then some other type of fast food for lunch.

Once she got to college, Houlihan dedicated herself to only eating fast food once a day. She says that she believed she was following healthy eating habits if she managed to microwave a bowl of pasta and broccoli for dinner most nights.

Since becoming a professional, Houlihan has cleaned up her diet quite a bit. She discovered Shalane Flanagan’s cookbook, Run Fast Eat Slow, and tries to prepare meals from that book as often as she can.

In a typical week, Houlihan will start most days with a breakfast of plain yogurt with blueberries and some granola or a bowl of oatmeal with bananas, peanut butter, and some dry fruit. Lunch usually consists of leftovers or two pieces of toast with fried eggs on top. For dinner, she will rotate between fish tacos, pizza, or pasta.

All of these meals are made with fresh ingredients and few boxed or canned foods. During her off-season, she will have things like ice cream and beer. She will also sometimes eat a cheeseburger, fries, and a milk shake after a big race.

Keeping Up with Houlihan

At a recent meet, The Track Meet, Houlihan ran 5000 meters in 15:02.55. This time is well under the 15:20 time to qualify for the Olympic 5000 meters qualifying meet.

This time is slower than the 14:23.92 she ran back in July 2020 to set the American women’s record, but as she says, given everything, it was still a good time: “It was definitely harder than I wanted it to be, but I’ve never raced in December and this was kind of spurred like five days ago on us, so I felt like it went as well as it could have. I felt pretty good, pretty controlled, just definitely not sharp.”

Thanks for reading and please email me at mmmcmillan1@att.net with your comments and suggestions or respond to this article below.