Winning the real gold

For the better part of her running career, Lorraine Moller dreamt of Olympic Gold.

A marathoner almost by accident, Lorraine went to four different Olympic Games on her quest to win the ultimate prize. And while she took bronze at the 1992 Barcelona Games, her definition of "winning the gold" morphed from merely an external form of validation to defining her internal journey.

"What I came to realize is this journey toward your goal -- wanting to make the Olympics, wanting to win a gold medal, all those kinds of things -- there a special journey that takes place on the inner level. Those journeys go hand in hand," she said. "So winning the gold medal to me became a metaphor for achieving the inner gold. Even though I didn't win the gold medal, I think for myself, I came to the end of it and I felt like I was at a point where the inner journey superseded the outside journey. That's when I was done. For me, that was the real gold."

Lorraine's journey from growing up in rural New Zealand to becoming one of the top marathoners in the world is chronicled in her autobiography On the Wings of Mercury. An honest and self-reflexive look at not just her running career but her relationships with men and the evolution of her growing confidence, she gives an inspirational and thoughtful look not only her life but women and athletics.

On the forefront of the women's running boom in the 1970s and 1980s -- on the heels of Kathrine Switzer's famous crashing of the then all-male Boston Marathon in 1967 -- Lorraine helped shape women's running and saw how transformative opening up endurance events could be for women, and for men.

"It started in the 1960s with the jogging movement and running went from being an elitist sport and a gender-specific activity to something available for everybody," Lorraine said. "I think it's why women have taken to it. We had very limited ways in which we could express ourselves as women physically. ... We don't have to put ourselves in such a narrow box."

Lorraine still works with runners, coaching and developing the Lydiard Method of training which focuses on building an aerobic base, using long, slow runs and using different types of runs in different phases to build strength, endurance and speed.

Her tips for marathon training:

1. Beginners should give themselves plenty of time to build up to the marathon distance. "A lot of people push themselves to run a marathon and don't learn to run well," Lorraine said. "The golden rule, for me, is you learn to run slow and long before you learn to run short and fast. The first thing is to increase your distance. You want to build a base."

2. There is a principal called progressive overload but it has two sides: Stressing the body and allowing the body to recover. It's a pattern of stressing the body then allowing for recovery.

3. For those who want to take their distance running to the next level, her other golden rule: "You can only progress as fast as your slowest part," Lorraine said. "Generally if you've done a good buildup, have a good aerobic base and run a race and at the finish feel like you just couldn't go any faster, generally you need some faster work in your training. If you go out at a pace you think is comfortable and can't sustain it, you need more endurance work."

4. Listen to your body and don't become too dependent on the technology of GPS and heart rate monitors. "I am not against the use of heart rate monitors or GPS devices," Lorraine said. "They can be great training wheels as long as they are used to enhance your inner feedback and do not override them. Learn to listen to your own internal cues."

Check out more at Byline to Finish Line.