METZLER: Less training intensity puts Ortiz on course

Published August 14, 2007 at midnight

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Does life ever get so busy that you don't have time to squeeze in an easy 45-minute run?

Work gets in the way, then there's family, friends and various social engagements that take up our time. And who can get motivated to run during a lunch break when it's 95 degrees in the shade?

For the past five years, Anita Ortiz, of Eagle, has found a way to juggle all of the above while also becoming one of the country's top trail runners. When she toes the starting line of the 8.1-kilometer women's race at the World Mountain Running Trophy on Sept. 15 in Ovronnaz, Switzerland, it will mark a record fifth time that she'll compete for the U.S. Mountain Running Team in the de facto world championship of trail running.

Ortiz, 43, has gotten better with age. As a teen, she was a standout high school runner in Arvada, but she opted not to run competitively in college.

Though she always ran to stay fit, she didn't start running races with any seriousness until she was in her mid-30s after having four children.

Since 2002, she has earned four U.S. mountain running titles and finished among the top 11 in the world three times. She also has won a master's mountain running world championship and collected several U.S. and North American snowshoe running titles.

How has she found the time and the energy?

She has been notorious for getting up at 4 a.m. several days a week to get in a long run before helping get her family going in the morning and heading off to her job as an elementary school teacher. She typically has added another run or a workout on a stair machine or treadmill in the afternoon or evening before, or after, taking her children (who are now between 7 and 14) to gymnastics class, soccer games, the swimming pool or a friend's house.

An unyielding determination is helpful, but so is having a husband such as Mike Ortiz, the executive director of the Vail Recreation District, who's willing to cook, clean and share the chauffeuring duties.

Still, the intense dedication required to maintain that type of regimen began to take its toll on Ortiz during portions of the past two years. A ruptured plantar fascia and a severe bout with anemia hampered her race results and left her confused and frustrated. She missed a berth on last year's U.S. Mountain Running Team and thought her days of competitive trail running were over.

But that bit of adversity turned out to have a silver lining. She adjusted her diet, toned down her training by removing intense speed work sessions and gained a fresh, low-key perspective. Instead of hammering herself in training, she has listened to her body and backed off when necessary. She's learned to start races slower, figured out a way to put less pressure on herself and generally savored the joy of running healthy again.

"The anemia thing just flattened me, and when I started back after I got over that, I was just so thankful to be running," said Ortiz, who will be running the Pikes Peak Ascent on Saturday in Manitou Springs. "After all of that, I just had a new outlook. I used to do four speed workouts every week in the evenings, and it would trash me. Now my legs feel fresh and I get to spend more time with my kids, and I love it."

Though she decreased the intensity of her workouts, Ortiz actually increased the number of miles she runs each week to about 100, a move tied to her goal of completing her first ultra-distance race this year. It's given her the greatest aerobic fitness she's ever had and put her on track to have her best season of running yet.

Ortiz won a 25-miler at the Spring Desert Ultra in Fruita and the 10K at the Teva Mountain Games in June, then won the 8.6K U.S. Mountain Running Championships on June 24 in New Hampshire.

She finished second among women in the White River 50-Mile Trail Run (which doubled as a U.S. national championship) July 28 in the mountains east of Seattle and might have found a new calling as an ultrarunner.

"I'm running a lot smarter because I've learned where my limits are," she said. "I can read the signs that my body is giving me better than I used to. And it's made for a fun year because I can run well again. The bottom line is that I'm liking it again and not worrying about any results, so whatever happens is a bonus."

Brian Metzler is the author of Running Colorado's Front Range. Contact him at bmetzler@indra.com

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