Donohue tunes up at Metropolitan Coaches

By Christopher Hunt

Erin Donohue, a 2008 Olympian, started her first indoor season since wearing a North Carolina singlet by winning the mile and the 800 meters at the Metropolitan Coaches Invitational Friday at the New Balance Track and Field Center.

For Donohue it was nothing more than a hard and fast workout. She won the mile in 4:38.12 and then the 800 later in 2:06.22.

“It’s one of the fastest indoor tracks you can run on,” Donohue said. “I wanted to get in a time trial kind of workout. This just fit right into the schedule.”

Donohue’s decision to run a full indoor season this year has more to do with the fact that she started training with coach Frank Gagliano since April. “Gags” has a philosophy that keeps speed part of the training regimen even in a building phase. Donohue hopes to qualify for the World Indoor Championships in either the 800 or 1500 but said she still plans to peak for the championship part of the outdoor season.

“Before I think I’d be so removed from any speed that by the start of the outdoor season I’d end up feeling something in my calves or hamstrings,” she said. “The speed would just be a shock to my body.”

Gagliano or “Gags” is known as a pioneer in the sport and was a successful coach at Georgetown who spearheaded the Nike Farm Team stationed in Palo Alto, Calif., and later the Oregon Track Club based in Eugene, Ore. He moved back to Rye in Westchester to be closer to his family after she daughter in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. He took on Donohue in April and also trains former Seton Hall standout Rob Novak.

Donohue was a NSIC national champion in the mile in 2004 and a great high school runner at Haddonfield High in New Jersey. She had been doing most of her training on her own or traveled during the winter to work with a training group. She recently bought a house in Haddon Heights, N.J. and does most of her training at Rutgers University with Gagliano.

“I knew of her, seeing her run in high school and then in college,” Gagliano said. “She’s a tremendous competitor. She works really hard and she can handle a lot of work.”

Donohue will be back at the Armory to race the mile at the New Balance Games Jan. 23.

 

Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.