Snow, ice, wind, sleet and freezing temperatures are enough to keep most people inside during the harsh Chicago winters.

The weather doesn’t get in the way of Claudia Becque’s training as a long distance runner.

Just the other day Becque had to deal with a foot of snow. None of it slows her down, however, as she puts in the mileage and the gets in the workouts that she needs as a training base for the March 2 Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon.

She’s preparing for her first Napa race and wants to use it to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Team Trials. In order to advance to the April 20 Trials in Boston, she’ll need to run a time of under 2 hours and 47 minutes for the 26.2-mile race, which starts at 7 a.m. in Calistoga and follows the Silverado Trail south to finish line at Vintage High School.

“I’m going to go in there probably being in the best shape of my life,” said Becque. “I just hope that it’s a good day.

“Going into Napa, I think I’m kind of excited to see what happens, because I just feel like I’m in great shape. I’m excited to see if I can be really, really successful in the marathon.”

This is only Becque’s fourth marathon, but she has a pretty good record.

She was 46th overall and the first American woman finisher last September at the Berlin Marathon, achieving a personal record by 11 minutes with a time of 2 hours, 58 minutes, 25 seconds. Even though it was her fastest time, Becque felt tired after putting in 95-mile training weeks.

Late last fall, she took on a coach, Tom McGlynn, the president of Focus-N-Fly, a Bay Area running group, and a Marathon Trials qualifier himself.

“Now that I’ve been working with Tom, I’m not running as much as I did before, but my workouts have been a lot better, and I’m not as tired as I have been,” Becque said. “Physically and mentally, I feel like I’m in better condition than I was for Berlin. I’m more rested, I think, and my workouts have been going really well.”

Becque has also run the Chicago Marathon (2002, a time of 3:26), Boston Marathon (2003, time of 3:32) and New York Marathon (2005). It was at New York where she had a time of 3:09, was the 82nd overall woman and the first Illinois finisher.

“The main reason now is to make the Olympic Trials,” said Becque.

Her reason for attempting a marathon in the first place was to challenge herself.

“I had never run that far,” sad Becque. “It’s the challenge and just to see how far you can take your body. I love competition. I know you’re competing with yourself. Once you do it, it gets kind of addicting.”

Napa is one of the last-chance marathons that can qualify a runner for the Trials. The women’s field is expected to be one of the strongest of all-time, with two other runners that McGlynn is working with, Shaluinn Fullove of Palo Alto and Caroline Annis of San Francisco, also in the field.

“It should be a great women’s race,” McGlynn said. “I think we’ll see some of those national-class runners showing up, trying to get their qualifier for the Trials race in Boston in a month.”

The Boston Athletic Association will host the 2008 Trials the day before the 112th running of the Boston Marathon. Starting and finishing at the traditional Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street, the Olympic Trials will feature a specially designed course that tours historic Boston with a one-time loop that passes Boston Public Garden, Boston Common, the State House and Beacon Hill.

The course will then feature four loops of approximately six miles each proceeding down Commonwealth Avenue, crossing the Charles River into Cambridge using the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, running east, then west along Memorial Drive. Runners then return from each of the Core Loops via Massachusetts Avenue.

“We really appreciate everything Napa Valley Marathon has done and we hope to really show a great, exciting display of running and teamwork and what teamwork can do to help an individual reach goals that they otherwise wouldn’t have achieved,” said McGlynn. “I think you’re going to see great team running, team-running tactics — 3, 4 or 5 women working together for a common goal and trying to push themselves where the body doesn’t quite want to go. We appreciate being there. Hopefully we’ll get a couple of these girls to the Olympic Trials.”

Becque, 31, had a very good 2007 season. The former Marquette University runner won the Chicago Distance Classic (13.1 miles) in a time of 1:21:20, was sixth overall at Grandma’s Half Marathon (1:22:45), tied for first at the Nike Women’s 5K Race (17:23), was fourth overall at the Soldier Field 10 Mile (1:02:20), was the first American female at the Park Forest 10 mile (1:00:56), and placed fifth at the Shamrock Shuffle 8K (29:39).

She was All-State in cross country and track for four years at Palantine (Ill.) High School with PRs of 10:52 (3200) and 5:09 (1600).

The women’s Trials qualifying standards are sub-2:39:00 (“A” standard) and sub-2:47 (“B” standard). The qualifying period began Jan. 1, 2006 and ends on March 23.

“I think that in itself would just be a huge accomplishment for me, just to say that I ran the Olympic Trials, just to be around all those women that I idolize,” said Becque. “There’s only a few amount of people that are trying to do this. Even if I ran a 2:46:59 and went into the race with the slowest time, I’d just be ecstatic to be there.”

Becque was in the Napa Valley in early January to run part of the course and get familiar with some of the rolling hills that the field will encounter early on. She is among six runners from the Fleet Feet running club in Chicago that are entered in the 30th annual NVM.

“I’m very good at longer races, I think I have really good endurance,” she said. “Going into Berlin I think I was just tired. This is the most well trained I’ve been. I’ve been focused on more marathon-pace type workouts. I’m glad I had the opportunity to come out back in January and run the first part of the course. Because that was the one thing that I was nervous about, as I had never seen the course. I have a good feel for it.”

McGlynn tries to get is runners ready to run a specific pace for 20 to 22 miles. After that, it’s up to the individual to muscle through it.

“You never quite know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Becque has the ability to run a qualifying time, said McGlynn.

“I think she’s definitely in the ballpark, physically. It will be a big jump up for her. She’s been training well. You’ve got to hold back a little bit on the first couple downhills.”

McGlynn works with Becque, a clinical resource specialist, a couple of times a year.

“I’m a little nervous, but I am very excited,” said Becque. “I’m just really excited to see what my body can do, because I’m coming off of a hard training cycle in the summer, and then I recovered really well after Berlin.

“I’ve made it through the snow and ice. I’m ready to shine. I feel really good. Everything’s been going as planned.”