Meb Keflezighi’s marathon lifetime best of 2:08:36 might be fairly modest by today’s barrier-breaking standards - but his racing record is far from that.
One of the highlights of Keflezighi’s international career, which spans more than fifteen years, was his silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games and as a mark of his longevity, the popular American is still challenging the world’s best more than a decade later.
Drawing on his vast wealth of experience, Keflezighi ran a near-perfect race to claim the Boston Marathon title in 2014, becoming the first American man to win since 1983. He also notched up a fifth top-five career finish in the New York Marathon in November.
WorldRunning.com: What do you do in the days after the marathon to help you recover as quickly as possible?
Meb Keflezighi: Recovery is important. I have written a book called “Meb for Mortals” where I talk more about that. First of all, I try to stretch. Light stretching and light massage. Two days later – a deep tissue massage. I used to do ice baths, but I don’t do those anymore. I’m too old for that!
I used to do it [ice baths] rigorously, but now it takes too long for my body to recover. In September, it will be two years since I stopped doing that, but I used to do ice baths every day.
What about rest days during your training? What do they look like?
Rest days are just as important as hard days. But sometimes it’s tricky to handle for elite athletes. As intense as we are, we like routine. We’re “Type A” people, always “go, go, go!” It’s easy for me to give advice: “Take a day off”. But it’s hard to do it myself. I’m still struggling with that, but at the same time I still try to get the best out of myself.
On my rest days, I take care of my nutrition and hydration, do ElliptiGo sessions for recovery instead of pounding the pavement. I try to listen to my body and, if necessary, give it more time to recover, maybe an extra day.
Do you cross train consistently on your easier days?
Especially now, yes. Four to five times a week, instead of going for the second run, I’ll just do that. I’m almost forty years old, I can’t risk getting injured.
Do you do any kind of strength training and weight training at all?
I do some strength drills six days a week, core and planks – maybe, four or five times a week. As for weight training – it’s very minimal. I run on grass and uphill to strengthen my legs, once or twice a week.
What do your weeks and days look like, training wise?
Three times a week I’d go hard: long run, intervals, or tempo. It used to be every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. But now, because of my age, I use a nine-day cycle. I run anywhere from three miles, when I’m backing up before a race, to 27 miles. It depends on where I am in a certain stage of training.
Do you have those mornings when you don’t feel like training? How do you overcome that?
That thought does cross my mind, but all it does is delay the workout. But eventually I end up doing it anyway. Putting on shoes and getting out of the door is hard. But once you get out, rain or snow, whatever, you enjoy it; you even push the pace or do more than planned.
But you have to start slow, don’t be in a rush. It’s good to have someone meeting you for a run, as well. I have a friend of mine, who is 71 years old. If it’s raining like today, he says: “I’ll meet you, I want to feel your pain.” (laughs) And he knows I’m going to show up.
What is your typical pre-race dinner and race-day breakfast?
For dinner, I usually have Italian food. Spaghetti with meatballs and salad, if I have that option. For breakfast, it would be a bagel or toast with almond butter and honey and a banana. If my mum or my wife is around, they bring me fresh homemade bread.
What does your diet look like in training?
I’m very disciplined with my diet when I’m in training, but if I’m injured I get totally out of control. It should be the other way around: when you’re running a lot you can eat anything!
I used to eat whatever I wanted when I was 26-28, but when I turned 35, it changed. My metabolism slowed down. I make sure to eat protein, especially on my hard days. Even if it’s 1-2 pm, I still like to have eggs. I may have them with toast or half a bagel in the morning and then an omelette, and some meat in the evening.
The night before a hard workout, I would have carbohydrates – pasta or rice. After hard workouts, the first thing that goes to my body is Generation UCAN, to speed up recovery.
I always eat a lot of vegetables, and snack on fruits during the day.
What was the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
It was in 1999 from Paul Tergat. I believe, it was in Brussels. I told him: “You know, I want to be where you are, some day.” And he said: “I can give you my workouts. But where I am and where you are now – it’s different. It takes more progress to get there.”
It was the best piece of advice I’ve ever gotten. Because becoming a great athlete takes time.
So what piece of advice would you give to an up-and-coming runner?
I’d say the same. Three things: make progress, be consistent and I would emphasise that easy days are as important as hard days.
How do you mentally prepare for important races?
We all go through stages of preparation. I believe it’s 90% physical and 10% mental in training, but on the race day it switches.
Everybody is here, I look at their faces, at their legs to see what kind of shape they are in. But when the gun goes off, everything comes up to decision-making. Maybe not at the beginning, but when it counts the most. You have to assess what is goal number one, and you have to be realistic about what you are capable of doing and what you’ve been doing.
Sometimes, you want to finish in the top-three, sometimes – to set a personal best. Different things can get in your way, but you always should try to get the best of what you can do on a given day.
What would be your advice to someone that wants to take up running?
We can’t all be Olympians, New York and Boston champions. But we all can get best out of ourselves, no matter how old you are and of what gender you are. Set your goals and once you’ve set them – make progress. Nothing happens overnight. Just start running. It would be bad for the first two or three days, but it will get better.
If you set a goal to run a 5K, hopefully you will run that 5K, then a 10K and so on. Just have fun in a process, and make sure you’re training with someone, so you just don’t wake up one day and say: “Oh, I don’t want to go running!”
Interview conducted by Elena Dyachkova
Photos courtesy of Getty Images
