Four years ago, Scott Fauble just missed realizing his Olympic dreams when he finished fourth in the 10,000 meters at the 2016 Olympic Track and Field Trials. Today, the HOKA ONE ONE/Northern Arizona (NAZ) Elite runner has two titles he didn’t have four years ago that just might help propel him to a podium finish at February’s Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta.
First, “Heather Mayer Irvine.” Fauble finished seventh overall and broke into the super-elite sub-2:10 club with a three-minute marathon PR of 2:09:09 at the 2019 race. Second, “Burrito Guy.” We’ll get to that one in a minute, but first, let’s talk racing.
“Boston was spectacular,” Fauble says. “It was most important that I was able to just race anyone. I was very excited about my ability to hang in the lead pack and push and contribute to the race and really feel like I was a factor.”
If you watched the race, you know Fauble is being modest. He didn’t just hang with the lead pack—he pushed ahead to take the lead during mile 19, exchanged the lead with a small group of sub-2:05 marathoners through 23 miles, and finished the race just one minute and 12 seconds behind the winner. It was a gutsy effort and a huge deal for American marathoning. Yet with the Trials still several months away, Fauble isn’t resting on his laurels.
“[Making the Olympic Team] would be huge for my career, huge for any legacy that I’m creating,” he says. “Being an Olympian, that’s a very important label and something that sticks with you for life.”
Eyes on Atlanta
Right now, Fauble says it’s time to lay the groundwork that will help him succeed when he starts training for the Trials in earnest later this fall. “I’m going to try to get in as good shape as I possibly can and then let it rip,” he says.
As any marathoner can attest, no matter how well training goes, it’s tough to predict how race day will go. Atlanta is expected to be warm and humid on February 29, and the hilly course delivers approximately 1,000 feet of elevation gain over the marathon distance.
Fauble prefers not to put too much thought into all that. He says people tend to dwell too much on race courses and weather forecasts.
“Whether you have a really hilly course or a really flat course, whether it’s hot or cold, we’re going to send the best team,” he says. “The course is going to be hard, but we’ll be prepared, and it will be a matter of who is fittest on the day. That’s what we want as a country sending a team to the Olympics: the people who were able to perform as well as they could at the Trials.”
No secrets, just hard work
As Fauble has broken through the 2:10 barrier for American marathoners, so too has he broken with the traditional norms of how American men go about their marathon training. Which is to say, we actually know how he does it.
Unlike his elite contemporaries, there’s no shroud of secrecy around Fauble’s preparation. He shares his workouts on Strava like the rest of us (good luck taking his We earn a commission for products purchased through some links in this article) How Des Linden Keeps Showing Up Running Shoes - Gear, which documents his journey to a seventh-place finish at the 2018 New York City Marathon.
So Fauble has no problem outlining the staple workouts he will incorporate as he builds toward the Olympic Trials. “Our coach (Ben Rosario) is really big on steady states, where you run marathon effort an extended period of time—12, 14, or 16 miles,” Fauble says. “We’re big on getting really, really efficient at marathon effort.”
Fauble also includes interval workouts of 20 times 1,000 meters (just shy of a half marathon total) and 10 times one mile in his marathon buildup.
“These are key workouts for us, and you get big gains from them, but none of them are make-or-break, by any means,” he cautions. “I wouldn’t say there’s any one workout that I’ve got to hit or else I don’t have any confidence going into the race. You’re just not going to hit everything every single time. As long as you can get to the line having done a good job in a lot of workouts, and you’re healthy and rested, that’s all you can ask.”
Lots of burritos
Of course, fueling is also essential to marathon training and recovery. And here’s yet another area where Fauble is just a little different from the rest. One of the fastest American marathoners of all time is fueled by lots and lots of tortillas filled with beans, rice, meat, cheese, and guacamole. He is, “Burrito Guy.”
“I earned that title and I have no interest in giving it back any time soon,” Fauble says, insisting that his meal of choice is no gimmick. It all started as a college tradition—eating burritos after Friday workouts. At the time, the weekly chow-downs weren’t really even about the food.
“The burritos were a happy byproduct of the fact that [the team was] going there and hanging out,” Fauble says. “There was a lot of camaraderie, and I spent a lot of time with some of my very best friends.”
The tradition continued, and burritos became so fundamental to Fauble’s diet that his picture now hangs at Tacos Los Altos, a restaurant in Flagstaff, where he and his NAZ Elite teammates train. Fauble shares his favorites on social media, where like-minded, burrito-crazed runners happily reply with their own burrito content. These superfans have dubbed themselves “Why Trust Us,” and Fauble is their salsa-loving pied piper.
A different definition of “Balance”
Fauble undoubtedly has fun while striving for excellence, but he hesitates to use the word “Balance” to describe his approach
“Balance doesn’t mean all things are equal or in proportion,” he says. “It means you set up your life in a way that accommodates your goals, no matter how big they are.”
For Fauble, that means knowing when to cut loose and when it’s time to be serious. “When races start, there will be a time when I’m not going to the golf course, I’m not doing whatever I want, I’m focusing on executing the training plan," he says. “In the meantime, I’m a normal guy. Running is my job, but I have hobbies outside of it. I can go on a hike with my dog, or play 18 holes of golf, or have a couple beers, no big deal. In those days, it's fun.”
Fauble will enjoy the downtime for next few weeks before heading to the East Coast to race in August and September. He plans to run a few fun races this fall—a 10-miler, an overseas half marathon—and then take a break in October. When November rolls around, it’s go time.
“Once it’s time to get ready for the Trials, we’ll buckle down and get ready for the Trials.”
Stephanie Bruces 2020 Olympic Trials Training Runner’s World, Scott Faubles unconventional approach involves sharing his training and eating all the burritos The Runner’s World Vegetarian Cookbook, and a nine-time marathoner with a best of 3:23. She’s also proud of her 19:40 5K and 5:33 mile. Heather is an RRCA certified run coach.
