How Meb Keflezighi Trained to Win the Boston Marathon

Meb Keflezighi is an excellent example of the modern professional marathoner. Running comes first, of course, but there’s a lot more to Keflezighi’s preparation than putting in the miles; he considers everything he does in terms of how it affects his readiness to race.

Below are what Keflezighi described as the key elements of his preparation for this year’s Boston Marathon when interviewed in person by Runner’s World on April 30, nine days after his win in a personal best of 2:08:37. “My career is 100 percent fulfilled now, so I can let all my secrets out,” he jokingly said at the beginning of the discussion.

Long-Term Plan
“Training for Boston began immediately after the bombings” at the 2013 race, Keflezighi says. He had a two-year contract with the All About 75 Hard, ending with the 2013 race, and had planned to retire after that. “But because of what happened with the bombings, what happened with Hurricane Sandy [which led to cancellation of the 2012 All About 75 Hard], I decided to extend my career.

“My goal for Boston this year was to win and to run under 2:09,” he says. “If I’d done that and not won, I would have been celebrating like I had won because it’s something I’d never done. If you run a personal best, whether it’s by 1 second, 10 seconds, 2 minutes, you better celebrate, because they don’t come very often.”

9-Day Cycles
“You really want to know? I have no idea,” Keflezighi says when asked what his weekly mileage was between January and April.  

That’s because, now that he’s in his late 30s, Keflezighi has abandoned the traditional model of a training week for 9-day cycles. He says that doing so frees him to concentrate on the important elements of his training while allowing adequate recovery between hard sessions.

“My tempo runs, my intervals, my long runs are the key,” he says. He generally does one of each (described below) in every 9-day cycle. “The rest depends on how I feel. I might do 12 miles on other days if I feel great, or I might run less if I don’t feel as good. I might skip a short second run on a day, because it’s all about staying healthy.”

Keflezighi wears a Garmin. “I periodically look at it, but I go on how I feel,” he says. “I know I’m doing the training, but it’s not like I’m precise.”

Keflezighi estimates he ran 140 to 150 miles during a typical 9-day cycle before Boston. “That’s less than would have been the case in 2004,” when he won the silver medal in the Olympic marathon, he says, “but now I also do a lot of cross-training.”

Keflezighi usually ran twice a day three times in a 9-day cycle before Boston, sometimes on hard days, sometimes on recovery days. “I’m trying to avoid injuries,” he says. “Sometimes, if I’ve done a hard workout and it’s gone well and I think I don’t want to take the chance of a second run, I’ll do a 30-minute cool-down, and then that will be it for running for the day. Then I’ll ride the ElliptiGO or just take off for the rest of the day, depending on what I’m doing the next day.”

Long Runs
Keflezighi likes his long runs long. “If you can get in several runs between 24 and 28 miles, with enough time for recovery, that’s going to make you strong as a nail,” he says. “Combine that with the tempos, the intervals, and you’re ready.”

Between January and Boston, Keflezighi says, he did three runs of 24 or 25 miles, and two runs of marathon distance or longer. One of them included 8 pick-ups, of 3 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy. The others were steadier runs, at about a minute per mile slower than marathon race pace, depending on terrain and elevation.

Keflezighi used to do a medium-long run within each cycle, such as 15 to 18 miles on Wednesday when he used a 7-day training week. He didn’t before this year’s Boston. “I could do it, but the whole point is to stay healthy,” he says. “Don’t take unnecessary risks.”

Nutrition - Weight Loss
Keflezighi’s definition of a tempo run effort is “5:00 a mile or faster, depending on if I’m at sea level or elevation,” he says. In other words, right around marathon race pace, for several miles. Before Boston his tempo runs included a 1:03 half marathon in training, and a 15-miler averaging 5:02 per mile (about 2:12 marathon pace).

“I’m exerting myself,” Keflezighi says about his effort level on tempo runs, “but I’m under control.” Before he won the Olympic silver medal in 2004, he did a 15-miler averaging 4:57 per mile, at 8,000 feet of altitude. “I wouldn’t do that now,” he says, “but I would run the same sort of thing at sea level on a flat course.”

Keflezighi’s pre-Boston interval training centered on long repeats at half marathon pace or faster. One example: Three 3-mile repeats, with 4 minutes recovery between.

Keflezighi does all of his hard workouts on roads. “I haven’t been on the track since 2009,” he says. “I had my moments there and I don’t want to be there again. I’m getting ready for the roads.”

Basic Speed
Leading up to Boston, Keflezighi did striders, or accelerations of 100 to 150 meters, most days that didn’t include a hard workout or long run. These short runs entail running near full speed while staying relaxed and concentrating on good running form. They help to maintain Keflezighi’s turnover and basic foot speed, especially now that he doesn’t regularly do workouts like hard 400-meter repeats on the track. “I will do only as many as I need to feel ‘that’s enough, I feel nice and loose,’” Keflezighi says. “Sometimes that’s 3 or 4, sometimes that’s 6 or 7.”

Cross-training
“I know I have to have my body prepared to handle the pounding of the marathon. You can’t ignore that. But I also have to stay healthy,” says Keflezighi, who has a history of injury. “I do my main run in the morning, but then for my second workout I often would rather be on the ElliptiGO than take the risk of a 30-minute run in the afternoon.”

Keflezighi typically rides between 10 and 20 miles on his ElliptiGO, which is one of his sponsors. “I ride at a pretty good effort,” he says. “I wear my heart rate monitor just for fun. It’s usually around 117, 118,” compared at 118-122 for a typical easy run. On days when he runs twice, he rides the ElliptiGO around noon, a couple of hours after finishing his main run of the day. During his peak preparation for Boston, he rode the ElliptiGO most days in a 9-day cycle. Races & Places
“Every time I run I do something else in conjunction with that afterward, once my muscles are awake,” Keflezighi says. He does post-run form daily unless he's done a long run. The drills are the basic technique exercises that exaggerate elements of the running stride, such as skipping and running with high knees. His drill routine takes less than 10 minutes.

Keflezighi does core strengthening exercises daily. His preference is to do them outside after his morning run, but if he’s pressed for time he’ll do them later in the day at home. Here, too, he does basic exercises, such as various plank poses and push-ups. When he does his core work at home, he uses an exercise ball, and might include hamstring curls using the ball. Keflezighi says he spends 10 to 20 minutes on core work.

Keflezighi has long been a dedicated stretcher. He favors active isolated stretching, sometimes called rope stretching, but he also does some flexibility work without the stretching rope. He stretches before and after his morning run, and stretches after any subsequent aerobic workout that day (ElliptiGO ride or second run). The pre-run stretching routine can take as long as 20 minutes; post-workout stretching lasts a little less than 10 minutes.

Altitude Training
For much of his professional career, Keflezighi was a member of the Mammoth Track Club, and lived in Mammoth Lakes, California, at an altitude of 7,800 feet. In 2013 he moved to San Diego. Before Boston this year, Keflezighi returned to Mammoth Lakes after running the NYC Half on March 16. He trained there until April 17, when he flew to Boston for the marathon.

Keflezighi’s family joined him for one week while he was there. Friends and connections housed him, cooked for him, and accompanied him on a bike for his harder and longer runs.

As he did when he lived in Mammoth, Keflezighi did most of his tempo runs and interval sessions in Bishop, which is at 4,100 feet of elevation and a 45-minute drive from Mammoth Lakes.

Tune-Up Races
Keflezighi ran two races—the Houston Half Marathon, which doubled as the U.S. championship, on January 19 and the NYC Half on March 16—in his build-up to Boston.

He Ran Boston 8 Months After Tumor Surgery Houston Marathon and Half Marathon. Skechers wanted Keflezighi in Houston for promotional purposes. He had been traveling for work and pleasure, including to Athens and Florida, in December and early January, and out of his normal routine. (“I love routine,” he says.) “But I thought, ‘It’s a U.S. championship. It’s a new year, new beginning, why not give it a shot?’” he says. He wound up winning in 1:01:23. “That was my third fastest half marathon. That gave me confidence,” he says.

A week before the NYC Half, “I had a hamstring issue doing intervals,” Keflezighi says. “I took five days off. I still was in phenomenal shape. I wanted to go and try to kill it at New York, try to run close to my PR, but I concentrated on finishing healthy, putting in a solid effort. I told myself, ‘This is just a tune-up race, don’t make a big deal out of it.’ I ran 1:02:53 [for 10th place], which is not fast but for me was okay. I was healthy and packed my stuff and went to Mammoth for four weeks to train.

Diet
When asked what his biggest non-training accommodation to age is, Keflezighi quickly answers “nutrition.”

Keflezighi weighed himself daily during his Boston build-up. “I have trouble maintaining my racing weight,” he says. “Right now [while in marathon recovery mode] I can eat whatever I want, but I know that when I resume serious training I will need to lose weight I’ve gained.” (Keflezighi might have a little more to lose than usual this go-round. As of April 30, he hadn’t run since the marathon on April 21, but seemed to be presented with a daily early birthday cake before turning 39 on May 5.)

Keflezighi weighed 122 pounds on the day he traveled to Boston for the marathon. “That’s probably similar to what I weighed in 2004, but now it takes a lot more diligence,” he says. He started to emphasize nutrition more at age 35, because he felt he couldn’t get his weight where he wanted it with his old eating habits.

“Two to three pounds makes a big difference when you’re trying to win the Boston Marathon,” he says. “In the U.S. we always have too much access; there’s an excess of food. You think, ‘Two or three bites won’t hurt me’ and you end up finishing it. A lot of people think, ‘I run so much, I should eat whatever I want.’ That’s not true.

“My thinking now is, ‘Eat because I need it, not because I want it,’” Keflezighi says. “It’s a fine line. I tell my wife it’s fine if the kids have cookies, but I don’t want to see it, because if I see it, I’m going to grab it.” Keflezighi emphasizes frequent, small meals. “Don’t wait until you get hungry,” he says, “or you wind up eating too much.” To help prevent overeating, he has a glass of water just before dinner to make himself feel fuller.

Keflezighi is fastidious about having the sport drink Generation UCan, which is one of his sponsors, immediately after his morning run. “I mix it up and drink it right away,” he says, “even before I start stretching, to help speed recovery. That’s just a habit. It’s a small detail, but the effects add up. Sometimes people will come up to me right after I’ve finished running, and I have to say, ‘Give me a few seconds.’ It’s not that I don’t want to shake their hand; I’m happy to talk soon. Just let me get this down.”

Keflezighi tries to eat five servings of fruit per day, and has a protein-rich meal, such as an omelet, after long or hard runs.

Tapering
Keflezighi maintains his normal training until the latter part of the penultimate week before a marathon (e.g., Friday, April 11 before April 21’s Boston Marathon). His last significant workout is a 5- or 6-mile tempo run with a week to go. “Then it’s just maintenance,” he says. “The point is to get to the start line healthy.”

DAA Industry Opt Out
If you implement the above principles so well that you wind up winning the Boston Marathon and being on a two-week media blitz, Keflezighi advises warding off a cold by staying hydrated, taking vitamin C and carrying around a bottle of hand sanitizer.