I met Ben True. Here are some interesting things I learned.

Apart from being a good runner and skiing, that's what I do too.

Thank you. I do find your comments interesting and thought provoking.

Where and when did you have your talk?

I'd like to know what model Saucony shoes he trains in.

I'd like to know if he goes to southern temperatures during the winter. If so, when and where.

Does he believe in altitude training?

I have absolutely NO DOUBT Ben is clean and always will be.

From reading past articles, Ben's winter training is in Florida.

He does not do altitude training nor sleeps in an altitude tent.

Ben True should be Letsrun's new blue collar hero

Yuppie Runner wrote:

Ben True already is Letsrun's new blue collar hero

Fixed. Not counting Yuki Kawauchi of course.

Thank you for this. I was curious whether he used an altitude tent. He is a great talent.

According to the Mcmillan calculator, he is aerobically equivalent in the 5km, 10km, and 15 km.

Hence, the reason he is fast. Training in a tent or at altitude is the stupidest thing you can do UNLESS you were raised at altitude.

Alani wrote:

From reading past articles, Ben's winter training is in Florida.

He does not do altitude training nor sleeps in an altitude tent.

Injury Master wrote:

I'm a pessimist in that I assume that all pro runners are more or less on something

What a stupid assumption.

Interesting that if you look at the "Featured Sports Clients" at the following link, Ben True is included in the list under "Running/Ultrarunning":"HYPOXICO ALTITUDE TRAINING SYSTEMS"http://www.hypoxico.com/clientele/

Great for digging a hole... wrote:

Hence, the reason he is fast. Training in a tent or at altitude is the stupidest thing you can do UNLESS you were raised at altitude.

Alani wrote:

From reading past articles, Ben's winter training is in Florida.

He does not do altitude training nor sleeps in an altitude tent.

Yes, it is possible to go into a hole of overtraining, with or without altitude. But it is also not uncommon for good runners to to improve their oxygen-carrying blood profile with altitude training/living. It is not even debatable, really.

What sort of foot exercises does he do?

I completely believe in making feet stronger - since I started doing calf raises and standing on one foot for periods of time I have been injury free and feel really strong. hard to explain. able to push off better. and my feet shrunk 1/2 size.

Rail Trail Runner wrote:

Thank you. I do find your comments interesting and thought provoking.

Where and when did you have your talk?

I'd like to know what model Saucony shoes he trains in.

I'd like to know if he goes to southern temperatures during the winter. If so, when and where.

Does he believe in altitude training?

I have absolutely NO DOUBT Ben is clean and always will be.

It was at Fleet Feet Sports in Maine, near where he grew up. He also mentioned his shoes; I believe he said that he wears Triumphs for his longer AM runs, FastTwitches for his faster road work (with that little piece of posting removed specially for him), and a shoe I had never heard of for his 30 min easy runs (sounded like the number 85?).

gruffman wrote:

I completely believe in making feet stronger - since I started doing calf raises and standing on one foot for periods of time I have been injury free and feel really strong. hard to explain. able to push off better. and my feet shrunk 1/2 size.

Yeah in my experience a lot of alignment issues are from a flexible arch, which allows your ankle to collapse leading to pronation. So ideally if you could strengthen your arch you could achieve a neutral gait. Unfortunately Ben never mentioned what exercises he did, but it sounded like it was a big part of his routine.

One other tip he had was that he always uses the same 65 minute warmup routine for every hard session, be it a track workout or a race. He said this lets him go into autopilot before a race while also ensuring that he gets everything done that he needs to. Wish I had thought of that in high school...

Injury Master wrote:

-He does pretty much no core work. .

-Instead he keeps his feet strong with exercises.

interesting that he does no core, but exercises for other parts of the body. Wonder if he does leg exercises too.

did he give you any details about what his warmup involves?

Edward Teach wrote:

did he give you any details about what his warmup involves?

He didn't go over the routine but his philosophy on the matter did come up a couple times. He said that he runs very slow during warmups, slow enough that his teammates at Dartmouth couldn't stand to warm up with him (granted that could mean anything from 7 minute pace to 10). He also never static stretches before or after a hard session, which wasn't that surprising.

In high school Ben was notorious on the team for stealing girls' socks since he never remembered to bring gloves to practice.

Did he mention Rio 2016? Will he attempt making the team in the 10000m, 5000m, and/or marathon? Is a marathon in his future?

That would have been a great question to ask. He didn't really talk about what's coming up except to say he's taking a break right now.