Good article on Matt Llano living and training with Shalane Flanagan as he prepares for Sunday's Berlin Marathon

maybe there was a misunderstanding. maybe he just took water until mile 20, but not "Fluid" which is a sport drink.

I'd forgotten about his coming out - initially seemed strange that Shalane's husband was cool with another dude living in the house for weeks.

Llano posts his training log online if anyone is interested:

http://www.nazelite.com/training-log-matt/

Pollly P wrote:

Remember how Jack Tripper confounded Mr. Furley in Three's Company? This arrangement eerily similar.

Mr. Furley was trapped in the closet. That's how it worked in the olden days.

He states that he'd be happy with anything under 2:10. Just went and looked at his training. It is indeed impressive, but I don't think he is in 2:10 shape at all. I worry that he is going to go out to hard and blow up again. He should just go and try to run 2:12. That would be a Great improvement. Instead he is setting himself up for disaster with an overly ambitious goal. He is a 2:16 guy for crying out loud, no shame in a very solid 4min PB. These NAZ guys are always thinking that they are fitter than they actually are, you'd think they would learn by now.

tdsfstrert wrote:

Because it's nice to hang around with a male friend who isn't secretly trying to get in your pants like all your straight guy friends.

Wait...is this evidence that a female actually trolls the halls of LRC? Thought I would see Bigfoot before this.

She should have encouraged him to run 6 min pace on his long runs and run 24 miles three times per month instead of hammering all the long runs like most other american men do. They run great half marathons and underperform in the marathon case they leave it in training. They do not weigh 100-115 pounds like africans - they can handle the pounding.

Watch Berlin and see. He is easily a 2:09 marathoner but it will never happen the way he trains.

Tyrees wrote:

He states that he'd be happy with anything under 2:10. Just went and looked at his training. It is indeed impressive, but I don't think he is in 2:10 shape at all. I worry that he is going to go out to hard and blow up again. He should just go and try to run 2:12. That would be a Great improvement. Instead he is setting himself up for disaster with an overly ambitious goal. He is a 2:16 guy for crying out loud, no shame in a very solid 4min PB. These NAZ guys are always thinking that they are fitter than they actually are, you'd think they would learn by now.

I got the same feeling before his debut at Chicago last year when he stated the same goal after posting a video of a workout he did with Ryan Vail.

In the video, it's obvious Vail is much more fit and he's a 2:10 high guy. his sub-2:10 goal seemed overly ambitious at the time as it does now.

I'm not sure if there's anything to it, but he and his coach seem to think his training paces, because they're at altitude, are equivalent to 15 seconds per mile faster. So when he does a race pace workout at 5:10 pace, they believe he's actually running 4:55 pace. That explains where their getting the sub 2:10 goal, but I haven't seen a lot of proof about the efficacy of such an approach. It seems to me that the Kenyans are at higher altitude and don't adjust their training paces by nearly that much.

I dont understand how guys like this get attention and guys who actually run good times go unnoticed. Their paces are all way too fast at altitude. If you read their training blogs it is very apparent the reason why he can't put together good races is because they are overtraining constantly. I will be surprised if he runs faster than 2:15.

First, I want to say that I appreciate that he posts his training online. I enjoy reading through elite runners training logs, and I didn't see his before so I will add it to the few that I check.

With that said, I also am a little skeptical of the 2:10 goal based on the training posts I have seen. Who knows though, it would be nice to have an American do it this fall.

My only observation, as a guy that knows Sell's training, was that Sellbo did much bigger doubles. He was doing the 12/8, 14/8, 10/10 type days, where as Matt is more of a 10/4, 12/4 guy, so not sure if that strength translates to 2:10 on race day. However, Matt is tremendously talented, so it's going to be interesting see him go for it.

Big fan, keep it up.

Zero chance he breaks 2:10. 2:12 would be a good result

"We ran twice a day, sometimes three times. Twenty miles a day, sometimes more. There were a couple of 170-mile weeks... All we did was run - run, eat, and sleep." - Frank Shorter detailing his training with Jack Bacheler and Jeff Galloway prior to the 1972 Olympics (Frank won the gold medal in the marathon)

Reminds me of the old days--the three Rs: run, rest, and rot.

Frankie S wrote:

"We ran twice a day, sometimes three times. Twenty miles a day, sometimes more. There were a couple of 170-mile weeks... All we did was run - run, eat, and sleep." - Frank Shorter detailing his training with Jack Bacheler and Jeff Galloway prior to the 1972 Olympics (Frank won the gold medal in the marathon)

rojo wrote:

I do have one question about it though. Does anyone actually believe the following is true.

RW wrote:

In his debut there, Llano realized at mile 20 that he hadn’t taken in any fluids during the marathon. “That was when I started to fall apart,” he said

True in the sense that he took ZERO fluids. How would that be possible for a pro runner? A five year old would naturally drink even if it was their first race.

This seems completely stupid to me. It is like being a carpenter and forgetting to bring a hammer.

Exactly. Even 6:30. Criti al issue is training fat burning energy system. Guys never get it. Rodgers did.

I think a lot of runners are misled by plugging in a half into a conversion formula, especially when that half is run on a pancake flat course in perfect conditions (Houston). 61-high is great, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're a 2:09-2:10 guy.

I admire those, like Llano, who go for it, but with so few 2:11-2:12 performances by Americans, I'd rather see that as the initial goal than 2:09.

I ran quite a few cool-weather marathons in which I didn't drink -- if you're not sweating it's not much of an issue when you're only out there for two to two and a half hours.

loosetree wrote:

I ran quite a few cool-weather marathons in which I didn't drink -- if you're not sweating it's not much of an issue when you're only out there for two to two and a half hours.

It's not a matter of dehydration, it's the fueling in terms of carbs that would be the issue here. The body simply can't store enough energy to get you through an entire marathon. He would bonk terribly without taking anything.

To be honest that is a really dumb mistake to make for a runner at his level. hope he remedies that situation and performs better in Berlin.