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How Reid Coolsaet and Trevor Hofbauer chose a spring marathon

What Reid Coolsaet and Trevor Hofbauer chose and are doing to train for their spring marathons

Two former Canadian marathon champions are set to run the Hamburg Marathon in Germany on April 28. Reid Coolsaet and Trevor Hofbauer will line up in hopes of a big race this spring. 

Reid Coolsaet and Eric Gillis

Coolsaet is stationed in Colorado for the winter, and he says the drive west with two very young children went surprisingly well. They didn’t ever start driving before noon, so that Coolsaet could get his workout in and his kids could play for the morning, so that driving time was also nap time. Hofbauer is living in his home town of Calgary for the time being. 

RELATED: Trevor Hofbauer on training alone and loving it

At Hamburg, both runners are hoping to run around the 2:13 mark, which would put them in a strong position to qualify for the 2019 World Championship team. 

Trevor Hofbauer
Photo: Matt Stetson

Hofbauer chose Hamburg because of the timing. He had a rocky start to his 2019 season after dealing with some residual illness from December 2018, but the marathoner thinks April is the perfect time for him to run a marathon. “It takes place at the end of April, which will give me more time to recover and compete in a couple of Canadian Championships at the end of May and in June. Having Hamburg at the end of April also allows me to recover fully ahead of a fall marathon build.”

Coolsaet says his training has gone well this winter, but he’ll have a better idea of what kind of shape he’s in two to three weeks out from the race. “So far, training has been good. I feel as though I’m still building solid base workouts and setting up for some tougher training that is to come shortly. I’ve been running with some other marathoners here in Boulder and have hooked up with the Boulder Harriers for some sessions and long runs.”

Reid Coolsaet
Photo: Lululemon Toronto/Canada Running Series

RELATED: VIDEO: Reid Coolsaet looks towards Canadian Marathon Championship title at STWM

In terms of key workouts, Coolsaet loves anything that’s a longer marathon effort, where he doesn’t feel as though he has to force race pace. “That could be anything from 40 minutes to 70 minutes in duration, sometimes continuous and sometimes broken up in two or three intervals.”

Coolsaet says his life has changed dramatically in the past couple years, but he’s still loving running as much as ever. “My life has changed so much in the past few years with starting a family. I now find I can’t be as selfish with my time and have to juggle a lot more to make training work. I still enjoy running as much as I always have even though in the past couple of years I haven’t been able to do the same things in training and racing.”
 
Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya is also set to make her much anticipated marathon debut at Hamburg. The half-marathon world record holder told the IAAF on February 14, “I would like to achieve a time of around 2:22. But there are still two months of preparation to come. I have to wait and see how my body reacts to the training. Once I am a week away from the race I will see what kind of form I am in. Then I will determine my final goal.”
 

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