Galen Rupp’s monster pre-trials workout

Galen Rupp has made his fourth Olympic team, winning the 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:09:20 on Saturday. It was a windy day in Atlanta for the trials, and an extremely dramatic race. Second place went to first-time Olympic qualifier Jake Riley, and third to five-time Olympic qualifier and masters runner Abdi Abdirahman. At 43, Abdirahman is also the oldest American ever to qualify for the Olympic marathon.

Announcers talking about a recent Rupp workout of 20x400m, each done in 60 seconds lol

— quaRYANtine (@ry_hudson) February 29, 2020

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Rupp’s clearly coming back to his old form after several years of setbacks. Saturday was the first time that he finished a marathon since his foot surgery in 2018. Between surgery and the trials he’d had a string of bad races, including a DNF at the 2019 Chicago Marathon, which had been billed as an American record attempt.

RELATED: Galen Rupp has foot surgery, forgoes spring marathon

Rupp’s killer workout

Rupp said pre-race that the workout that allowed him to feel confident heading into the trials was one that he used to do as a track runner. Broadcasters said just before the runner crossed the line that Rupp had shared that workout with them.

“He told me that after his 1:01 half-marathon, a few days later, he went to the track and did 20 x 400m in 60 seconds.” For context, a 60 second 400m is on track for 2:30 pace for 1K. Rupp did 8K of volume at that pace. The half-marathon they’re referring to was Rupp’s 1:01:19 on February 10, as a tune up before the trials.

The Olympic marathon runs in Sapporo on August 9.

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