Home > Running videos

VIDEO: Rejean Chiasson nails final big workout before the Boston Marathon

Watch Rejean Chiasson's final big workout ahead of the most famous road race in the world, the Boston Marathon.

Rejean Chiasson

The Boston Marathon is on April 17 and Toronto’s Rejean Chiasson wrapped up his final race-specific workout for the famed road race on March 29. Canadian Running joined the 2012 Canadian marathon champion for the workout, which was done in High Park west of downtown Toronto.

Once one of Canada’s top marathoners, Chiasson has not “raced” the distance in five years. (He paced a friend in a marathon and got a Boston qualifying time.) Now, with multiple 200-plus kilometre weeks under his belt, Chiasson has all eyes on the point-to-point race which begins in Hopkinton, Mass. and finishes on Boylston Street in downtown Boston.

For the workout, Chiasson ran a mixture of longer and shorter intervals totalling almost 18K of speed work. Including warmup and cool down, the soon-to-be-father covered approximately 27K that day. Chiasson has a 2:17:47 lifetime best in the marathon, which he set in his debut, and occasionally throws in a 42K here and there in training. (He talks about why in the video.)

RELATED: Rejean Chiasson runs mind-blowing pace in 42K workout ahead of Boston Marathon.

“It ended up possibly being my strongest session of the cycle,” he said via Instagram. “Not only because of my pace being way faster than a similar workout done six weeks ago, but mainly because of how the pace felt and having to hold back so coach Eddie [Raposo] doesn’t get mad at me for getting carried away.”

Though a coach himself with Pace and Mind and Adidas Runners Toronto, Chiasson gets guidance from Eddie Raposo.

The workout

4.8K: 15:30 (average per kilometre pace: 3:13)
5.4K: 17:31 (average per kilometre pace: 3:15)
4x1K: 3:07, 3:02, 3:06, 3:02
3.64K: 11:50 (average per kilometre pace: 3:15)

Chiasson took three minutes recovery between each of the four sets and 90 seconds recovery between each of the four 1Ks. The longer intervals were done at marathon pace while the 1K repeats were run at 10K/half-marathon effort, according to Chiasson’s Strava. Kate Van Buskirk, the 2014 Commonwealth Games 1,500m bronze medallist and also a coach with Pace and Mind, joined Chiasson for part of the filmed workout.

I did my last volume/marathon specific workout yesterday before Boston. The first 10k aiming at marathon pace on rolling terrain, a few km repeats at 10k-half in the 3rd quarter to simulate the effort going up, and finishing the last quarter of the workout at marathon pace for a total of 17.8km of intervals. I can't say I went into this very confident after feeling like garbage on my long run this Monday. And with Adam from @canadianrunning filming my most challenging workout of the cycle I was worried to crash and burn on camera. It ended up possibly being my strongest session of the cycle. Not only because of my pace being way faster than a similar workout done 6 weeks ago, but mainly because of how the pace felt and having to hold back so coach Eddie doesn't get mad at me for getting carried away! I always tell my athletes not to let one bad workout demoralize them, but it's a great reminder when it happens to me. It's now time to sharpen up, rest, focus, and show up to Beantown in peak shape. Hope everyone is as excited about Boston as myself and the whole @paceandmind team. Btw, yes I did feel like a douchbag going shirtless with the camera rolling…but it was such a nice day, sun was shining, I felt great, and I need to work on that base if I want to hold my own to the #adobros! #paceandmind #adidasrunnerstoronto #whyiruntoronto #nocuteshit #postlessrunmore

A post shared by Rejean Chiasson (@coachrejean) on

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

The best trainers in Canada under $150

We curated the best performance trainers under $150 to meet your 2024 running goals, while staying on budget