Galen Rupp Is Coaching Kyle Merber (Episode 1) | "Don't Screw It Up For Me"

The hardest part of marathon training is finding the time to marathon train. It depends who you are, but that excuse often works for me. Life is busy and there are plenty of reasons to be content with an easy 5-mile run before work each day, though do that for six months and you quickly realize that rather than progressing the fitness just continues to erode.

Looking for some new motivation to get me out the door this summer, I decided that it was time to do another fall marathon. Nike approached CITIUS MAG and asked whether anyone on our team was interested in running this year’s race. I decided it was finally time to do the Chicago Marathon. Having done three marathons before, I have learned that each one comes with a new curriculum of education. Experience is valuable and that’s why I am going to be leaning in on arguably the greatest distance runner in American history, Galen Rupp, to help guide my training.

In addition to having won two Olympic medals, Rupp also has a Chicago Marathon title to his name. Those are better accolades than mine, which is a 2:26 from the 2025 Houston Marathon. I’m hoping that with Galen in my corner to write workouts and give some regular advice that I can get that down.

This is the initial consultation. Galen comes in cold on my training history. (You can scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for my recent workouts.)
We work through a full marathon training philosophy and discuss: consistent mileage as the foundation of marathon training, the role of cross training, long run structure/distance, the two-week training block model, why I need to train my endurance more than my speed, the shoe rotation philosophy, Chicago’s pancake flat profile requiring no specific course prep, nutrition and gut training starting now, age and recovery at 35 vs. 40, the mental work of logging each session’s goals and reflecting after, and lastly the goal.

Kyle’s Recent Training:

May 25 — 5 x 1,000m @ 3:20 (5:22/mile pace)
May 30 — 5K in 17:30 (5:38/mile pace)
June 2 — 5 x 1,200m @ 3:58 (5:19/mile pace)
June 9 — 10 x 800m @ 2:45 (5:32/mile pace)
June 13 — 5 x 1 mile @ 5:17
June 16 — 3 x 2 miles @ 5:20/mile
June 19 — 8 x 1,000m @ 3:18 (5:19/mile pace)
July 1 — 7 x 1,200m @ 3:59 (5:21/mile pace)
July 5 — 15 miles easy
July 7 — 2 x 3 miles @ 5:26/mile
July 10 — 15 miles, with 6 miles alternating @ 5:53 average
July 13 — 10 x 30-second hills + 10 x 300m @ 53 seconds (4:44/mile pace)
July 17 — 10 x 1,000m @ 3:17 (5:17/mile pace)
July 19 — 16 miles, with 4 x 2 miles @ 5:50/mile
July 21 — 4 miles @ 5:26/mile, then 3 x 1 mile @ 5:18
July 26 — 18 miles, with 8 miles @ 5:40/mile
July 30 — 5 x (2K @ 5:26 pace // 1K @ 6:19 pace)
Aug. 2 — 20 miles @ 6:28/mile
Aug. 5 — 3 x 3 miles @ 5:21/mile
Weekly mileage: A six-week progression from 62 miles to 72.

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