There isn’t much left to accomplish for Sir Mo Farah. With four Olympic gold medals and six World titles, he is one of the world’s greatest distance runners and Great Britain’s greatest-ever track athlete. (And its pretty easy to argue you don't need "track" to qualify that.) Give that he's turning  40 next March, many pundits have already started writing Farah’s swan song. But, he tells GQ that he isn’t closing the chapter on his athletic career just yet.

A hip injury forced Farah to pull out of this year’s London Marathon, which would have been his first since finishing fifth in the same marathon in 2019. While disappointed, he immediately set his sights forward to 2023. We caught up with Farah about ramping up his activity, the importance of doing the extra things necessary to make sure his body is at its best, how he trained for the Olympics, and the joy of seeing his daughter follow in his footsteps.  

For Real-Life Diet, GQ talks to athletes, celebrities, and other high performers about their diet, exercise routines, and pursuit of wellness. Keep in mind that what works for them might not necessarily be healthy for you.

GQ: What’s a standard breakfast, lunch, and dinner look like for you nowadays?

Sir Mo Farah: I’ll wake up in the morning with my kids. Before I go for a run, I’ll have some toast, maybe a bit of porridge. I’ll drop the kids off at school or sometimes my wife takes them and I’ll go out for a 10-12-mile run. I’ll come back in, do a little bit of stretching, shower, and get a good lunch. That’s maybe a chicken sandwich or a bit of salmon, a little bit of toast for protein and carbs. I’ll rest up a little bit and run again in the evening. The evening meal is really important because if you worked hard during the day, you need to fuel up. It’s usually pasta, rice, or chicken—just a variety of protein and carbs. 

I also discovered you have a big sweet tooth. What are some treats you enjoy when you don’t have to focus on training?

(Laughs) The biggest thing is moderation. It’s a balance. I’ve got such a sweet tooth, so for me, it’s anything sweet—desserts. I do treat myself. Living in the U.S., I don’t know if you’ve ever ate Swedish Fish.

Absolutely. 

They’re probably one of my favorites but I’m more of a sweet food person. But it has to be a balance. 

It’s been a few months since you last competed and you’ve been nursing a hip injury. What is your current progress?

At the minute, right now, I’m just building and getting back into it. This morning, I did five miles, two days before that, I did four. When you’re coming back from an injury, it’s really important that you listen to your body. As much as I’ve achieved—and have done 120 miles per week—when you have an injury, it’s important that you take it slowly and you keep recovering as well as building. At the minute, it’s just baby steps and trying to build. Hopefully, on the back of this, I can do a marathon at some point. Right now, it’s just getting my body right, keep building up the mileage and keep building to get back to 100 percent. When I know I’m in a good place, I’ll slowly keep nudging up. 

I’m back running now and getting back into it slowly. It’s going well, so I can’t complain. Last night I was out a little late. But you make sure you put in the work and don’t lose the focus of what you need to. This morning, I jogged five miles, stretched a little bit, and used my Theragun a little bit to stretch because it makes it a little bit easier. 

Speaking of Theragun, you signed on as a Therabody athlete last year. 

As an athlete, as you get older, your body becomes a bit more injury-prone, so it’s important that you look after your body. If you can do a little bit extra on the side then you go ahead and do it. When I first spoke to [Therabody’s founder and Chief Wellness Officer Jason Wersland] and hearing the history of how the Theragun started, I was blown away. The little bit that we can do to help ourselves mobilize and be injury free, it’s incredible. The more injury-free you are, the better you perform. As an athlete, you’re always looking for that little extra bit of how do I get more out of myself? Just using and taking full advantage of what Therabody does helps a lot. Whether it’s helping with a little stretch, the recovery boots—it all helps. Even watching TV at times—I’m a massive fan of Arsenal — I’ll put the boots on for 45 minutes to an hour. 

Are these all adjustments you’ve really had to dial in on in the last few years?

When you’re younger, you can get away with more stuff—but you have to look out for your body. For me, a big part of that is making sure I get sleep, making sure I eat well, hydrating, and just doing extra bits on the side. I’ve been doing it for so long and when you’re almost towards the end of your career, it’s really important that you look after your body because you do get a little bit more niggles.

Taking it back to your training for the 2016 Olympics in Rio. When did you begin your training camp and how do you program to where you’re at your peak when you need to be? 

It’s already begun about six months before. I’ll work with my agent and we tried to think about when the races were. For example, August 24 is when the final is and you just work down from there. Normally, a few weeks out, I like to have a big race to test myself and go back to training camp to focus more. Leading up to the Olympics, you want about four to five races to test yourself, see where you are, and see what you’re missing. From there, the feedback you get, you just tune it in. You want to make sure you have the right way, the right training, endurance, and speed, and cover everything. 

As far as the eating goes, do you change up just how much you’re eating during that process? 

Yes, you have to. Leading up to it, about six months out, you can’t be at your race weight. When it comes to the Olympic final, I want to be about 55 kilos [121 pounds], have good muscle and be fine tuned. As you build up the mileage, you lose a bit more weight. You want make sure you’re going to the gym for your strength. It’s almost like each week, you’re focusing on something different. I’m a runner, so I don’t want to put on a lot of weight but leading up to it, you’re not really in race mode if that makes sense. You’ll do a few races to see where you are, you work from there and you keep going towards your goal. 

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For marathon training, what are you upping your mileage to per week?

I’m a 5-10K guy, so going to a marathon, which is 26.2 miles—is a big jump. That’s when what I’ve learned over the years helps. You’re slowly building the mileage and more intervals. For example, when you turn up on the tracks, you’re doing 20 x 400. You’re doing about 12 times a kilometer.  

[For the marathon,] It’s more longer repeats but it was all a learning curve for me, honestly. When I did step up to marathons, it was nice to be able to win a major marathon in Chicago and finish third in London. It’s still a learning process and it’s really important that you do look out for your body, stretch well, make sure you get full recovery and do the little extra things on the side. That helps you be a little bit injury free because there are days that you wake up and say I did a 24-mile long run on Sunday, and on Monday, my body is still tired. That’s where the recovery is needed to give you that bit of balance. 

For example, on Sunday when I finished my long run, I make sure I eat within the first 20 minutes. And afterward, you go: What can I do to recover? So I’ll get into the JetBoots and that helps you because they’re flushing out all of the toxic and your legs are tense from the run. 

Even for the elite runners, I still imagine there’s a point where it becomes mental. What do you focus on to take your thoughts off of how many more kilometers are left?

It’s all about the preparation. If you prepared well during the 100-mile weeks and months, that’s what gives you the confidence and belief to be able to say “it’s just a race.” If my legs can do this amount of miles for weeks and weeks, and I’ve done all this other training, the racing part is the easy part. You think about what you’ve done in training and what gives you the confidence is what you’ve done week in, week out.

 For me, when things do get tough, I try and think back to memorable moments, winning the Olympics in 2012 — Rio. You look back at those moments and you go “wow!” You gotta enjoy it, and gotta believe it. When people ask me what can I do — keep learning and keep grafting. It’s OK to make mistakes in races, but what do you learn from that? Take it back, try and correct it, and keep moving forward. 

What’s it like to see your daughter following a similar path as you in starting in cross country?

Oh God, it was a proud moment for me. My kids are all different and I try and support them in whichever way they want to go in—whether it’s sports or music. I’ve got twin girls and one wanted to join the athletics club, so I signed her up. When I signed her up, I saw how she was loving it. I just try and help them out, whether that’s talking with them, or encouraging them. As much as I would love them to become runners, a child is going to become what they want to become. As parents, it’s about supporting them and making them realize that you have the talent, but you’ve got to be willing to work hard. When she did cross country? That was the journey I took when I was a kid. Her taking that same step—I was just proud of her because I took that same journey and this is her choice. I was just on the side, trying to take pictures, running alongside her, and encouraging her. It’s just incredible and I’m just proud. 

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Can you take me through your routine for a track performance and day of a marathon? 

For a marathon, you race in the early morning, so marathon and track would be totally different. For a marathon, the day before, you want to do a little jog, a little stretch, and just be loose. At night, you try and sleep but you can’t because you’re thinking about the race and what’s going to happen. You get your drinks made and normally what I do, You get done with those later in the afternoon. In the morning, you wake up three to four hours before the race and you try and eat good food. Normally, I have some toast, porridge, and hydrate myself. Normally, you have a nine o’clock start depending on which marathon it is. Two hours before, you want to go on that bus and once you get off, everything is done. You just want to warm up a bit and race. 

On the track, it’s slightly different because you’re competing in the evening. So if I’m competing in the track, I’ll wake up in the morning, have a bit of breakfast, go out for a run, come back, shave my head, rest up, and hydrate. I’ll get a good lunch, a couple of hours of sleep and then you go off. 

You mentioned eating 20 minutes after a run. What are you putting in your system? 

You want protein just to make sure the muscles can recover. I try and have a protein drink made for me and I’ll have that 20 minutes after the race and maybe a banana. There’s a reason why they say the first 20 minutes because your body needs that fuel. If you don’t have that in the first 20 minutes, it’s not sufficient. You will still recover but not straightaway. 

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