Even when you’re one of the best U.S. distance runners ever, a little downtime goes a long way. Two-time Olympic medalist Galen Rupp has been recovering hard since his last race, October’s Chicago Marathon, where he placed second. (It was a huge mental boost for him after coming in a disappointing eighth in the Olympic Marathon just a few weeks prior.) Now fully recharged, he’s looking to build on his Chicago performance when he competes against a loaded professional field on March 20 in the United Airlines NYC Half. The event had been canceled the previous two years and Rupp isn’t looking to just ease his way back into the swing of things.

“I’m at a point now where I’m trying to win,” Rupp said. “Obviously, there needs to be a long-term goal in it, but when I enter something, it’s with the goal of winning it and running well." 

We spoke with the four-time Olympian to discuss his approach to marathon running, remaining present, and how his training and nutrition has changed as he’s gotten older.

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: How good did it feel to close the year out on a high note in Chicago?

Galen Rupp: It was a really positive race for me. I kind of needed it just for my own mental state. It had been a while since I had run that fast after having a pretty major surgery [on his Achilles in 2019]. The Olympics didn’t go how I would’ve hoped, so to bounce back and run a 2:06 and be right there contending for the win in the end—it was a positive step forward for me. I’m really hoping to build on that in 2022. I’m pumped to be getting ready for New York. It’s going to be fun.

Where are you at in terms of your training?

I’m back in pretty hard training right now. After Chicago, I took a good three to four weeks really easy. I might have run three days a week but only 20 minutes, very slow, just to get my legs moving a bit. We built up slowly and targeted mid-December for when we really needed to start ramping up and getting ready for the spring season. I kept my mileage lower these last several months and will keep it lower due to this being a half. It’s right around 100 miles a week—a little less than what I would do for a normal marathon. With not running a marathon this spring, I wanted to really take advantage of this time, do a little less volume, and save my body a little bit of that pounding, but also really focus on the speedwork. A half marathon is a shorter distance than what I normally run, and I really tried to work on getting more efficient at running faster paces. 

How do you mentally take a break from running?

I just trying to be totally present in whatever I’m doing, whether that’s training, working out. It’s getting the most out of that. Certainly, there’s a time where you should be thinking about how this workout, practice, or session is going to help you compete in the long run, but when it’s time to go home and I’m around my kids, I don’t want to be thinking about something else. I want to be completely present with them. It’s really the greatest thing for me because I can come back after a good or bad day and they’re going to love me the same way. They will still always have smiles on their faces and want to play around when I get home. It’s really the best distraction and it’s easy to not think about running when I’m around them.

How do you mentally break down a full marathon?

For a full marathon, I would say for at least the first half of that race, I’m 100 percent focused on relaxing. It becomes a game: How easy can you get to halfway? You don’t want to spend any extra energy mentally or physically. Obviously, in the beginning, you want to make sure you settle into a pace and get to where you want to be within the pack. I pray a lot when I run a marathon. I find that’s a good way for me to keep my mind calm and to help pass the time. I don’t want to be worrying about little moves or little things early in the race. 

The racing doesn’t really start until about 18 to 20 miles in. Most marathons aren’t won before that. It’s so easy to get caught up in the excitement. You feel good early on in a marathon because the pace is relatively slower—you have to really temper down that urge to push and press because any bit that you can save early on is going to pay huge dividends late in the race.

I always kind of break it down like that and I joke around about being a ghost for the first half of the race, where you’re not really seeing me and I’m in the back of the pack and totally relaxed. The longer the race goes, that’s when you kind of start to build yourself up and get amped up because there is going to be a big boom and you have to be ready for it. When it starts to hurt right after halfway, those miles from 13-20 can feel like an eternity, because the initial excitement is worn off and you usually don’t feel all that great, but you still have a hell of a long way to run. You have to really be in control of your mind. All you can do is focus on trying to stay present and getting through small goals along the way.

What are some things you do get your mind off the hurt? 

I’ve counted water stations, which are usually every 5K. I’ve counted mile markers. I’ve even counted street posts at times when I’m really hurting. Breaking it down to small things and just trusting your training at the end – that’s really all you can really fall back on. Whatever you need to to keep one step after the other, I think that’s the key in a full marathon. 

Do you apply the same principles with a half?

It does feel a lot shorter and faster, but the same principles apply. You really have to stay super relaxed through halfway. I always break races down in three phases: Relax, compete, and finish. There is going to be a part where you’ve got to compete and things are going to be tough, whether that’s with someone making a surge, competing with your own mind and then you always want to finish strong. No matter how dead you might feel, there’s usually always a little left in the tank. I’m a firm believer in your mind will always give up before your body does. If your body fails, you know you took it to the limit and you have no regrets. But most of the time, when you’re thinking of quitting, that’s your brain telling you that I’ve had enough of this pain, and you just have to keep pushing through. 

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Runners burn a lot of calories, so are you strict when it comes to dieting?

I’ve taken nutrition much more seriously as I’ve gotten older. The type of fuel that you’re putting into your body is so important. Not only fueling for a run, but also with recovery and how well your body can bounce back from a hard workout. Ultimately, you’re only as good as how hard you can train, and if you can bounce back quickly by having a good diet, it just becomes so important. 

I’m really conscious about drinking a ton of water. I try and drink a gallon a day. But I’ve always been big into moderation and I think it’s O.K. to not have a super-strict diet. I tried that, hated it, and it didn’t work for me to have every meal planned out. I just try to eat a lot of clean foods, and nothing really processed. I’m lucky because my wife is an unbelievable cook. She’s smart when it comes to nutrition. We eat a lot of whole grains, vegetables, and good meats. 

What’s something that’s hard to turn down?

I love pizza. It’s hard to pass up. You have to be more careful there because it’s easy to say if the fire is hot enough, it’ll burn anything.

How has training changed as you gotten older?

It took me a little bit, but just recognizing that you don’t have to repeat what you did in the past to still be successful and to still be able to run fast. I can’t recover like I could 10 years ago. I used to be able to bounce back from really hard efforts and be able to come back two to three days later and give another all-out effort. I think you still need to have those big workouts, but you have to be a bit more conscious of spacing them out and taking a little bit of a rest in between them. This is just my personal belief, but as a runner, the longer you’ve done it, your cardiovascular system keeps developing and it gets better with age. That’s why you see a lot of marathon runners can run really well in their late 30s and 40s and still have a ton of success.

As you get older, you have to do enough strength and aerobic work to keep that up. Doing stuff with weights, a lot of speed work, and really forcing your body to do a lot of that powerful training. Your body is always going to take the easiest way to do things, and oftentimes that means really sitting back with your stride, not having your hips way out in front of you. When you start only doing a lot of longer and slower intervals, inevitably your body and your form is going to get worse, so it becomes that much more imperative to continue to sprint, continue to lift weights, and do all those things to help keep your body young. 

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What’s your race day routine?

Marathons and road races are typically run early in the morning, which I hate—I’m more of a night owl. I always make sure I get up four hours beforehand and that’s when I’ll eat. I usually keep things pretty simple. I’ll have some plain waffles, or a bagel with some butter and jam—just really simple carbs that are going to give me some fuel but isn’t going to upset my stomach. I make sure I’m drinking water and hydrating that entire morning. With racing marathons, you want to make sure you have everything planned with your hydration and fluids for during the race. I think that’s a mistake a lot of people make. They don’t feel thirsty before and they feel like they don’t need to have anything, but usually when you start to feel thirsty, it’s too late. Your stomach can only absorb so much, and you want to stay on top of that early.

After the race, you want to make sure you get something in your system right afterward. Even if it’s just a protein bar or something simple. It’s important to try and eat within an hour or two of finishing, which I admit I’m not great at. That’s one of the things my wife stays on me about. I just don’t feel hungry afterward. I typically try and get a massage after that to flush everything out of my legs. I like contrast baths more than ice. I might do three minutes in this hot water, and just 30 seconds to a minute in as cold of water as I can stand. Oftentimes, I’ll try and take a nap. Sleep is the single biggest thing you can do for recovery. Everyone wants to get into all these modalities and fancy gadgets, but taking a nap is literally the greatest thing you can do for your body to recover.

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