Welcome to The Runner Diaries, where we’re sharing a behind-the-scenes look into a week of training with runners of varying ages, paces and GPS coordinates. Get The Runner Diaries delivered to your inbox, here.

This installment is special for two reasons:

1. It includes the training regime of 2X Olympic Marathon Runner and American Record Holder, Ryan Hall
2. It’s a condensed week, featuring just 48 hours of Ryan’s training and home life

Luckily, I had a chance to catch up with the 2x Olympic Marathon Runner and American Record Holder before he started logging his workouts, so here’s some background information to make up for the remaining five days:

The former professional runner admits that most of his “running goals” these days are actually not for himself, but for others — he coaches a high school cross country team, as well as his wife, professional runner Sara Hall (who just finished the Frankfurt Marathon with a PB of 2:27:21). While the retired long distance runner still holds the U.S. record  for the half marathon (59:43), his fitness priorities have shifted to the weight room since retiring. Today, he’s more interested and focused on being able to bench press and deadlift 400lbs than breaking any running record, but he still gets outside roughly three times a week — often running with his wife on her “easy” training days and doing the occasional hill sprint workout to increase his power output.

This new focus has given him a unique, firsthand perspective of the contrast between elite running and strength-focused training.

“This is very much a solo journey that I’m on,” Ryan explained to me over the phone after just returning home from The Runner’s World Half Marathon and Festival, which he attended with Sara and their four daughters. “I have a weight set that I put together in the garage — I call it my ‘mad scientist garage of weight training’ — and a bunch of different workout ideas and goals, but I have no plans to compete. I just like competing against myself and seeing what I can do, tracking my own progress.”

Hall, who now weighs about 50lbs heavier than he did during his professional running days, has an entirely new fueling strategy (“I’m eating more calories than I’m burning, which is a lot more fun!”). His diet today consists of “clean calories” — 40 percent macros/protein, 40 percent carbohydrates, and 20 percent fat. As a professional runner, his diet was once 70 percent carb-based, 15 percent macros/protein, and 15 percent fat.  Continue reading “The Runner Diaries — Ryan Hall” →