Matthew Zelaya

HOW I RAN A 1:17:44 WHEN I WASNT TRAINING FOR THIS RACE⬇️

As we know I’ve been in a hyrox prep and have been averaging relatively lower mileage than I’m used to. The jump in the chart is the Boston marathon. Here’s how we (my coach is ) pulled this off without specifically training for it:

1️⃣ Bigger volume speed days
- of the 30 miles I ran per week, around 50-60% of those miles were quality speed work comprised of intervals, threshold efforts, and compromised running. The compromised running sessions (running on tired legs) teaches my body to run on tired legs and operate efficiently while flushing out lactic acid. That helps me negative split the back half like I did. Brooklyn half is known for the hills in prospect park - i didn’t train hills in these runs - i could’ve pushed hard on the hills because of the compromised training. Also note my longest runs were 10-11 miles and it was easy miles on tired legs - i never did a long run with quality work. Hyrox work also will raise my ceiling (vo2 max).

2️⃣ Durability from HYROX
- Constantly training under fatigue with strength work, compromised running, sleds, carries, and high heart rate efforts made my body more resilient. By race day, holding pace while uncomfortable felt normal instead of unfamiliar. I feel as if my legs have another level of endurance within them.

3️⃣ Other forms of aerobic endurance
- row, ski, bike. Spent a lot of time rotating between those 3 which is i think a big reason how i get to race day heathy because im still building my aerobic capacity while limiting impact on the joints

4️⃣ Mentality
- straight up, don’t be afraid to find out if the fires hot. Too many of you are and it holds you back. Go in a race, push the pedal down, and see what the body can do. I didn’t believe i could hit sub 1:18 coming into this race let along 1:18:30. How’d I do that? I knew the course. Coming off of mile 6 was a gradual net downhill to the finish and that’s where i felt each mile out and just kept dropping the hammer and getting faster. Even though in my mind, I didn’t think I’d be able to hold those paces. Just gave my body a chance

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50 mile PR coming in November

Matt zelaya remember the name