199 - Running, overcoming challenges, and finding success | Ryan Hall

KEYPOINTS

• 01

  Hall grew up living high and training low before it was fashionable.

  In Big Bear, his father started a cross-country and track team just so he could run, driving down to sea level about twice a week for hard interval sessions before returning to altitude. Later, at about 7,000 ft, Hall could run 12–15 miles at 4:48 per mile — about marathon pace — yet gained less at sea level (4:40–4:42) than less-acclimatized runners like his wife Sara.

• 02

  Marathoners need real speed.

  Hall ran 50 seconds for 400 m in high school, but argues that top-end speed limited his 5,000 m potential, since elite men close the final lap in about 52. As a coach he wants athletes who can run 49 seconds for 400 m. His half-marathon pace of 4:33 per mile is 34 seconds per 200 m — speed Attia notes few people could hold for even half a mile.

• 03

  Power and strength matter for runners — he wishes he'd lifted better.

  Hall did 50-metre hill sprints twice a week during marathon training, but in hindsight didn't use his weight-room time well. Attia cites a strength coach who reportedly took an elite runner's deadlift from about 1.3 times bodyweight toward 2.7–3 times, and notes ground-contact times around 0.2–0.25 seconds reflect power.

• 04

  Progressive overload has many levers.

  Overload can mean more weight, sets or reps, or less rest. Hall has become fascinated with blood-flow-restriction training, using a fraction of the normal load — useful for injured runners.

• 05

  The record half marathon came out of nowhere.

  In 2007 he ran 59:43, obliterating the American half-marathon record by over a minute — despite having spent ages 13–23 focused on speed and the 5K, where his best was about 13:16. Middle miles at 4:32 and 4:28 'scared' him. He was suddenly 'America's great hope' for the 2008 Olympic marathon.

• 06

  Beijing taught pacing lessons.

  Expecting a slow, hot race, he started tentatively and had to work from about 60th to finish 10th.

• 07

  Boston 2011 was his best day.

  After a poor half marathon a month before, he floated through easy runs and ran 2:04:58 for fourth — at the time the fastest by an American — while the top two ran about 2:03, almost a minute under the then world record. The halfway split of 61:52 was so fast the organizer radioed that the clocks were wrong.

• 08

  Dropping too low in weight backfired.

  At 5'10", Hall's best racing weight was about 137 lb; below that he got worse, and he once hit 127. Between races he regained 10–12 lb to about 150, then reduced gradually over six months. Before London 2012, he did a one-week fast and dropped to 130 instead of rebounding, starting training depleted. His brothers walk around at 165–170, suggesting his natural weight.

• 09

  Elite endurance training wasn't optimal for health.

  His testosterone was clinically low every time he tested — around 150. Attia notes his own was in the low 200s through surgical residency.

• 10

  Identity outside performance sustained him.

  At Stanford, injured and not improving, Hall saw himself as a failure every morning. His faith reframed it: God sees him the way a parent sees a child, with love unrelated to performance. Being a better teammate became a focus too.

• 11

  Plantar fasciitis and a worn body ended his career.

  Plantar fasciitis began before the 2012 trials, persisted until his 2016 retirement, and he felt his body was saying it had been pounded with 100-mile weeks for 20 years.

• 12

  Elite marathon pace is almost unimaginably fast.

  Attia points out that a 4:42–4:48 mile pace is something almost no recreational runner could hold for 800 metres, let alone 26.2 miles. Hall predicts an official sub-two-hour marathon within our lifetime, noting a woman had just run about 62:50 for the half, and says that at any level, signing up for a race lets you share the experience with tens of thousands of others.