Meb Keflezighi Talks Rest And Recovery

The following article is borrowed from AskMen.Com covering MehKeflezighi, an Eritrean-born American long distance runner who has won multiple Olympic medals for the United States.

What especially resonated with me from the article was the resilience that he showed in not knowing if he would ever have another shot at making the Olympics, resilience in dealing with sponsorships, and the fact that he knew and felt that he was ‘born’ to run.

"Breath a little bit harder. If you breath harder, the competition will think you are hurting and decide to make a move. And then when they make a move and have exhausted themselves, since you're faking it, you can take over."

Meb Keflezighi has come a long way since fleeing East Africa. When he arrived in the U.S. and ran his first race, his teacher asked him if he wanted to go to the Olympics one day. He couldn’t answer because he didn’t speak English and didn’t know what the Olympics were. Now, he’s prepping for his fourth Olympic Games.

Yes, it’s been a very long journey, 100,000 miles to be exact.

Keflezighi is now 40 years old and will be 41 during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He will be oldest athlete from the USA to complete an Olympic marathon.

“Oldest” is a world he’s been hearing a lot lately; Keflezighi recently became the oldest U.S. athlete to qualify for an Olympic marathon. In 2014, he became the oldest person to win the Boston Marathon in over 80 years. And the list goes on.

Let’s forget age for a second. Keflezighi is also the only athlete in history to win the New York Marathon, the Boston Marathon and an Olympic Medal. On top of that, he’s won 22 national championships. He’s one of the most accomplished runners out there, and all folks can talk about is his age.

So, is all of this getting... old? Nope, not even constantly being made aware of his aging body. And definitely not the running. “I’ve run 100,000 miles in my life, and I still miss it sometimes,” Keflezighi told AskMen at an event for KT Tape as they launched a new line of products for athlete training and support.

While his love of the sport is undying, his body is…well…not. He’s perfectly aware of the fact that he can’t do this forever, which is why he has a plan.

It’s official: The multiple medal-bearing runner will stop competing when he is 42, read on to find out why. And for crying out loud, stop asking him if he’s going to “slow down” anytime soon.

AskMen: What’s it like being the “oldest runner” in so many categories? What’s your response when you hear the constant comments about your age? 

Meb Keflezighi: At 40, the pressure’s supposed to be off but people still expect me to perform and I put a lot of pressure on myself—I like to compete. I don't look at age, I just try to have fun with it.

AM: So when do you see yourself slowing down?

MK: I have a goal. I'm going to stop running marathons competitively once I’ve run 26 marathons—symbolizing the 26 miles in a marathon. I've done 23, Rio will be my 24th marathon, and I’ll do 2 more marathons after that competitively. I'll be 42 by next year, and that’s for the length in kilometers. So that's the goal. Twenty-six marathons by 42, I was obviously meant to be a marathoner. After that I’ll run marathons once in a while, maybe once a year. Maybe I’ll do the marathons I want to do, but not to place. I've done enough of that, I think.

AM: When did you make that decision?

MK: I made the decision about a year ago. Competitively, I got what I want. This sport has done some amazing things for me.  But I will be able to pace people and help others. I’ll do more clinics and speaking engagements but the end of the competitiveness is very close.

AM: What does that feel like, knowing it’s so close? Is it bittersweet?

MK: I'm excited for it because I’ve accomplished all that I wanted to accomplish as an athlete and very few people can say that. So, I've been very fortunate and I'm living on my terms as opposed to 2008 when I didn't make the team because I had a stress fracture. I knew I didn't want to go out like that. Now I'm 40, and I’ve made the team again.

AM: How does your training and performance change as you get older?

MK: My nutrition has changed a lot; I used to eat anything and everything and I was OK with it but now I have to eat whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, and wheat bread. I can’t have big meals anymore; I pace myself throughout the day. If I'm at home, I always have fruit with my daughters as snacks. Also, I do a nine-day cycle, now. I used to do a seven-day cycle. I have to give myself more recovery time in between.

As I get older I tell my wife that I should take one day off every two weeks or three weeks but it's hard to do it because you’re used to this regimen, that routine. It would probably be good to take a day off; I need to do that. I feel like I should ease down a little, but I'm too competitive.

AM: What advice would you give to aging athletes who feel pressured to pull back?

MK: As you become older, tools like KT tape become really useful in supporting those muscles, because as you age, those tendons, ligaments and muscles can get a little bit irritated. Taping allows you to not miss days. Cross training is important, too. I used to run consistently, now­—I’d rather take one day off from running than miss a whole race. Of course, taking a day off is hard for us runners to do because we have type-A personalities and we want to GO. You have to be able to take ample time off, especially after a marathon. Take two weeks off!

AM: What advice would you give to beginner runners?

MK: Even if you have to run, walk, run, walk, that's OK. If you have injuries or are sore, use the KT tape. It always aids—it supports the muscles, tendons, and ligaments.

Also, people think they have to run hard every single day, that they have to huff and puff. Easy days are easy. Hard days are hard. When you run, start slowly, let the muscles wake up. All the work you've done, you’ll jeopardize it if you push too hard. You want to finish strong.

AM: Do you think running is something you have to start young or something that people can pick it up later in life?

MK: Absolutely, they can pick it up later in life. In fact, I really am not a big fan of running mega miles at a young age because of the bone growth and the bone density. I think a mile, 2 miles, a 5k — those are fine after the age of 13. My girls did a 5k this weekend to fundraise for their school, because they wanted to do it, I wouldn't be like, “oh let's do a 5k.” I know people whose parents have done that and they never made it. They were equally or more talented than I was as a kid but their parents were running vicariously through them.

I was talking with President Jim Carter when I was invited to the White House for dinner. He was 80 and he told me he ran 7 miles four times a week until he was like 76 years old. And he cross-trained. You have to start slow if you want to do this for the rest of your life. And the longevity of it is what’s going to make you happier and healthier

AM: What has been the most inspiring moment of your career so far?

MK: People have expressed to me how I've changed their lives. I was in Tampa, Florida, and a lady said she saw me run there in 2005. And she goes, "that day changed my life." That was the first day she walked after a heart surgery. Another person did a 5k, she was paralyzed on her left side and she told me, "I did the marathon be cause of you." There are cancers survivors. You hear those things, and you realize you do touch people through running. It's been very gratifying.

AM: What’s been the most difficult time in your career?

MK: Mentally, physically and emotionally, the hardest was the 2008 trials. I was at my peak; I got second in New York, third in New York, third in Boston. I was like, I gotta make the U.S. team. I was the favorite. I was hoping to get another medal in Beijing but you don't always get what you want. I had a pelvic stress fracture, I couldn't stand the way I am standing right now—I didn't fall, I didn't know what the injury was. I was crawling like a baby just to go the bathroom, to pack. That was tough. Then, I lost my good friend Ryan Shay. I considered retiring. I wanted to stop and I remember that Christmas of 2008 talking to my brothers and saying, “this might be the time that I need you guys more than ever because I am going to make that transition and that's not an easy transition when you've been running all of your life.” But I’m glad I didn’t. It's almost 10 years later; New York wouldn’t have happened, Boston wouldn’t have happened, the Olympic Games wouldn’t have happened. And I’m going to another Olympics since that. I’m proud that I never gave up.

When I lost my shoe sponsor in 2011, that was hard, too, but I asked myself, “would I still be running if I didn't have this sponsor?” I said yes, now I have 12 sponsors.

AM: How do you get through hurdles? No pun intended.

MK: When you go through a rough patch, you gotta know who your friends are, who your support system is. More importantly, you need to know whoyou are and what you are made of because we all have disappointments or injuries in life and in athletics, and how you get out of that is the most important thing. In 2008, I was like this is it. That was the deepest point in my career. But I dug deeper into myself and realized that what I had built over the years, it was huge. I knew there was more than pain.

AM: What kind of tools do you always have in your back pocket as a runner?

MK: I’ve been using KT Tape for a while. I used it in Boston in 2010 when I had tendonitis. I also fell twice on the ice training for it. I don't think I would have made it through the training or the race without it.

In fact two weeks before this trial my posterior tibialis got inflamed right in the center, I had to get an ultrasound. And to support the tendon I had to tape it. It's nice to have it handy because anything can happen in an instant. What’s great is that you can sleep with this or wear it under pants. I wore it under slacks to a dinner.

AM: The 2016 Olympics are around the corner. What are you looking forward to the most?

MK: I am getting excited for the competition itself. But Sydney, my first Olympics (in 2000), was a lot of fun, it was before 9/11 and as long as you showed your badge you'd be able to just tour everything you wanted. But 9/11 changed a lot.

Either way, I look forward to doing a lot with my family in Rio. We’ll watch a lot of the competition as well. It's like a family event.

AM: What’s the best/worst part of the Olympic Games?

MK: The best part is meeting other people from different countries and cities; you go into the Olympic village and there are so many different cultures around. The bad part is, it's very restricted. So if I say, “hey I want to get my daughters and my wife in,” you can't just do that. You might get two or three passes. So you can't just say, “hey, just come to the village.” It's very restricted, that's the worst part of it. And sometimes politics get involved in it, and that shouldn't happen. It's every four years, let's get along.

AM: What’s one of your racing tricks?

MK: Breath a little bit harder. If you breath harder, the competition will think you are hurting and decide to make a move. And then when they make a move and have exhausted themselves, since you're faking it, you can take over.

AM: What’s one thing men should be doing to stay healthy at any age?

MK: Stretch. If you don't stretch when you're young, you can get away with it. But the more flexible you are right now, the more mobility you will have later on.