An Essential Workout from Olympian Marielle Hall
The 2016 Olympian in the 10,000 meters likes to compare her progress over the course of a training cycle with some 300-meter intervals. Here's how you can try it, too.
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A lot has changed for Marielle Hall since she competed in the 10,o00 meters at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Most significantly, she joined the Bowerman Track Club, based in Portland, Oregon, and has adjusted to the rigors of training with many of the nation’s top distance runners.
Hall, 29, has tried to master the right formula of mileage, intensity, and recovery as she prepares to attempt to make her second Games. Her personal best at the distance so far is 31:05, which she set at the 2019 world championships in Doha. She’ll face one of the deepest women’s fields ever assembled at the U.S.A. Track & Field Olympic Trials, scheduled to begin on June 18 in Eugene, Oregon. The top three finishers who also have run the Olympic standard (31:25) will go on to the Tokyo Olympics in August.
“I’m still figuring out when to do more mileage or less, or which phases of training are going to be most important for me,” Hall says. “And how all of it is going to apply to how I feel on race day. Am I doing too much? Or am I not doing enough? I’m working out that equation.”
Her 2019 world championships mark stood at No. 8 on the all-time fastest U.S. women’s list this winter, but the rankings are constantly being rewritten as the country’s growing talent collides with advances in shoe technology, leading to ever-faster performances. She also has the Olympic standard in the 5,000 meters (15:10), with a personal best of 15:02 set in 2019.
Here’s Hall’s go-to workout whens she wants to see how well her fitness is progressing. You can give it a try based on your own ability level and paces.
WHO: Marielle Hall, 29
WHAT: 10 x 300 meters with 30 seconds recovery between (if you’re really fit or experienced with speed work, increase the number up to 20 x 300 meters with 30 seconds recovery)
WHY: “It’s one of those workouts that we constantly revisit at different times, so you can really see progress from when you do it the first month of training versus when you do it at the end of a training block.”
DETAILS: This workout appears several times throughout the year for Hall, but you can adjust the number of reps based on your fitness level. The pace should be around your 5K race pace, though if you’re doing more reps, keep it to your 10K pace.