by Larry Eder
This is day four of Week Six in the 2022 RunBlogRun Summer Cross Country Mileage Program. RunBlogRun provides an eight-week summer training program and then a 21-week Fall Cross country training program.
Today we are writing about Galen Rupp. Galen is a four-time Olympian, with a silver medal in the 10,000m in London 2012 and a bronze medal in the marathon in Rio 2016. Galen has also competed in World Champs in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2015 over 10,000 meters.
Galen Rupp won the Olympic silver medal at the 10,000 meters in London 2012, as his then training partner, Mo Farah, took the Olympic gold at 10,000 meters. Galen Rupp came oh so close in the 10,000 meters, one of the toughest events on the track. 25 laps of racing near your threshold, then kicking like mad over the last 800 meters, and then kicking the last lap under 54 seconds is not a natural act. One must be highly trained to perform at the elite level, both physically and mentally.
I first watched Galen Rupp in 1995 at the AAU Champs in San Jose, California. At San Jose City College, Galen, then a high school junior, ran the 5,000 meters and took second. I watched Galen with a good buddy, Coach David Frank, who coached Galen at Central Catholic High School. David Frank was pretty excited about him.
Galen Rupp was a pretty good athlete in high school.
He truly developed in college, racing against some of the finest athletes in the world. His desire to excel came out, although Galen has always been a private person and is not a big social media fan.
He decided that he wanted to be world-class, and he has worked his butt off for twenty-plus years at that goal. His recent 19th place at the World Champs, with an injured back and a minute stop on the course, gives an idea of his drive. Galen Rupp will be competing at the 2022 NYC Marathon on 6 November 2022.
Check out my interview with Galen from last year: https://www.runblogrun.com/2021/02/socialing-the-distance-featuring-olympian-and-nike-sponsored-athlete-galen-rupp.html
Your workout for today, August 11, 2022, is warm-up, a 30-minute run, easy to finish hard, then,10 times 200m hill (should take about 90 seconds, these are tough hills), cooldown.
