NAZ Elite This Week: Marathoners making final training push for Olympic Trials – Arizona Daily Sun

Head coach Ben Rosario can’t wait to put those legs to the test again as the six marathoners enter the final stretch of training before the big 26.2-mile race in Atlanta on Feb. 29.

“We’re focused on three or four really good workouts coming home here, and feeling poppy and ready to go as we get close to the race,” Rosario said Tuesday over the phone.

The preparation for a marathon is similar to the event itself in many ways. A runner has to endure the mental and physical ups and downs of workout segments before taking them on in one race.

For instance, Rosario put his half dozen through a hard burnout workout right after subjecting them to a grueling block of difficult runs. He had them do a 15×1-mile workout to test the legs and the minds.

“That mirrors the race,” Rosario said. “You have to be patient early, you have to have moments of extreme focus. Hopefully if you are doing it right, you are doling out your energy over the course of that training segment to where you are at your very best at the end – which is what you want to have for the race.”

To help get his athletes through the long months of training, Rosario reminds them of an old adage.

“Just take things one day at a time,” he said.

He added: “You have to emphasize the little things. You have to put an importance on nutrition, and sleep and recovery and weights, and the ancillary things that can make you the best runner you can be. That way each and every day you feel like you are doing something that’s really vital. If you don’t do that, then these periods of time when you are just training can seem very monotonous, and they can seem, I guess for lack of a better term, boring.”

The six marathoners even received a bit of an energy boost from a teammate this weekend when rookie Matt Baxter set a new team and New Zealand record in the 5,000-meter event at 13:27.61.

Baxter finished in fourth place overall at Friday’s Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic.

“That was a great day and pumped everyone up including the marathoners,” Rosario said.

Baxter wasn’t as fit for the race as he expects to be in the near future, as he chases the Olympic standard of 13:25 in the event. But he raced hard and took chances, two things NAZ Elite runners strive for in each outing.

“Risk-taking is a vital element if you want to have a big performance, and they saw that,” Rosario said.

NAZ Elite will be represented by Stephanie Bruce, Kellyn Taylor and Aliphine Tuliamuk on the women’s side for the Marathon Trials, while Scott Smith, Scott Fauble and Sid Vaughn are set to represent the men’s side.

They’ve all seen their share of races that require a big performance.

Only Vaughn will be a first-timer when it comes to competing in an Olympic Trial of any distance. Meanwhile, Bruce, Taylor and Smith have all competed in a past Olympics Marathon Trial.

Rosario said it’s safe to say the intensity for the upcoming marathon is higher considering the increased stakes.

“It’s just human nature,” Rosario said. “It’s not like this is totally foreign to them, however. I think when the runners are training for a big national championship or a big World Major Marathon, I think they experience this level of intensity, so I don’t think it’s brand new, but it is a high level of intensity and focus when the light at the end of the tunnel is so bright.”

With five of the six NAZ Elite marathoners in the top 15 of the women and men’s marathon performance lists heading to the Trials — and chances to qualify for the 26.2-mile race now over — the light looks pretty bright in February.