Elevating American Distance Running: Ben Rosario - 2020-12-23

Elevating American Distance Running: Ben Rosario 


Ben Rosario is the head coach of the HOKA Northern Arizona Elite.
His athletes have been wildly successful in recent years, with
the most notable being Aliphine Tuliamuk's win at the 2020 US
Olympic Trials. His athletes Stephanie Bruce and Kellyn Taylor
also finished in the top ten of that race, and on the men's side,
Scott Fauble, a 2:09 marathoner, came in 12th.


 


In this episode, Coach Claire talks to Ben about the Olympic
Marathon Trials, focusing on how well his female athletes did,
how HOKA NAZ treats female athletes, especially in light of the
Nike Oregon Project, and why he thinks so many female runners are
still posting PRs well into their 30s.  Ben also shares some
great coaching advice, his training philosophy, and his insight
into why so many world records have been posted during
COVID. 


 


At the time of this recording, Ben was preparing for The Marathon
Project held on December 20. Coach Claire asks Ben for his
predictions and will post the results here in the show notes
following the race.


Like many coaches, Ben started out as an accomplished runner
himself as a member of the Hansons Brooks team and he competed in
the Olympic Trials twice before turning to coaching full
time. 


In his six+ years with Northern Arizona Elite, Ben’s athletes
have won U.S. National Titles in cross country and on the roads
at 10k, the half marathon and the 25k, as well as New Zealand
National Titles on the track and the roads. 


HOKA NAZ Elite athletes have recorded 8 top-10 finishes at World
Marathon Majors.The team has been represented at the World Cross
Country Championships, the World Half Marathon Championships, and
at the World Track and Field Championships. 


His athletes have also competed at the European Athletics
Championships, the Great Edinburgh International XC Meet, the
NACAC Cross Country Championships, the NACAC Track Championships,
the Pan American Cup Cross Country Meet and the Pan American
Games. 


In 2016, the team produced two sixth-place finishes at the
Olympic Trials Marathon and two fourth-place finishes in the
10,000 meters at the Olympic Track and Field Trials. At the 2020
Olympic Marathon Trials, four HOKA NAZ Elite athletes posted top
20 finishes, including three in the top eight in the women’s race
led by Aliphine Tuliamuk–the Trials Champion. 


 


Questions Ben is asked:


4:19 2020 has been pretty crazy for everyone in the world but
specifically for the team that you lead, Northern Arizona Elite.
Let's go back in time to February when you were getting ready for
the Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta. Can you take us back
there and recap what you were thinking?


 


5:10 Atlanta is a pretty tough course with all the hills.
Obviously that was not a problem for at least your female
athletes.


 


5:28 Your athlete, Aliphine Tuliamuk, won the women's race and
was planning to head to Tokyo when the world shut down. What was
that like as her coach?


 


6:41 I would love to talk to you about Aliphine Tuliamuk’s recent
announcement that she is pregnant and due in January. As her
coach, I’m sure she came to you and said, “Hey, Ben, this is what
I’m going to do.” What was that conversation like? 


 


7:26 How tough was it keeping Aliphine’s pregnancy a secret?


 


8:33 You are quite experienced in elite mom runners. Several
women on your team are moms and are still just killing it. I
would love to talk about Kellyn Taylor, Stephanie Bruce. I would
love to talk about Stephanie for a minute. She is almost 37 years
old and still getting PRs in the 10K. How is that possible?


 


10:14 It didn’t used to be so long ago that mid-30s was old for a
runner but now that’s not the case, and I think maybe it has
something to do with belief, too, seeing all these new great
examples.


 


11:06 I want to keep going back to the women because you have
been coaching some really great ones obviously, and American
women are seeing a resurgence in endurance running. American men
maybe not so much. Would you want to talk about that?


 


12:32 I want to talk to you about how women are treated in this
sport. We’ve all heard about the crazy things with the Nike
Oregon Project and how Kara Goucher was treated when she was
pregnant. I don’t think that it’s going to be the same story with
Hoka. I would love to have you share what you could say about how
Hoka supports its female athletes.


 


15:06 I think you’re right that when all that came out about the
Oregon Project that we thought as fans, “Oh. This is the way
they’re all treated.” But it’s great to hear that that’s not the
case.


 


15:34 Whenever I get a coach on, I love to talk about coaching
advice to hopefully help someone who’s listening become a better
runner. Do you have different training approaches for the kids
who come straight out of college than you do for your veteran
elite runners?


 


17:03 Let’s talk in a little bit more detail about the training
advice. Most runners get the advice hard days are hard; easy days
are easy. But then you throw in some medium days. I think that’s
where a lot of recreational runners trip up is those medium days.
Can you talk about those and what they’re for and how you use
them?


 


19:22 You don’t always have to run your hardest, right?


 


20:11 You're also a fan of high mileage and I want to know what
that means to you because as runners we all want to run as much
as possible but clearly there’s a point when high is too high. So
what is that point? Obviously it’s individual, but how does
somebody know what is high for them? Where’s that sweet spot?


 


22:51 Besides your athletes, this year we've seen so many
world-record breaking performances in 2020, which seems
counterintuitive since there have been so few races, the world is
not normal, and people can’t train the way they usually do. What
do you attribute that to?  


 


24:14 I’m sure the cynics would say the number of world-record
breaking performances in 2020 are because of the shoes or because
there’s not enough drug tests in COVID. What do you say about
those kinds of things?


 


25:25 So you think there should be regulations on running shoes
like them being available to the public or there’s a stack
height, that kind of stuff; is that what you mean?


 


27:00 What's next for you and your athletes?  How do you
predict the running world will change in 2020?  


 


28:29 This will probably air after the Marathon Project this
weekend, but I would love to have you handicap it a little bit,
tell us who’s all racing and what do you predict?


 


31:40 How many participants are there for the marathon?






Questions I Ask Everyone:


 


32:17 If you could go back and talk to yourself when you started
running, what advice would you give?


 


33:31 What is the greatest gift running has given you? 


 


33:56 Where can listeners connect with you?
Quotes by Ben:

“I think what we’re learning is that women can run really well
into their mid-to-late 30s, and we’re learning that not only from
Steph but Shalane, Des, Kellyn, Molly Huddle; all kinds of women
in the US and beyond are showing that in distance running, women
keep getting better.”


 


“In general, my goal anyway is to keep people around here for a
really long time. So we’re definitely taking a long-term approach
and we’re not trying to necessarily throw everything at them
right away. We’re trying to slowly add pieces over time, and you
see that with the folks who have stayed with us for a long time
just getting better and better and better and better, and that’s
what we want.” 


 


“I think uninterrupted training leads to great performances for
anybody at any level.”


 


“The sport has a side to it now that is very technological. And
so does golf. And so does swimming. And so does baseball, right?
And every sport almost. And like all those other sports, we need
to make sure that the playing field is fair.”






Take a Listen on Your Next Run


 


 


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Mentioned in this podcast: 

The Marathon Project


Runners Connect Winner's Circle Facebook Community


RunnersConnect Facebook page


claire@runnersconnect.net


https://www.precisionhydration.com/






Follow Ben on:


NAZ Elites on Instagram


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