Vinny Mauri has become one of the most intriguing names in the American marathon scene. In a wide-ranging feature by Jonathan Gault on LetsRun.com, the journalist looks at the American’s preparation for the Chicago Marathon, a buildup of miles and quality sessions that is hard to compare with those of other elite runners.
Mauri, 25, had already astonished in April with a 2:05:54 at the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, a race he ran solo and without pacers. It was the fastest marathon debut by an American and, at that moment, placed him as the fourth-fastest American ever. Now, barely six months later, he will tackle his second marathon in Chicago this October 11.
But what he has done between one race and another is even more remarkable. During his last ten weeks of preparation he has logged 1,223 miles (1,968 km) at an average pace of 3:30 per kilometer, since his warmups, cooldowns and rests between intervals are always at speeds close to 3:40 min/km. His weekly volume has averaged about 122 miles per week (196 km).
45 Miles of Quality in a Day
One of the workouts that has drawn the most attention arrived on September 8. Mauri completed 45 miles (72.4 km) in a single day, including 36 miles (57.9 km) of specific work at an average of 3:04/km.
Over four consecutive Tuesdays he carried out sessions with enormous load. In all of them he exceeded 36 kilometers, with at least 27 kilometers at speeds of 3:04/km or faster. He has also turned long runs into genuine experiments. For example, on August 30 he ran 48.9 km at 3:07/km.
The peculiarity is that a large portion of these workouts are carried out on Planet Fitness treadmills in Ohio. Mauri explains that the treadmill allows him to control the pace perfectly and avoid weather conditions, but he also acknowledges that it helps him manage his tendency to speeds up when running outdoors.
Moreover, the machines he uses have a maximum speed of 20.0 km per hour, equivalent to 3:00/km, so to accumulate large amounts of fast work he must stretch the sessions.
Another Beast of a Training Session
And there are more examples of the scale of this preparation. In a Strava post, this time on asphalt, Mauri completed 42.45 kilometers in 2:17:31, at an average pace of 3:14/km. The workout consisted of two kilometers of warmup, 10 repetitions of a fast mile and a recovery, followed by two even faster miles. The first nine fast miles came out around 3:01/km while the recovery ones were raced at 3:25–3:30/km. The culmination came in the last four miles, with the fast segments at 4:30 and 4:25 (2:48 and 2:45/km) and the slow ones at 3:20 and 3:17/km. The session was so demanding that Mauri ended up vomiting on the last repetition, but he described the workout as a fantastic day and said the paces were coming out better than he could have imagined.
Will It Show in the Chicago Marathon?
Mauri himself acknowledges that this kind of training is not sustainable in the long term. His plan is to take advantage of the momentum after already achieving an extraordinary result in Toledo.
The big question is how much of that preparation he will be able to translate to Chicago. CJ Albertson, another American specialist in massive treadmill workouts, considers Mauri’s work exceptional, though warns that treadmill running and outdoor running are not exactly equivalent.
Chicago’s scenario, however, will be completely different from his debut: a fast course, top-level rivals and pacers. Conner Mantz holds the American record at 2:04:43, and Mauri has stated that if a group forms to chase that mark, he will be willing to follow it.
He himself avoids setting a concrete target. He only insists that he arrives in Chicago in a physical condition superior to what he had before running 2:05:54.
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Dylan Holloway