Professional runner and running coach Nell Rojas shares her insights into racing and coaching athletes for marathons, including the Boston Marathon, using a balance of art and science.
Nell Rojas is a professional marathon runner and running coach. She attended Northern Arizona University, where she studied exercise science and competed in cross country and track. Nell ran her first marathon in 2018 and became the top American finisher in the Boston Marathon in 2021 and 2022. Additionally, she finished 10th at the 2022 New York City Marathon.
Nell has achieved remarkable success as an American marathon runner, securing top American finishes at the 2021 and 2022 Boston Marathons, a top 10 finish at the 2022 New York City Marathon, and competing in the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials. She has also claimed a 10-mile US Championship title and won Grandma’s Marathon.
Beyond her athletic accomplishments, Nell advocates for inclusivity within the running community, focusing on empowering people of color and women. With 20 years of coaching experience, she is dedicated to helping athletes of all abilities achieve their own running goals.
Standout Quotes
“It’s really fun to work with a runner who doesn’t understand that they can do things.”
Coaching Different Types of Runners
How She Builds Periodization of a Training Plan: “I do like the gradual trend from general to specific when you’re training for a race, and that doesn’t mean it’s just general to specific. It means, like, it’s mostly general to mostly specific with things added in. So Yeah. I like I like coming off a speed block before a marathon build. So, you know, you’re raising your ceiling during this speed speed block. You’re really making room for that threshold to get higher.
And also feel comfortable — just have a little bit more room in there. And then, I like to touch on speed every two weeks during a marathon plan for a couple of different reasons. First of all, every two weeks, I write in a high-quality long run. Right? So that means 20-plus miles with marathon pace sprinkled in different ways. You can’t just hit marathon pace all the time. You can’t just hit threshold pace all the time.”
Addressing if Coaching is More Art or Science: “I would say the science is built into the art if that makes sense. Like when you come from a background, I’m also an exercise physiology major. I study a lot of science, especially after college when I was getting into coaching. I just devoured every single book there is out there, about the science of the physiology of running. But I would say once that’s ingrained, this the science is in the art.
But when we’re talking age group runners, it truly becomes an art. And the reason is because you’re thinking about how stressed they are because their family is, you know, they have three kids, and you know what’s going on with their kids. You’re thinking about time. You’re thinking about how much they can recover with this huge schedule with their full-time job and kids. You’re thinking about how they only have eight miles on weekdays to get in a run. So, like, where’s the biggest bang for my buck here?”
“My goal as a coach, is to teach people how to intuitively run. Right? And that’s a huge difference between a professional runner and someone who started running late in life.”
Coaching Atheltes Beyond Just Numbers
On How She Integrates Testing Into Coaching: “Basically, it’s just races. I don’t do any, like lactate threshold or blood tests. And I do say, if you want to get one, here’s my experience with them. I’ve had good experiences, and I’ve had bad experiences. And the hardest part about getting testing is that then taking the information that you did on the treadmill and implementing it in your trading plan. Because I’ve had some ludicrous people be like, well, he told me I should run at 12:30 pace to keep my heart [rate low.] And I’m like, no.”
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