Matt Llano kicking to the finish of the LA Marathon last March. (photo: NAZElite.com)

With just one week remaining until the Berlin Marathon, Matt Llano is confident that a change of approach in training will provide immense value to the experience of running one of the fastest marathons in the world. 

 

“I would definitely say that this segment has been better than either Chicago or L.A.,” Llano said over the phone. “Overall I’ve been running more miles and hitting paces more comfortably, and we’ve kind of changed my approach to a lot of the workouts so my weekly schedule is a little bit different, just overall it’s been more quality.”

 

“I’m really excited to test all the work we’ve been putting in, and hopefully it’ll come together in Berlin,” Llano said. 

 

With only two marathon races to his name, the Northern Arizona Elite athlete is fairly new to the distance, but continues to improve with each 26.2 miles. 

His first experience was at the 2014 Chicago Marathon when he finished 24th overall after failing to take in enough fluids at the check-points. Llano was disappointed with his 2:17:43 debut, and yet hungry for another chance. The second chance came at the L.A. Marathon in March when Llano battled against Jared Ward for a U.S. Marathon title. Llano finished runner-up in the U.S. Championship as the second American in the field and sixth overall. He walked away with a new personal best of 2:16:13. 

 

Since running a personal best in the marathon, Llano claimed seventh at the USATF 25K Championships on May 9 and fourth at the San Diego Half Marathon in 63:52 on May 31.

 

Originally, Llano and his coach Ben Rosario decided that L.A. would be his last marathon before the Olympic Trials in February 2016, but Llano had other plans. 

 

“After L.A. we decided that there could be some value in running another one and getting more experience,” Llano said. “I didn’t make a huge jump time-wise from Chicago to L.A. but I did learn a lot in L.A. versus Chicago so I felt like the value that I could earn from running another marathon could be really good going into the Trials.”

 

The training segment heading into the Berlin Marathon has been a different approach, one that includes more quality long runs with marathon-specific work mixed in. The quality approach should pay off to compete on the Berlin course that has seen five world records fall in the past eight years. 

Llano’s favorite long runs that he has done leading up to Berlin have included variations of tempo pace or “marathon effort.” Some examples include:

 

-3 mile warm-up (easy), 4 mile tempo run (5:05 mile pace), 10 miles steady up-tempo (5:45 mile pace), 4 mile tempo (5:05 mile pace), 3 mile cool-down (easy) = 24 miles total

 

-3 mile warm-up (easy), 20 miles alternating each mile between marathon effort (5:12 mile pace) and 1 minute slower than marathon effort (6:12 mile pace), 3 mile cool-down = 26 miles total

 

Every long run’s pace is adjusted by 15 seconds to account for the 7,000 ft. altitude that Llano lives at in Flagstaff, Arizona. 

 

Another change that Llano has made in his third marathon approach includes a sea level stint in Portland, Oregon. For the past two weeks Llano has been living with Olympic marathoner and friend Shalane Flanagan, who gave him the original idea to run Berlin. 

 

“Shalane [Flanagan] had nothing but positive things to say about it [Berlin Marathon], which got it in my mind initially and then it really just came down to it being a fast course,” Llano said. 

Flanagan’s marathon personal best came last year at the 2014 Berlin Marathon when she ran 2:21:14 for third-place overall. 

 

“It’s been cool to hang out with her and see that there aren’t any secrets, she just works her tail off. She’s put a lot of years into this sport and a lot of heart,” Llano said. 

 

“It’s encouraging to see that someone is doing it the right way,” he added.

 

When asked about his specific time goals heading into Sunday’s race, Llano is vocal about the six-minute personal best that he is targeting on the streets of Berlin. 

 

“I’m not really shy about talking about my goals, I’ve never been,” Llano said. “In Berlin, the idea is to try and go under 2:10, if I run 2:09 anything I’ll be happy.”

 

Llano will have the opportunity to test his changed approach Sunday in Berlin against a field that includes 2015 London Marathon winner Eliud Kipchoge and the third-fastest marathoner of all time Emmanuel Mutai.