Dean Karnazes Quotes

The potential elite runner must realize that hard means hard, easy means easy and they must patiently seek out what combinations work for them. They have to learn to be persistent and patient with their training and racing.

The marathon is all about energy management. I had planned to run it like a track race with strategic surges to blow up my competitors by putting them into oxygen debt, so that is the way I prepared.

If you go too soon, you can come unstuck with 50m left when the guys are going past you.

I used to run a full marathon in three hours and 25 or 26 minutes. Not any more.

I've found that my athletes run their best races after about 10 weeks of intense training.

From a logistical standpoint, I learned about when to peak, when to push, when to recover throughout the season.

The field is fantastic, great runners, so the best you can do is stay in control, pace yourself well, and then utilise it when you can do better.

I know that's definitely the way for me to run races - instead of trying to burn up at the front and blowing up, it's always better to be passing people at the end.

It's a question of spreading the available energy, aerobic and anaerobic, evenly over four minutes. If you run one part too fast, you pay a price. If you run another part more slowly your overall time is slower.

I could produce spurts of speed and after taking up athletics I found myself running quite quickly over 400m.

The basketball coach cut me within two days, so I was back in the pool. I was the first one in the wall after the first 25 yards, but the last one out because I didn't have a flip turn.

Even if the pace is slow in championships, you can still sprint well and still power in the last 200, which is always the main part when the race is slow.

I try to avoid the temptation with time as a total indicator for what my possibilities are for the marathon. It's the not the best indicator, but it's more how you feel, how you cover the distance and how you are able to do the training afterward.

If my training goes well and according to plan I feel that I am capable of a top 8 finish in Athens. It will be a very difficult and technical course which will be to my advantage.

You can wish as hard as you like but all that really matters is the shape you're in on the day of the race. I've always felt these really big races aren't necessarily won by whoever is the fastest. They're won by the athlete who is the smartest and in the best shape on the day.

You do, mostly, in track, different sessions, sprinting and medium sessions in different style. You have to see that even if the pace is slow in championships, you can still sprint well and you can still power the last 200, which is always the main part when the race is slow.

Being a pro athlete doesn't mean you treat your body right, even though it's so important to what you do. Being a runner and training for important races has taught me more about how to fuel than swimming ever did. I realize it's a process and part of the commitment.

The trick at Le Mans is to get the car 'in the window.' Everything is critical: the tyre pressure, the brake temperature, and that means you have to push the car a lot to get it into the window - it's about getting everything to work right and getting the car to flow through the corners.

I'd like to be a more consistent starter. I'd like a smoother transition from crouching to running. I have to learn to relax during a race and how to breathe.

Throughout my career I swam for form. Speed came as a result of it.

I run year-round and then ramp up my training for a race a few months before.

When you have two races in a row, it's really important to keep that mental energy stable.

As an athlete, you can train for so many years to be a 5K/10K runner. That's who you are, and it's hard to change that. Not using that technique - almost like a sprint - that's when you have to loosen up and just save as much energy as you can.

I need to find a way to improve my qualifying performances because then I think my races will be even better.

When you win sprints, you're a great sprinter, but when you win a great one-day race, you've proved you're a great rider.