In The Lead Pack with Matt Folk

(Photo courtesy of Matt Folk)

Matt Folk, a cross country and distance assistant coach at Youngstown State University and Team Good River athlete, placed 39th at the November 3rd U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. He competed collegiately at Youngstown State and qualified as an individual for the 1998 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, placing 77th. After the marathon trials he came back in December to place 18th at the USATF Club National Cross Country Championships.

Interview by: Derick Lawrence (1/13/2008)

What initially drew you to running?
I was always a big sports fan growing up and I quit football in elementary school (because I couldn’t remember the plays and got tired of running laps alone), got cut from basketball in junior high, and at the time we didn’t have soccer at our high school. So my sophomore I decided to try myself at something different. After some moderate success I started to become hooked on running and it snowballed.


You ran collegiately at Youngstown State University (’99). Describe your collegiate running career (training, personal records, achievements, experiences, etc.)
My college days at YSU were a blast as I was surrounded by a great group of people. I came in having been a relatively lower mileage runner in high school and slowly built up going from 50 miles per week my freshman year to 90 miles per week my senior year. It was an ideal situation where I didn’t have to be the top guy the first couple years but always got to be a part of the travel squad.

We were able to win 5 conference team titles and I won two individual conference titles as well. My biggest accomplishment and the focus of the last few years was qualifying for the 1998 D1 XC National, where I placed 77th. I finished college with pr’s of 1500-3:55, 3k-8:30, 5k-14:39, and 10k-30:09 so I improved a lot from high school.


You currently compete for Team Good River Elite Development Club. What is the team atmosphere like and how has the club enabled you to compete post-collegiately?
Although we don’t actually train together as much as most clubs, it has been great when we have been able to hook up together for workouts and long runs. The runs turn into a good mix of hard work and comedy. We see each other all through out the summer at different road races and it makes you feel more relaxed when you have someone you know to warm-up, race, and cooldown with. It really helps to know there are others nearby working towards the same goals and that you’re not alone.

The biggest highlight of being a part of the team is Club XC Nationals. It is truly like being back in school as part of a team again. Tim Budic has done a lot of work over the 4 years setting up the trips to club nationals for everyone on the team. He has taking care of most of the logistics so we can put our focus on the race itself.


You placed 39th at the November 3rd U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in a career best time and improved eleven spots from the 2004 trials. Describe this race for us and how you applied your 2004 trials experience to the 2008 trials.

(Photo courtesy of Photorun.net)

The race itself went pretty much according to plan. I started out fairly conservative and was able to work my way up throughout the race. The great thing is that other than the last 4.5 miles I was in a pack of 5-6 guys the entire race. This allowed me to tuck in on some of the windy stretches and helped pull me up the hills easier. I just tried to keep moving up without making any real big moves that would kill me later in the race. I felt real strong until the last 4-5 miles when the wheels started falling off, but I held on enough to get my goal of sub 2:20.

When I ran the trials in 04 I was so caught up in taking everything in and was just so thrilled to be a part of everything that I didn’t focused as much on what I needed to do myself. This time I enjoyed the experience and took things in, but knew regardless of everything else going on I had individual goals and plans I needed to stick to and focus on.


You came back in December to place 18th at the USATF Club National Cross Country Championships. Take us through this race and how you recovered from the marathon trials. (Photo courtesy of the Columbus Running Company)

After the marathon I took 2 days completely off and hit 50 miles for the next week, then three weeks around 90 mpw, and then tapered off with 50 miles the last 5 days before the race. I did a Thanksgiving 5k halfway between each to get the feel for going faster and that was tough as my speed was lacking. I think I kinda lucked out that club nationals was so muddy because it turned it more into a strength runners course and took a lot of speed out of the race. I tried to get out hard then settle in after the first mile and pick people off the rest of the way. The strategy worked out well as the footing took its toll on people.


You are in your ninth season as a cross country and distance assistant coach at Youngstown State University. How have you applied your own experiences and training (collegiate and/or post-collegiate) into your coaching?
One of the biggest things I’ve learned over the years is that there is more than one way of doing things and no single workout works ideally for everyone. The toughest thing is trying to find what works best for each individual and collectively as a group. We have a wide range of talent and training backgrounds that on days between workouts we’ll have people running anywhere between 5 and 12 miles.

I really think having a coach who runs or at some point in time trained very seriously for a while is a big advantage for an athlete. They are more able to relate to the fatigue athletes are feeling during and after workouts, understand how the athletes are feeling and what they are going through mentally on race day, and how serious training can be affected by schoolwork and the rest of everyday life.


How do you balance coaching and your own training?
Depending on training cycles it can be pretty easy to do or very hard. Sometimes I’ll do what I need to do before work and practice, other times I can hop in with them. The tough part sometimes is traveling to meets or all day meets. We usually don’t have organized practice the day before their races so I will do my long run or hard workout on that day and short and easy on the meet day.


Could you outline your last two weeks of training leading up to the marathon trials?
Two weeks out I did 95 miles with three runs of substance: 1) A hard two mile (10:03) followed by 4 times a hard mile (4:58,4:55,4:58,4:53) all followed with 400 jog recovery 2) A 9 mile tempo run in 47:51 (5:19 pace) 3) A 16 mile run at 6:39 pace with some hills.

The week of the race in the final five days I did 40 miles with two runs of substance. The Monday before I did a 4 mile tempo follow by 4*400 and on Wednesday I did an 8 miler with 5*2 minutes hard with 1 minute easy in between.


What staple workout(s) do you incorporate into your marathon training?
One thing that I think has really helped me improve and pr in my last two marathons is cutting of a lot of the 5k/10k paced speed workouts and replacing those with more thresholds and longer marathon paced runs.


What key concept(s) do you believe are necessary for marathon success?
I think the three biggest things necessary for marathon success are higher mileage, consistent long runs, and tempo runs.


What are your racing plans for 2008?
Since I’m getting up there in age I’d like to take one more crack on working on my speed. But I’m a little banged up right now so the focus is to get healthy and the mileage back up.


Thanks to Matt for a great interview.