The following is an excerpt from one of my long-time athletes at Elite Edge, Tristan Sumpter. Tristan recently had a landmark performance at the MISH Waterfront Marathon in Gladstone, Michigan, running 2:35 which was a 9-minute PR. He is one of the founding members at Elite Edge and is a great example of what can result with commitment to a long-term, progressive program.
The lead-in
After an injury plagued 2024, the goal of 2025 was to be healthy, available, and a strong runner. This meant changing my approach in training from a structure standpoint as well as my strength training in the gym. This meant less sessions in the gym and exercises meant for longevity instead of trying to look good in the mirror.
I’ve always enjoyed programming my own strength training so it was fun to try a new style of 3-4 lifts a week. This split had days focusing on lower body, upper body, and core rather than specific muscle groups.
From a racing perspective I really wanted to try to PR every distance from the mile to the marathon. Max and I started the year looking at how we can get faster training for a 5k in January and found races in between that would work up to my A race of the year, a marathon in Gladstone, Michigan in early June.
This approach made it fun because while the name of the game for 2025 was consistency the approach to training for each race changed during each shorter training block.
For the most part this year has been a healthy one and I have not had any major injuries. I think the biggest contributor to this was not extending myself too far and not trying to push through anything pain or discomfort that I would in the past.
The training
The biggest session of the marathon block came 4 weeks out from the race and was 10 miles at marathon pace, followed by a 5k at half marathon pace. If I could drop the pace after 10 miles at pace then I could give myself confidence that I would still have gas in the tank during the race to hold marathon pace for far longer than 10 miles.
The workout was a resounding success and from there it was all about staying within myself and getting to the start line.
The race
Race day was as close to perfect as it could have been. I had great weather, a nice breeze, and a beautiful course to work with. I spend every long run on Saturdays prepping the exact same way and race day was no different. This allowed me to get to the start line with little stress and confidence after the success I had in my long run workouts.
I had a small pack of 4 who went out around the same pace and by mile 8 this had thinned down to me and another guy going for sub 2:40. By mile 11 I was solo and would be for the remainder of the race. I was holding steady and feeling strong until around mile 22 and the heavy feeling began to set into my legs. From there it was me against myself trying to push for the finish line. I crossed the line at 2:35:11, over a 9 minute PR which felt like the best case scenario.
Takeaways
I learned so much about volume, fueling, recovery, and mindset during this build. I was able to consistently run 60-70 miles a week with 2-3 swims acting as non impact doubles.
For carbs, I took in fuel on almost all training runs lasting longer than an hour and worked towards 100g per hour on long runs.
On race day I was able to take in 300g of carbs across the whole race which helped keep me fresh and held off the dreaded bonk once mile 20 came around. Overall I know not every race will go like this one but I truly felt like this was a breakout and have so much to build off of moving forward.
Are you looking for a chance to have a similar breakthrough performance?
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