In 2021, the winner of the Los Angeles Marathon was a man by the name of John Korir. The streets of LA had heard the last name Korir before, as John’s older brother, Wesley, won the Los Angeles Marathon in 2009 and 2010. Both brothers are coached by none other than former NAU and University of Louisville Coach, Ron Mann.
Coach Mann has a laundry list of accolades, including being the 2008 U.S. Olympic men’s middle distance coach in Beijing, 2005 World Outdoor Track and Field Championships Coach for the U.S. men in Helsinki, and being inducted into the USTFCCCA Hall of Fame in 2018. His most famous accomplishment is coaching Wesley Korir to victory in the Boston Marathon 2012.
After the 2024 Boston Marathon, I was able to catch up with Coach Ron Mann about his current fastest athlete, John Korir. Korir placed 4th at this year’s edition of the Boston Marathon. Coach Mann provided me with deep insights into this year’s build to the Boston Marathon for John Korir.
Coach Mann’s Philosophy
Generally, Mann does not believe in a “fix it quick” training plan. Long range planning is essential under his mentorship. Additionally, Coach Mann does not take on a huge amount of athletes as he wants to give each athlete the respect and attention they deserve. Having been in the coaching game for over 50 years, Mann also understands the shift in technology that is associated with adjusting and catering to each athlete’s needs. Mann emphasized his coaching takes into account specific adaptation to imposed demand. He will have a certain demand on his athlete in the form of high volume or high intensity workouts, and he will slowly adapt the plan to that demand and how the athlete deals with the demand. This demand will be progressively more aggressive with year over year changes. Coach Mann stressed his 6 days a week training (two times a day) with 1 day to rest and regenerate. In terms of periodization, he has specialized blocks with double thresholds for up to four weeks in a row followed by a week to regenerate.
Coach Mann pointed out his core principles outside of training in that he does not believe in large teams when coaching a professional athlete. He wants to be a part of the athlete’s life in a greater sense than just being the coach. In addition, this plays into the fact that Coach Mann does not coach events, he coaches people. Developing the individual athlete is very important, and each athlete has different priorities outside of running. In John’s case, it is his wife and 3 little girls.
John’s Boston Marathon 2024 Training Set-Up
Korir’s training period took place mostly in Kenya and partly in the United States. Korir is from Eldoret and that is where his family is located. However, in order to simulate the hills of Boston and get his legs acclimated to hill running (both uphill and downhill), Korir trained in the Cherangani Hills north of Eldoret during the week. On the weekend, he would come to Eldoret for a long run on Saturday and to see his family and go to church on Sunday. John trains with another one of Mann’s athletes, Edwin Kibichiy (10th place in Paris Marathon 2024; 2:10:41 PB). Due to Mann’s location in the U.S., the duo communicate mostly via Whatsapp and Mann has all of Korir’s running data via Garmin. When Korir is in the United States, he trains in CO Springs under the guidance of Coach Haron Lagat. Clearly, it takes a team. This is before mentioning Hawi Management, the shoe representatives at ASICS, and his brother Wesley who is a mentor.
John’s Boston Marathon 2024 Training Block
Coach Mann wanted to approach this block differently from John’s first Boston Marathon block where he finished 9th in 2:10:04. As previously mentioned, John was training Monday to Friday in the Cherangani Hills at 11,500 ft of altitude. In addition, his training partner, Kibichiy, is the head coach at the Transcent Talent Academy (started by Wesley Korir). Kibichiy provided a strength program for Korir. In light of the recent event that led to the death of Kelvin Kiptum and the crash of Jacob Kiplimo, Korir hired a driver to drive him on the poor roads of Kenya to and from the Cherangani Hills and Eldoret. Not only did Korir want to avoid accidents, but he wanted to avoid the extra stress on his legs from driving for over 1.5 hours each way.
The biggest indicator of fitness in his training block was the RAK half marathon 7 weeks before the Boston Marathon. Korir was doing double threshold workouts, specifically at half marathon pace. This mini block inside of the Boston Marathon block ended with a new half marathon PB of 58:50. Korir was up to 210 km (130 miles) per week. However, 5 years ago when they first started out he was at 160 km (100 miles) per week. Once again, Coach Mann emphasized the progressively more aggressive and pointed out that Korir has progressed from 2:10 to 2:09 to 2:07 to 2:05. He did not have one key workout, especially with the double threshold system. Mann wanted to note that consistency over months training for a marathon is what is important, and that Korir did not miss a workout, which was a really promising sign to go along with his 58:50 half marathon result. The biggest change was that his long runs were much faster this time around.
The Race
John’s plan was to run with Evans Chebet as Mann thought Chebet was the favorite coming in. Mann did not expect Lemma to win let alone take the race out in under 60:30 for the first half. John and Evans are good friends, and his the race plan basically went to plan besides not beating Evans in the final miles. Mohamed Esa’s 4:39 mile gave him a 2nd place finish, Chebet in 3rd, and Korir in 4th in 2:07:40.
The Future
Mann does not write any workouts or runs for Korir for a month after a major marathon. Korir must take two weeks off of running completely. After the Chicago Marathon, Korir stayed at Mann’s house and they went golfing and to church together. The decompression after a marathon needs to happen on four levels: emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. The summer racing season is still up in the air, but Korir will likely come to the States and train in CO Springs. Potential races include the Boilermaker 15k and the Falmouth Road Race.
Interestingly enough, Korir is still young for a marathoner, at 27 years of age. Mann wants Korir to keep running marathons at a high level for another 15 years. While this Olympic cycle is coming to a close, Korir will definitely be looking to make the Kenyan Olympic Team for LA 2028 Olympics. Korir will be 31 years old and have a huge advantage in comparison to his Kenyan teammates – he has won the Los Angeles Marathon two times (2021 and 2022). Mann believes it would be foolish to think that is not in the back of his head as he embarks on another Olympic cycle.
