How Elite Runners Are Coping Mentally With No Races on the Horizon

.....It’s no secret that professional runners thrive on consistency, and having so many of the summer and fall races postponed and canceled—including the 2020 Olympic Games—has made it difficult for them to structure their training. While elite and everyday runners alike can mourn the loss of races at the moment, pros pour months of laser-focused work into a handful of key competitions per year—and to have so much of that wiped away threw many of them for a loop....

.....Athletes have handled the uprooting of their routines in different ways. Some runners, such as Vanessa Fraser, have used the downtime from racing as a chance to correct nagging injuries (for Fraser, that meant undergoing a double foot surgery). Others, such as Craig Engels and Stephanie Bruce, have continued to put in hard efforts on their own. And many have ramped up their social media game, sharing at-home strength workouts, book recommendations, recipes, creative ice bath ideas, and #KoalaChallenges with their followers.....