Second career phase

“Julia has to run much faster!”

Julia Mayer

(Bild: Olaf Brockmann)

Austria's marathon record holder Julia Mayer fulfilled a big dream this year with her successful participation in the Olympics. However, Paris also marked a turning point in her career. "Phase 1 is over," is how coach Vincent Vermeulen sums it up, "now a whole new phase in Julia's career begins." The successful duo have long since turned their attention to the future. The short-term goal is the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, but the long-term goal is the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Vermeulen: "I'm only interested in the 2028 Games."

The first competition block in phase 2 begins this Sunday with the national championships in the 10 km road race in Tattendorf and leads via the half marathon championships in Salzburg (October 6) to the marathon in Valencia (December 1). Julia Mayer is competing in Tattendorf and Salzburg out of full training. Training that has changed completely. Vincent Vermeulen, a brilliant analyst, says: "If Julia runs the marathon one minute faster, we haven't changed anything. She has to run much faster." He emphasizes: "Much faster!" In other words, she should significantly improve her record of 2:26:43 in the long run, even pulverize it.

World Championship qualifying a quantum leap
This demand is no surprise. The direct qualification time in the women's marathon was raised by 3:20 (!) minutes from 2:26:50 at the Olympics in Paris to 2:23:30 for the World Championships in Tokyo. "That's a quantum leap," Vermeulen knows, but also says: "I'm only interested in a direct qualification. Otherwise too many other factors play into the equation." The coach emphasizes once again that only Los Angeles counts for him in the long term: "In Paris, Julia did a damn good race by our standards." She finished 55th there and was in a good midfield position. In 2028, however, she should be "competitive". In other words, she should be able to compete much further up the field.

Reducing the scope
How can this be achieved? "That's why we've changed the training. Julia's goal must be to be able to run significantly faster over shorter distances," says Vincent Vermeulen. By "shorter distances", he means the 10 km and the half marathon. The coach tries to explain to outsiders what has been changed in training: "The stride length and stride frequency have been changed." He compares it to finding the right tuning "for sixth gear on the highway".

Julia Mayer at the Olympic Games in Paris

(Bild: GEPA/GEPA pictures)

A significant reduction in the amount of training is also crucial. "We're doing 20 percent less than before the Games." On the other hand, the intensity has been greatly increased. "Before Paris, Julia only very rarely ran a kilometer faster than her competition pace of 3:27 minutes in training, but now we're averaging 3:04 to 3:15." Once again: a quantum leap.

Julia's goal must be to be able to run significantly faster over shorter distances.

Vincent Vermeulen

"A big experiment"
How the new training will affect the races in Tattendorf and Salzburg is completely uncertain. The times are at least a first indication for Julia Mayer and her coach. "It's an exciting, thrilling journey, a big experiment! Just the way training is! The book it's written in doesn't exist," says Vincent Vermeulen, "but I'm 100 percent convinced that the path towards Los Angeles is the right one." On the way there, Julia Mayer would like to compete in her second World Championships after Budapest 2023 in Tokyo. The qualification period ends on May 4, 2025, so apart from Valencia, she would probably only have a marathon in the spring (Vienna?) as a second chance. But Valencia is perfect ground for her, as she ran her dream record of 2:26:43 there a year ago.

"Everything that comes next is a bonus!"
But now new dreams and new goals are to be realized in the future. The national championships in Tattendorf are just a first (small) step in this direction, and winning her 21st individual title (presumably) is just a by-product. Vermeulen: "Everything that comes next in Julia's career is a bonus." It should be a mighty second helping.