Just two days after American Olympic silver medallist Yared Nuguse smashed the world record in the short track mile, Grand Slam Track (GST) revealed the mind-boggling workout that might have added the final, perfecting touch to the runner’s record-breaking fitness. On Instagram, GST wrote “Yared Nuguse’s pre-world record mile workout. Don’t try this at home.”
On Feb. 2, just six days ahead of his third consecutive Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile title, Nuguse completed his final workout in Boulder, Colo., where he trained at an altitude of 1,646m. The 25-year-old has been a professional runner for ON Athletics Club since 2022, following his successful collegiate career at the University of Notre Dame.
The workout
Nuguse’s workout reached nearly 10km of mileage–not including warmup and cooldown. He took five minutes of recovery between sets.
Set 1: Nuguse’s first set was a 2-km threshold run, a comfortable hard effort. He completed the distance in six minutes.
Set 2: The next set consisted of another 2-km run, at a much higher intensity. Nuguse clocked a spectacular 4:59–a pace of 2:30 per kilometre. With his new indoor mile world-record pace falling at 2:20 per kilometre, this interval would be an all-out effort, especially at altitude.
Set 3: The third set involved 1-km repeats at a much lighter pace, with Nuguse finishing at around 3:00 to 3:05 per rep with 60 seconds of rest between.
Set 4: Nuguse wrapped up the workout with four hard 200m efforts–clocking 26-27 seconds with 90 seconds rest between reps.
This workout is ideal for race week; sandwiching an all-out effort with lighter reps sharpens turnover and helps the body adapt to clearing lactic acid buildup.
Making history in the Wanamaker Mile
The Louisville, Ky., native’s fitness led him to clock 3:46.63, surpassing Ethiopian runner Yomif Kejelcha’s previous indoor mile record of 3:47.01, set in 2019 (pending ratification). His 1,500m en-route time (his split at the 1,500m mark) shattered the North American indoor 1,500m record of 3:33.34.
“Been thinking about it a lot,” Nuguse wrote on Instagram. “Especially how crazy it is to think that no one in the whole dang world has ever run that fast in the mile (indoors) before. Feels like we’re really rewriting history here. I’m sure there’s much more to come.”
Nuguse also won the 2024 and 2023 Wanamaker Miles in 3:47.83 and 3:47.38, respectively–his 2023 time was the previous #2 performance in history. That year, he also set the North American record in the mile, running 3:43.97.
Nuguse was the NCAA 1,500m champion in 2019; he went on to win three Diamond League meetings, took silver in the 3,000m at the 2024 World Indoor Championships and won bronze in the Olympic 1,500m. He signed with GST’s short distance group in September.
