ACTIVE: How do you deal with an injury, both from an emotional and physical perspective?
Meb: To be an elite athlete is tough because once you're injured, that's it. You can't do anything else. Runners are not happy when they're injured. In my new book, I preach "pre-hab" versus rehab. Don't wait until you're injured to work on your body. I sometimes get a massage and they say, "What's wrong?" There's nothing wrong—I just want to get worked on with a deep tissue massage. I just put my body through a lot. I don't wait until I get injured to take action. Constant therapy is key.
At the top of my head, there's always more I can do to "pre-hab" my body. There's always more planks, drills, stretching, sit-ups I can do. There's always more physical therapists and chiropractors and massage therapists I can see. This makes the running part the easy part for me. Staying healthy and putting it all together is the difficult part. You have to do the small things. I wasn't the person who would take a day off if I felt something wrong but I've learned from my (and other people's) mistakes. Don't push it. You'd rather take one or two days off than be sidelined for extended periods of time if you do get injured.
ACTIVE: Speaking of your new book, tell us about Meb for Mortals.
Meb: I had a lot of fun doing Meb for Mortals, co-writing with Scott Douglas. It's the stretching, diet, recovery, therapy, nutrition, cross-training... everything that comes together that makes up who I am. Having won Boston two weeks shy of my 39th birthday, when most people had written me off, really forced me to believe in myself. The details in the book show how I use these things daily—and how the average person can too.
