Long-Distance Runner Molly Seidel In Workout Gear Is “Inspirational Runfluencer”

Long-distance runner Molly Seidel runs hundreds of miles a week, sometimes doing two long runs in one day—and she’s making jokes about her own expertise. Seidel, 29, shared a video of herself wearing black shorts and a matching shirt, running out on a dirt path. “The most effective way to avoid career burnout: When you’re at work get up to stretch your legs. Walk to your car. Start running. Just keep running. Never return to work,” reads the text over her video. “Hard pivot to being an inspirational runfluencer ✨,” she captioned the post. Here’s what Seidel’s training, diet, and wellness routine looks like.

1. Running Twice a Day

Seidel runs every day, usually twice a day. “I'll usually do my longer run in the morning,” she told GQ. “Most easy runs are around 90 minutes. So that's anywhere from 11 to 13 miles. And then I'll generally do four to six in the afternoon. And then as we get further into the build, the workouts get a lot longer, into the 15 to 18 mile range. I'm averaging about 125 miles a week. That comes out to generally 16 or 17 miles a day. Then a long run on the weekends of anywhere from 20 to 24 miles.”

2. Coffee and Eggs

Seidel starts her day with coffee and collagen peptides. “For breakfast, I’ll fry two eggs in butter and have them with toasted Ezekiel Bread,” she told Runner’s World. “I used to eat peanut butter on toast before morning runs, but I’ve found that eggs fill me up better, so I’ve started eating them before workouts and races. On an easy run day, I might skip the eggs and just have coffee with an RX Bar.”

3. Mindful Meditation

Seidel meditates to get through the discomfort of long runs. “Trying to take some time each day to shut down one,” she told GQ. “To try and practice getting into that focused awareness—or focused disassociation almost. I guess people would refer to it as a flow state, just being in the moment. I find if I try to practice that outside of running, it does help. My best races are races where I feel like I'm able to get into that state of letting your body do what it knows how to do. You're not overthinking it or going, oh God, I still have so many miles to run.

4. Beer and Dinner

Seidel loves to finish off her runs with an ice cold IPA. “After having a beer, my sister and I will start cooking dinner, which is always some combination of carbs, protein, vegetables, and fat,” she told Runner’s World. “We make a lot of potatoes and chicken with a salad. I also love to make shakshuka, which is a dish made with eggs—yes, I love eggs—served in tomato sauce simmered with other veggies.”

5. Living With OCD

Seidel has OCD, and finds running to be beneficial for dealing with the symptoms. “A lot of times, my brain feels like it's going a million miles an hour,” she told GQ. “I deal with OCD. You feel there's a TV at level 10 volume in the back of your head at all times. When I'm running, it's the only time that I feel like my brain and my body sync up. That's why I love it. It is that flow state, and feeling like your brain fits inside of the vessel of your body finally.”