Runner Keely Hodgkinson in Two-Piece Workout Gear is "Working Early, Because I'm an Athlete"

Keely Hodgkinson is one of the world’s top runners, making waves with her success and dedication. Known for her silver medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and a triumphant gold in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Keely continues to inspire fans with her fierce work ethic and commitment. Recently, she shared a gym photo on Instagram, captioning it, “Working early, because I’m an athlete,” a nod to the popular Sabrina Carpenter song, “Espresso.” Whether on the track or in the gym, Keely’s routine shows the power of discipline and self-motivation in reaching athletic goals.

1. She Does A Variety Of Different Things

Hodgkinson shared her training schedule with Runner’s World. She says that she does a variety of different things. “It’s cross training on Mondays. On Tuesdays, I’ll do a session on the cross trainer and then I’ll do a track session. Wednesdays involve a 30-minute run and 40 minutes on the cross trainer, plus some gym work. Thursdays are similar to Tuesdays, but with maybe more of a tempo-type session. I always have Fridays off, then Saturdays in the winter will be a longer session and in the summer a track session. Sundays in the winter will be hills, and in the summer I’ll do a 15-minute run.”

2. She Eats Healthy

Chocolate bar life cycle on blue pastel paper background conceptShutterstock

Hodgkinson shared her diet secrets with Runner’s World. “I'm not really a person who craves takeaways or things like that, because they just don’t make me feel very good. My friends will say, ‘Let’s get a Chinese,’ but I’d rather just eat a chocolate bar, to be honest – that’s my thing. So I eat pretty well, not so much because I have to, but more because I like to. I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables and good carbohydrates, but there will always be a chocolate bar, too. I think I need the calories, to be honest!”

3. She Accepts Herself

Hodgkinson talked about the importance of body positivity in an interview with Glamour. “There were definitely periods of time in my childhood when I thought, ‘I don’t want to be the muscly friend or the young girl with muscles.’ Back then – maybe even now still – it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but that’s OK… there’s somebody out there for everybody. Everyone has a preference, and that’s fine. But I don’t think girls should shy away from being that, if that’s going to help them be the best of their ability and do what they want. You’ve got to learn to love your body, and I certainly have. I love my body, it can do these great things. So if that means I need to do more upper body [exercises], then that’s fine.”

4. She Focuses On Herself

Hodgkinson makes sure to focus on herself. She talked about this in an interview with ELLE. “You can’t get overly bothered about what everyone else is doing. I think that’s good [to remember] in every aspect of life, whether it’s how you look or what job you have – if you’re just comparing, you’re going to be miserable.”

5. She Improves Her Speed

Hodgkinson tells Runner’s World that she trains to improve her speed. “I’d say I almost train like a sprinter, but I think the 800m is getting towards that now. There’s a whole new science – a whole new perspective – on 800m training that says you actually need the speed, and it’s not about doing miles and miles. But then it depends on what kind of 800m runner you are – if you’re a 1500m and 800m runner, you’re going to run it differently from how a 400m and 800m runner is going to run it. It’s very interesting.”

Olympic runner Colleen Quigley runs for a living—so it’s a good thing she has so much fun doing it. Quigley, 31, shared a video of herself wearing leggings and a sweatshirt, running on the beach with her Bernese Mountain Dog, Pie. “Pie is a true sprinter. She will go hard for about 10-15 sec then she needs full recovery before doing the next rep 🤣 . What I love most about Pie is that she is the best post-workout snuggle buddy and that’s really all I need from her! 🥰” she captioned the post. Here’s what Quigley’s diet and training routine looks like.

1. Breakfast of Champions

Quigley eats the same breakfast almost every day—oatmeal with unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and coffee with a tiny bit of creamer. “I eat lunch after all my morning workouts are done, which is usually around noon,” she told Runner’s World. “Breakfast food is my favorite, so I’ll usually throw together an egg scramble with plenty of vegetables and pulled chicken, then top it all with feta cheese and cilantro. I also love making two slices of toast with mashed avocado, two fried eggs, and a smoothie.”

2. Running Every Day

Colleen Quigley/Instagram

Quigley’s training routine is as intense as you’d expect—she runs for 8 miles every day, and clocks in a 13 to 16 mile run on Sundays. She also swims, rides her bike, and does Pilates. “My favorite workouts involve speed! 200-meter repeats on the track with a lot of recovery is always fun because it's painful and wild — but it's over quick and you feel like you're flying!” she told Vital Proteins.

3. Mixing up Workouts

Colleen Quigley/Instagram

Quigley recommends mixing up workouts to avoid boredom. “One of the biggest mistakes you can make is doing the same thing everyday,” she told WHOOP. “You get into ruts, and then you don’t feel motivated. Variety is what makes it fun, otherwise it’s boring. Mix it up. It’s better to be a well-rounded athlete and do things that challenge your endurance, strength, and speed, rather than doing the same thing all the time.”

4. Cooking Dinner

Colleen Quigley/Instagram

Quigley loves food and cooking, often enjoying a glass of wine as she makes dinner. “I try to eat a good mix of protein, carbs, and fats at dinnertime,” she told Runner’s World. “Some of my go-to dishes are turkey burgers made with quinoa with sweet potato fries on the side; pizza made with a sweet potato crust and loaded up with veggies, chicken sausage, and cheese; and my dad’s yogurt fettuccine recipe, which I’ve made with all types of noodles (penne or shells are great) with roasted Brussels sprouts and a salad on the side.”

5. Advice For New Runners

Quigley has good advice for anyone new to running. “You do have to get in shape before it becomes fun,” she told WHOOP. “That means working through some of the beginning awkwardness, feeling heavy in your legs and tired, like you don’t know what you’re doing. You have to just push through that for a while before you feel that runner’s high,” she says. “I always tell people don’t lose heart if at first it’s not what you imagined. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad runner, it just means you haven’t done it enough yet. You just have to stick with it.”

Michelle Jenneke, the dynamic hurdler known for her spirited warm-up dance, has faced an unexpected hurdle of her own. Following her inspiring return to the Olympics in 2024, Jenneke encountered an injury requiring surgery. But last month, she shared a hopeful update on Instagram, captioned simply, “Back walking.” Her dedication to training shines through even amid recovery, as she revealed to Body & Soul: “I do three track sessions a week, and they can be from 2-3 hours each, which can be full on.” From intense track workouts to a balanced, protein-packed diet, Jenneke’s holistic approach to wellness keeps her grounded and resilient, showing fans that setbacks are just another obstacle on the track of life.

1. She Trains Three Times A Week

Jenneke shared some of her wellness secrets in an interview with Body & Soul. In it, she shared what her training sessions on the track look like. Jenneke makes sure to do her training on a regular basis. “I do three track sessions a week, and they can be from 2-3 hours each, which can be full on. You do some warm up, a hurdle session, and then a sprint session after that.”

2. She Does A Variety Of Workouts

Jenneke also shared what her gym days look like in her Body & Soul interview. She says that she does a lot of different things to stay fit. “It’s a lot of heavy weights there, plus full body exercises and quite a bit of plyometric [exercises]. I start with heavy weights, and then I’ll do some lighter functional circuit, towards the end. All up, that takes an hour and a half to two hours… and sometimes when I finish a session I just lie on the ground. I think to myself, ‘it’s just gym, why is it so hard?”

3. She Eats Healthy

Jenneke shared her diet in her Body & Soul interview. “I actually eat a lot,” she said. “I talk to my sister, and she says she has three meals a day – sometimes two if she’s busy – and I’m like ‘I have to eat six times a day! “It really depends on what my training day looks like, but if I’ve got training in the morning (which I often do at the moment) I’ll have cereal generally before I go out and train. Then, I actually love having a Milo after a hard session – it’s got good levels of protein and iron in it – and then I make myself a second breakfast, which could be muesli with yoghurt or bacon and eggs. Lunch is pretty basic – usually I just have a sandwich – and then for dinner I like to keep it simple. I have either some pasta or some rice with meat and veggies.”

4. She Pushes Herself

Jenneke makes sure to push herself when she trains, and that means having the right mindset and attitude toward it. She talked about the approach she takes in an interview with Kate Conklin. “I fall a lot in practice. Like, every training session. I’m always trying to push myself to go faster and do better and get as close the hurtle as I can, and when you do that, you hit them… I really like it when I fall over in training…It shows me that I’m doing the right thing.”

5. She Enjoys Her Sport

Jenneke doesn’t like to let her sport take over her life, and she makes sure to still enjoy it. "I think it is quite a big commitment, but if you think about it like that it's really going to wear you down and you're going to think about it being a big commitment and how it's taking over your life and that's not the way I like to look at it," Jenneke said on the Big Sports Breakfast. "I like to look at it as the fact that I compete in the hurdles and I train all this time because I love it so I go into all those sessions just thinking, 'It's not the hard work, I'm just going out and doing what I love.' I don't really let that weigh on me, I just try to enjoy myself."