Olympic Runner Colleen Quigley In Workout Gear Sprints on the Beach

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.”

Beach volleyball champion Sara Hughes has been playing since she was eight years old, and was even mentored by Misty May-Treanor. Now Hughes, 29, is heading for Paris in June, and is doing everything she can to prepare for the big event. The athlete shared a video of herself wearing Nike shorts and a sports bra, lowering herself into an ice bath and then breathing through the initial cold shock. “It’s gotta feel so good on that shoulder 💪🏻,” a fan commented. Here’s how Hughes stays fit, focused, and ready for Olympic gold.

1. Strength Training

Hughes frequently posts videos of herself doing strength training workouts with a personal trainer. She also uses resistance bands to build muscle, endurance, and burn fat. “My favorite place this pre-season! Couldn’t do it without @mykelshannonjenkins & @officialbrycejenkins 💪🏼,” she captioned an Instagram post.

2. Box Jumps

Hughes is a big fan of box jumps, a plyometric exercise. “This exercise trains triple extension and flexion of the key joints – hips, knees, and ankles – and related muscles – quads, hamstrings, quads and calves – used in running,” UK Athletics Level 3 performance coach Graeme Woodward tells Runner’s World. “And also requires a significant neuromuscular contribution which benefits speed qualities.’

3. Misty May-Treanor Mentor

Getty Images

Hughes grew up watching Olympic gold medalist Misty May-Treanor train at the beach. “For a long time, I was terrified to talk to her,” Hughes told The Athletic. “Having her so close, it was crazy.” May-Treanor noticed the young athlete and became her mentor. “I grew up putting my name on a paper on a pole and playing to stay on the court, and Sara hit the tail end of that,” May-Treanor said. “Bill [Lovelace] had those little kids doing drills and playing alongside adults and in four-on-four tournaments. She’s one of the last of that breed. We all know each other. As an older athlete, you want to take the sport under your wing. I was in her shoes once.”

4. Paris 2024 Dreams

Shutterstock

Hughes has high hopes for Paris 2024. "It would probably be the best feeling in the world," she told Olympics.com. "It's my number one goal, and to get to do it with Kelly [Cheng] is even more special. So we just got to keep moving forward and keep doing well in tournaments and hope we'll stay on track to get there."

5. Ice Baths

Hughes regularly incorporated ice baths into her recovery routine. Studies show ice baths can help with pain and inflammation after training. “Some patients who have swelling and inflammation find great relief from soaking in an ice bath,” sports medicine physician Dominic King, DO, tells Cleveland Clinic. “Start low and go slow. Don’t go too cold and don’t go for more than five minutes, just to make sure you can tolerate it. There is some research that shows that after two to three minutes, additional benefits taper off."

Bulgarian sprinter Ivet Lalova-Collio took some time off from her intense training regimen to don a swimsuit and spend quality time with friends at the Gloria Verde Resort in Turkey. Lalova-Collio, 39, shared a beautiful picture of herself posing in a white and tan bikini on a dock, against a background of blue sea and skies. “GIRLS 🫶🏼”, her friend Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk—a champion long jumper—captioned the post. The Olympian athlete has an incredibly impressive strong physique, and she works hard to maintain her tone and muscle. But how exactly does she do it? Here are 5 ways Lalova-Collio stays one of the fastest women in the world.

1. Weights and Running

Lalova-Collio’s training routine is what you would expect from an Olympian—she runs and lifts heavy weights. “In the winter I do a lot of weights, at least 3 times and tempo runs after,” she says. “In the summer I do fewer weights, but lots of high intensity running. I have weeks that I don’t have a day without putting on my spikes. I think about big championships from the moment I step on the track. Knowing that you have to be at your best there is taking me slowly to the moment and the day of the race. At the day I love some music during the warm-up, I do some strides, some active stretching, getting faster and faster in about 1 hour before the competition.”

2. No Outrunning a Bad Diet

Lalova-Collio recognizes how important diet is—especially for an athlete—when it comes to staying fit and healthy. “If I organize myself around training and what I have to eat and around sport, it's easier so the days goes almost like normal,” she says. “It's all about training, resting and recovery. I spend more time cooking - I really want to eat good and I keep telling people 'don't worry so much about exercise,' be careful because if you stay home all day, you end up eating so be careful about that so I pay more attention to diet.”

3. Strict About Exercise

Lalova-Collio didn’t let pandemic lockdowns get in the way of her training regimen—instead, she became creative about working out outside of the traditional gym environment. “We have a state of emergency - we are not under a lockdown - but we have a lot of restrictions,” she says. “We can't go to parks, tracks are closed, gyms are closed but it's your choice if you want to go out but we all prefer to stay home as much as possible. It's tough times for people who train like us! We run in the streets but I keep saying that athletics is a 'poor' sport - we don't need that much to do what we do. We run, we jump, we do the basic things the human body can do although we try and improve them into something superhuman. Even if we have to run on the street or have to run on the stairs in our building, we are going to make it!”

4. Triumph After Tragedy

Lalova-Collio says a serious accident that almost derailed her career in 2005 was actually the making of her. “I love to say that what saved me when the accident happened was that I was really young,” she says. “I was 21 years old. By that time and in my head, there was no possibility that I’m not coming back and I’m not running again. So I had no idea what I’m facing and how long it’s going to take and how hard it’s going to be and I never thought about it. Of course, I had my dark moment and as I said, I cried a lot. It was really tough for me watching the World Championships in Helsinki later, that the same season that I wanted so bad to be there and compete. But I worked, even on that and it saved me, but mostly my motivation to come back saved me.”

5. Power of Positivity

Lalova-Collio says if she could go back in time and give advice to her younger self, it would be to surround herself with positive people who encourage her, and get rid of negative people who would hold her back. “You will later work with a mental coach and discover many empowering things inside of you,” she says. “You will read books on the subject and by training your brain you’ll reach that state of feeling just how you want to feel - which is so important in both training and competition. I’d also say make sure you surround yourself with supportive and positive people.”

Spanish pole vaulting champion Clara Fernández is one of the most impressive athletes competing right now, and she trains incredibly hard to be a winner. Fernández shared pictures of herself wearing a swimsuit on her social media, and it’s clear from the post that building and maintaining muscle is something she has done for years. But how exactly does she train? Here are the exercises Fernández swears by for strength, speed, and agility.

1. She’s a Runner

Fernández’s training includes plenty of running—including long-distance running. "Any type of aerobic exercise has a positive effect on the heart," says Dr. Dan Meyer, chief of cardiac transplantation at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas. "Running is such an efficient mode of exercise. It can be relaxing and a stress reliever at times. I find it having as much emotional benefits as physical."

2. She’s Also a Swimmer

Fernández’s athletic background includes swimming, which is a great full-body workout. “Swimming works the heart and lungs,” say the experts at Harvard Health. “This trains the body to use oxygen more efficiently, which is generally reflected in declines in the resting heart rate and breathing rate. It uses the arms, the legs, and other muscle groups in between. This improves muscle strength and flexibility.”

3. She Cycles

Shutterstock

Cycling is another major part of Fernández’s background and training. “Cycling is one of the healthiest and low-impact forms of exercise - meaning it causes less strain and injuries than most other workouts,” say the experts at the University of Montana. “So it's a hobby you can continue to enjoy throughout your long life. And, unlike other forms of exercise, you won't dread doing it. Even if you take cycling seriously and go at it hard, the blood pumping and wind in your face is still exhilarating, even when it's difficult.”

4. Triathlon Star

Fernández takes part in triathlons (seriously, is there anything she can’t do?). Training is crucial for anyone wanting to take part in a triathlon, experts say. “Triathletes can suffer injuries from the compound effect of adding too much training without proper care and guidance,” says Gautam Yagnik, MD, an orthopedic surgeon with Miami Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Institute at Baptist Health South Florida. “Cross-conditioning is important and a key training element for triathletes, but proper preparation, stretching, hydration, periods of rest and other precautions should be taken to avoid overuse injuries.”

5. Dog Lover

Fernández loves animals, especially dogs, which are known to have health benefits for their owners. “An extensive number of studies in a wide range of journals and disciplines support that interactions with pets contribute to good health and quality of life and healing from serious illnesses and conditions,” says Dr. Maria Iliopoulou, an alumna of the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine. “Pets can influence our emotional state, our sense of security and acceptance, and even our positive outlook on life.”