Adriana Estrada - Runner | US
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Interview by Ross Lovell
This is Fueled for a Year. Three amateur athletes, each with a unique goal on the horizon. One year of access to all that Maurten has, enabling them to be greater athletes. To achieve their goals.
This article will grow as Adriana progresses towards her start line. It’s a diary of check-ins throughout the year.
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In the amateur ranks, passion is the driving force of dedication. It’s unlimited. Time and resources, however, are not. Life is a complex and unpredictable interplay of family and work and the unforeseen that makes structure a challenge. We train and race around an unreliable routine. When we can, not always when we want. Nevertheless, we still aspire to be better. We still try. It’s not simply a devotion — it’s an addiction. Of the good sort. Every amateur watches the professional and, at some stage, wonders — what if? Maurten can’t give the gift of time or streamline the day in, day out by stripping away the layers of life. But we can offer the support of nutritional expertise and an ecosystem of specifically designed fueling products.
Such is the circuitous nature of life, what feels unnatural at first may be the missing piece when you meet it again at the right time. “I laugh when I think about my first experience — thinking that running was stupid and feeling so dejected and embarrassed by my inability to keep up with the kids in my school. But look at me now.” — Adriana Estrada
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LOG 1 — introducing Adriana
LOG 2 — The learning curve
For Adriana, the inevitable next start line is Boston. “I mean, it's kind of the Holy Grail, right? It's the oldest marathon in the US.”
Reflecting on how she got to this point — feeling confident in targeting big city marathons — Adriana finds it almost absurd that her first foray into running offered such little promise of the joy she now draws from the sport. An ill-fated attempt to join the school cross-country team lasted just a couple of blocks.
“I'm by myself. I don't know where they went. So do I keep running or do I turn around? I turned around, walked back to the school, and called my mom. She asked me what happened and I said, "‘Running is stupid.’ And that was the end of that.”
Times change and running came around again. On her terms — nothing competitive. And maybe that was the key to unlocking what running could mean. Doing it unrushed and without comparison. Before any compulsion to chase time, running became a way to move through new places.
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“My husband and I call it touring. The first thing we do in a new place is go for a run so we can get to know a neighborhood.”
Racing has a magnetism that eventually pulled Adriana in. That enchanting quality. The juxtaposition that blends a festival atmosphere alongside thousands of people wrangling with a distance. “Every year we'd go out and cheer on the New York City marathoners. It was so exciting. I would yell, ‘We're going to do this. Let's do it. Let's sign up.’ Then finally, one day I said, ‘You know what? That's it. I'm going to sign up for something.’ So I consulted all of my friends who run and I started with a half marathon— the Rock 'n' Roll Half, in Brooklyn.”
And so the process of learning to become a runner began. “My friends gave me tips about what I needed — what shoes, what socks, what kind of shorts, what kind of sports bra… everything. Because I didn't really know anything. This world was so, so different.”
Learning how to fuel isn’t as simple as choosing socks. You only know it’s right when you feel nothing. And when it’s wrong, it can ruin a run.
“Everyone told me to eat lots of bagels because I needed the glycogen in my muscles. I did that and felt gross because I was way over-bageled.”
While the mental picture of being over-bageled is an amusing one, it’s an important reminder that there’s not necessarily a right or wrong way — only what’s right for you. And that takes patience and practice to master.
This is something that Adriana hopes she will leave Fueled for a Year with a much clearer understanding of. “I know there's a science behind it and I've become a kitchen scientist by trying a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But really knowing what works for my height, weight, speed, age — that’s where I want to learn.”
Being more educated about fueling, Adriana hopes that it will enable her to strip away much of the clutter. Everything you need — nothing you don’t. To access the purity of running. “There are moments when I'm running and I don't even think about what's happening in my body. It's just this absolute fantastic feeling of being connected to the Earth. When I see Eliud Kipchoge or Hellen Obiri move, it seems effortless. That's where I want to get to — to feel that flow.”
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Since the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half, Adriana has moved through greater distances on trail and road. But a qualifying time for Boston would be a sweet validation — a deserved reward — for toiling with the inertia of comfort. Sometimes it’s easier not to try again. But Adriana did and her life is richer for it.
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LOG 1 — introducing Adriana
LOG 2 — The learning curve
As the Boston Marathon starts to come over the horizon, Adriana talks us through her training and nutritional focus, as she looks to specifically tailor these important weeks of preparation.
Having a race goal is an odd experience. It feels a long way off. And then suddenly imminent. There’s no backtracking from complacency once a race feels close. Now deep into her Boston Marathon preparation, it’s the perfect complement to this endeavour that Adriana naturally maintains quite high mileage through race experiences — she recently ran a 50-mile trail race and the Los Angeles Marathon. These chunky training milestones provide the relative luxury of being able to practice a full race simulation before heading to the main goal. And that’s exactly how she should use this period of training — to experiment, tweak, adjust, and get to know what her body needs. When Adriana stands on the start line her fueling strategy should be unique to her. Derived from an understanding of personal needs.
“I will be fine-tuning my nutrition plan between now and Boston. I want to make sure I'm not either under- or over-fueled, now that I have a better understanding of what I need per hour. When I get to the halfway part of any race, that's when the race starts for me. I always feel good at the beginning, but I think about what I need nutritionally for the second half. How do I fuel that? Do I just consume 5 gels and go for it? Or, do I have 5 gels and then a peanut butter sandwich to fight flavor fatigue? That's one of the things I'm working on in training too.”
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In addition to the fueling aspect, Adriana is experimenting with different workouts and transitioning her training into a new focus — more speed work. A 50-mile trail race doesn’t necessarily translate into fast miles on the road so a shift at this point in the preparation process is appropriate. It’s a traditional linear periodization approach — reducing volume following a period of base training and increasing intensity. “I'm not worried about the distance because I can do 26.2 miles; I mean, that'll be fun compared to 50. For Boston, I am training for speed. Zeroing-in on that these last few months helped me run the LA Marathon 8 minutes faster than I ran the New York Marathon in 2024. I'm part of a running club here called Team Runners High, and they have a track we go to on Tuesday nights. I've been working on my race pace, fine tuning my form, and visualizing a finish time that I want to hit in Boston, which is exciting.”
Regardless of the goal, Adriana’s purpose is grounded in the same ethos — fun comes first.
"Everything I'm learning about right now — the nutrition, speed, form, shoes, clothes — It all just helps enhance the enjoyment of something which is so incredibly fun. I'm gathering the knowledge to enhance the experience but not get caught up in, or overwhelmed by, the data."
“I am enjoying learning about how to use the Maurten products as part of my training so that, ultimately, the racing experience is fulfilling. I read this quote the other day that said: "Train hard so the performance is easy.”
Maurten’s Lean Performance Dietitian, Lauren Thomas, noted, “the session with Adriana highlighted how challenging navigating the sports nutrition space can be as an amateur. There is so much conflicting information and misinformation across social media and the internet that can leave athletes confused — or committed to a fueling practice that isn’t serving them. I saw she was not getting enough carbohydrate in her pre-long run breakfast or her post-long run refueling which was likely playing a big role in the hunger she felt later in the day. Unlike many professionals who have more time to focus on recovery and fueling the rest of the day, many amateurs are running around balancing full time jobs, families, etc so they can benefit from planning nutrition ahead of time.”
Coming next:
With support from the Maurten Nutrition Team, Log 3 will explore how Adriana was able to implement and simulate a marathon race strategy in LA, a course that offered a comparable test to Boston.
Interview by Ross Lovell
Adriana Estrada - Runner | US
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