Issue 34

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Patience, Persistence, and Progress

Interview with Anthony Camerieri

We’re excited to welcome Anthony Camerieri back to The Hammer! After wrapping up a standout collegiate career at Miami of Ohio and Ole Miss, Anthony joined Tinman Elite last year to pursue his dream of professional running. In training, Anthony embodies patience, consistency, and a long-term approach, prioritizing health and steady progress. On race day, he channels a fierce competitiveness fueled by a cultivated self-belief and will to win. The last time we caught up with Anthony, he had just completed his first full season as a professional and was looking forward to a consistent fall training block in preparation for year two. Now, as we close out 2024, Anthony shares updates on his training and racing plans, insights into his winter cross-training routine, reflections on overcoming injuries, and his goals for 2025. Enjoy this final newsletter of the year!

To learn more about Anthony, follow along on social media @hammerandaxetraining this week as he shares behind-the-scenes content, training tips, and more!

Hi Anthony - Welcome back to The Hammer! How has the fall training build been? Excited to get back to more racing soon?

Fall training has been going great! I built up to my highest mileage ever (80-85) and have been putting in week after week so I’m really excited about that. I also got to doing some long bike rides up in the mountains that I really enjoyed as well. I started dabbling in some racing the last couple weeks. I got 6th at the Manchester Road Race in a good field and then paced the college guys in a 5k last week. Both went really well so I’m excited to get going on the indoor season. I think I’m due for some pretty big PR’s.

You finished up your rookie year and now have some experience at the professional level. What did you learn from this first year that you hope to implement into training and racing moving forward?

The biggest thing that I learned that I look to change moving forward is that to be competitive at this level you have to train a ton and the margin for error is pretty small. The first part might seem obvious, but I’ve upped my mileage by almost 20 miles a week since college and I’m still doing less than pretty much everybody. Cross training has carried me to where I’m at now but I think to make it to the next level, I’m going to have to really up the running volume. Cross training will still play a role in my training, but to a lesser degree. As far as the margin for error, there are a lot of very good runners in the world. If you have even an okay day instead of a good day, you’re going to get passed by quite a few people. On the macro scale, if you only have an okay season instead of a good season, your world ranking will plummet. This could be the difference of only 5 seconds in a 5k race, for example. Everything seems higher stakes.

What are your go-to ways to cross train in the winter months when you can’t bike outside? Do you just switch to the stationary bike, or something else? How do you like to pass the time?

In the winter, it can be hard to get out on the bike due to cold/snow/ice/darkness. That said, usually I just put a bunch of warm/bright stuff on and get outside anyway. Some days it’s too dangerous with ice and snow and on those days I’ll hit the trainer. I just got a smart trainer from my friend Fin McLear so I’ve been enjoying that way more than the regular trainer. I use MyWhoosh which is just an alternative to Zwift.

Can you talk about a time when you were stuck in an injury cycle? What do you think made the difference in finally being more consistent and healthy?

My worst time for injury was my sophomore year of college. I could barely run every day because I had a bunch of random small injuries that weren’t bad enough to not run but were enough to hate every step. It culminated with a stress reaction in my foot that forced me to basically not run for 3 months. That 3 months I think was the most important 3 months of my running career because it allowed my body to reset and then gradually return to running at a super slow rate. The gradual return is what then let all of those other smaller injuries sort themselves out and not flare up. I think people too often try to build up too fast from season to season and they end up getting themselves in an injury cycle. Making the buildup to peak mileage even 2 weeks longer than normal can make a world of difference.

What do you want to accomplish in 2025?

My main goal for 2025 is just to PR in everything. A lot of my PRs are two years old at this point. That’s mainly from either not racing the distance or not getting in a good race for it to happen. I plan to do a better job at picking good races as well as having a more coherent race schedule than last year. 

My time goals are 3:35 in the 1500, 7:39 in the 3k, and 13:12 in the 5k.

Training Tip: Effective Weight Training

Weight training should never leave you so sore that you can’t effectively do your running in the following days. Keep the main thing (running) the main thing. Not that weight training isn’t important, but the running training is where you’re going to make most of your progress. If the quality of your runs is taking a hit from lifting, consider dialing back the intensity and/or frequency of your weight routine.

Need a coach to help you train consistently in 2025? Reach out today to work with Anthony!

See You Next Year! 🎉

Thank you so much for following along with our newsletter in 2024! We have lots of new and exciting content planned for 2025 - training tips, interviews, sport science insights, and more - so tell all your friends, and stay tuned…

What better way to start the new year than with a fresh new training plan from Hammer & Axe??

Personally, we can’t think of anything better

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