Lou Serafini joined the CITIUS MAG Podcast this week to discuss his chase for breaking four minutes for the mile. He describes himself as a blue-collar runner since he balances a full-time job with Tracksmith and coaches other athletes when he’s not running. Lou also maintains a great social life with some fun roommates and is not afraid to have a beer or two after his race. Among the questions that was submitted when we asked for listener suggestions were “How does one break 4 on a diet of only eggs and beer?” and “Slap cup or Chandelier?” so he can have a good time.

Here at CITIUS MAG, we also believe in the good time. So we asked Lou how he managed to find that healthy balance between running, working and having a social life.

“Over a long period of time. I definitely overcompensated for the fact that I was a high-level athlete in college and drank a lot immediately after graduating. As I improved in running, I definitely found a balance to be happy more. If you’re not happy with your social life outside of running then it becomes a job. It becomes miserable. And then when you’re not performing well, then you look at your social life and think ‘Oh I could be having fun. I could be doing all these things and I’m not even running well.’ That’s when really bad feeling set in about the sport itself. I’m just a big proponent of keeping it fun and having a good time with it. That being said, I’m not going to go out and drink four or five beers before a workout but I definitely open myself up to as many opportunities as I can. We had New England Championships, the week before the mile in which I broke four, and a bunch our friends raced at that meet. I did not. I just spectated it but afterwards we all went out and had tons of pizza and beers afterwards and hung out in my apartment. That ended up being a late night and it was the Sunday before the race. You try to tell yourself to make as many smart decisions as you can but if you make a couple like that, it’s not necessarily going to take away too much physically and it might help you mentally. It’s hard to let go of that obsession that drinking a beer, eating a slice of pizza or having a bowl of ice cream is going to make you slower but if you can, then it makes you a lot happier in the long run. It’s taken some time but I’ve definitely gotten to that point now.”

Catch more of Lou’s insight into his training on the latest episode of The CITIUS MAG Podcast:

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You can find Lou’s sub-four minute mile training from the past 11 weeks below, which he posted to his Instagram: