tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65718366118749438152012-02-17T03:58:58.721ZThe trials and tribulations of an aspiring distance running coachChrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.comBlogger191100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-91624780096516505542011-01-31T06:37:00.001Z2011-01-31T06:37:53.044Z

I really shouldn’t leave this long between blog posts, because now there is loads to fill you in on. Note to self - must try to do better in future, how I would love an extra couple of hours in the day!!The last time I posted was before the European Cross Country Trials at Liverpool. That had been a big aim for Andrea and something which we thought would be difficult to qualify for, but a

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-78067641329162485642010-11-26T09:41:00.001Z2010-11-26T09:41:36.209Z

So with only a day to go, the Euro Trials are nearly upon us. This time tomorrow Andrea will have done her morning jog and we'll be about to head up towards Liverpool for the five mile cross-country race. This is the first time we have ever specifically aimed for one event before. Where the focus of the training cycle has been to perform in just one race, where results in other races just

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-65989418085942092062010-11-16T10:34:00.003Z2010-11-16T10:42:18.196Z

Once a runner has arguably grown to become the most famous running novel in the world. Written in the 70s it follows the trials and tribulations of Quentin Cassidy, a young, talented, miler who is based at the fictional Southeastern College in Florida. The story follows Cassidy over the course of an academic year. During which time we follow his progress over the college cross-country and

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-27338391299066091682010-10-14T18:49:00.001+01:002010-10-14T18:51:35.105+01:00

Note to self, must post more often. It has been a few weeks again, oh well at least there is twitter now to show you that I am still alive (see right sidebar). So in this post I thought I would give an update of what has been going on and what is scheduled to be going on in mine and Andrea’s world right now. As you may have already noticed Andrea was absent from last months Berlin marathon.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-69988292412656691012010-09-19T08:10:00.004+01:002010-09-19T08:16:39.123+01:00

This blog post is in reply to Chris’ question on the Evolutionary Training post.I was thinking about why I have formed the opinions I have done on this evolutionary training idea. Some of it was after reading "born to run" by Christopher McDougall, in which he suggests that our very existence is due to us evolving to become the ultimate endurance land mammals on the planet. As a species humans

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-13306240211064387692010-06-26T11:56:00.000+01:002010-06-26T11:57:15.818+01:00

As is the way with athletics, things never go as smoothly as you hope they will. As a result we have altered Andrea’s plans and she is no longer running the European Trials this weekend and the Berlin Marathon at the end of September. It is a bit disappointing, however, the great thing about the UK running scene (or bad thing - depending on which way you look at it) is that there are so many

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-58250821320462095582010-06-06T21:09:00.000+01:002010-06-06T21:11:32.551+01:00

I finished this book this morning. Like my last book review (see post) this isn’t a new release - I think it was released in May 2009. The book is the autobiography of disgraced athlete Dwain Chambers. It has been a book I have wanted to read since it was released last year and I finally got round to it last week.Dwain Chambers is an extremely controversial character. A love him or hate him type

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-80926957275135507972010-05-26T13:27:00.002+01:002010-05-26T13:30:36.974+01:00

As many of you may already appreciate, the world that we live in now is very removed from the environment that we evolved in. We have come a long way from our humble beginnings. Industrial revolutions and economic growth have meant that we no longer have to hunt for own food or live off the land in quite the same way that we used to. The wonders of free market capitalism and globalization have

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-33615537045440928592010-05-11T10:11:00.004+01:002010-05-11T19:40:19.156+01:00

Last weekend saw quite a milestone being broken in the athletics world. Across the pond in Palo Alto, California at the Stanford Cardinal Meeting an American record was being billed in the men’s 10000m event. Galen Rupp, of Oregon Track Club, had flown down from Eugene as he felt in shape to tackle Meb Keflezighi’s 9-year-old mark. Rupp's team believed that the superb conditions that seem to

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-33315123303616809642010-05-01T10:54:00.004+01:002010-05-01T11:14:52.399+01:00

Andrea and I have just returned to the UK after our six month career break/holiday. It has been an amazing trip and a once in a lifetime opportunity. However, all good things must come to an end and we both have to return to normality and return to work/get a job. That doesn’t mean that the lessons learnt on our trip are forgotten. We both hope to maintain the momentum that we have built up,

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-63784005272088881022010-04-24T19:39:00.007+01:002010-04-24T19:48:11.622+01:00

I finished this book yesterday, it is not a new book (it was published in 2006), but has many things in it that I believe are relevant today. The book is written by Scott Simmons and Will Freeman who have both had great success at coaching cross country at colleges in the USA. ‘Taking the lead’s primary focus is on training for cross country. The book briefly goes into some of the training

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-19434216484165814882010-04-21T01:27:00.001+01:002010-04-21T01:27:35.426+01:00

Wow what a meeting!!The Mt SAC Relays in Walnut California (around 30miles east of LA) has established itself in the professional and college athletics calendar as a great place to run fast in the early season. It is basically a carnival of athletics and not just of distance events, it has them all. There is so much going on, from pole vault to hammer throw to the non-stop track action and often

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-12786264413903879382010-04-11T01:39:00.003+01:002010-04-11T01:42:41.757+01:00

It has been announced that the London Marathon are set to invest a further £150K per year into British Endurance. Here is the link: http://www.letsrun.com/2010/london0408.php. While not being an earth-shattering amount of money, it is still great news and if spent wisely can make a big difference. Any money invested in British endurance running is a good thing and should certainly be encouraged.

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-16250786214903339502010-04-05T02:23:00.001+01:002010-04-05T02:27:11.480+01:00

If you live in the UK chances are your running has, at some point, been affected by the weather. Be it snow, storms or wind, all have the ability to bring a training session to a standstill. This was exactly what happened to myself and Andrea today. We are currently residing in Ridgecrest California before heading south to Los Angeles later on and had a speedy 1500m paced track workout planned (3

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-5625186300832155542010-04-01T05:54:00.004+01:002010-04-01T06:14:07.129+01:00

Andrea began her outdoor season at the Oregon Preview at the end of our stay in Eugene and opened up with a nice seven second personal best in the metric mile (she was 3rd in 4:23min). Unsure of how to race a 1500m she perhaps didn’t work hard enough in the middle. It can be hard for these long distance runners, who are used to long reps and tempos in training, to step down to the middle

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-70296376560197298742010-03-22T18:03:00.001Z2010-03-22T18:05:28.505Z

We are now into our final week staying in Eugene, Oregon. After being here for 6 weeks so far we feel like we are ready to move on and moving on we will be when we head south to do some of the top collegiate races in California. For those that aren’t aware Eugene is the self-titled “Track Town USA” and it more than lives up to the name. The town has a long history in track and field, dating back

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-63479470763679423242010-03-17T18:44:00.002Z2010-03-18T18:38:35.639Z

I felt compelled to write following the announcement of the British teams for the World Cross Country Championships yesterday. The teams announced highlighted yet again the worrying trend in UKA policies towards raising the criteria for selection and making it near impossible for the majority of serious club athletes to ever entertain hopes of being eligible to compete for Great Britain.UKA have

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-81737973567014671182010-03-11T23:41:00.002Z2010-03-14T19:12:23.618Z

I think it is important for every athletics coach to be clear about what their philosophy is and what they want to achieve. Whilst I am still developing constantly as a coach I already have an idea of what my philosophy is and where my ambitions lie.I would say that the main people who have influenced me as a coach are Jack Daniels, Alberto Salazar, Renato Canova, Brad Hudson and Peter Coe. There

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6571836611874943815.post-58416576160388907412010-03-06T02:30:00.000Z2010-03-06T02:31:23.981Z

I used to run to a reasonable standard, however injuries and the resultant mentality meant that I never trained or raced anywhere near my capabilities. After taking 6 months to build up to 30min of running a few times a week and then breaking down again I realised that I had had enough. I ended up quitting in the summer of 2009. So many regrets, so many mistakes, it is hard to look back on my

Chrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14391860059178988097noreply@blogger.com0