A snapshot round up of a host of recent achievements by coachees across performance levels from fully fledged international through club big hitters to others with slightly less all-consuming goals. […]
London this year was a big highlight for many. Weather was ideal for racing and almost every coachee had a very fine run relatively to their level and experience. First […]
The autumn road races roll on. On 23rd October Paul Piper raced to 69.03 at the prestigious Valencia half whilst at the very much wetter Abingdon marathon that morning there […]
A very diverse array of marathons this autumn, with coachees channeling their efforts across 14 marathons from late September to early December. You'll be spared the splits of all […]
Some excellent runs to finish the spring marathon season. In the Cheshire elite marathon Martin Green was Mr Consistent as ever and powered round in 2.31, at age 47 one […]
And so into April and the heart of the spring marathon season. Starting in Manchester where Chris Oddy ran an excellent 2.23,within seconds of his 2021 PB. Fred D had […]
Early spring has brought numerous fine results from coachees. These include Isaac L taking his marathon PB down further to 2.38 at the great Seville race, while a week later […]
Late autumn and early winter was a kind of evolving state of limbo in the world of Covid and Races, with many races going ahead either on their planned dates […]
As we find our way through managing the Covid risk in road and track running and in wider life the racing menu had gradually reappeared over the summer in abbreviated […]
After Lockdown Phase 3, April brought some fine results for coachees. The performance highlight was the much-awaited Cheshire Elite Marathon, a new and wonderful event in the rural Welsh borders. […]
It has been a grimly curtailed year for racing runners thus far with, for almost the whole planet, very limited further options for several months (New Zealand runners can look […]
A further very impressive 10k PB by Martin G, 32.32 in Wales at age 45, having recently won the North Wales Cross Country Championship, great results as standalones and all […]
Late autumn has brought another swathe of fine runs. Starting at the Telford 10k, after the Leeds Abbey Dash was found to be a painful 23 metres short (‘course landscape’ […]
A mixture of distance highlights in recent weeks. A major highlight came at Leeds Abbey Dash 10k where Will Green ran a startling 30.26 to place in the Top 3 All […]
The summer is invariably a marathon-free season as attention moves towards track and shorter endurance road races. Warm weather often means times are compromised but for those who find the […]
Another wonderful London Marathon passes with many thousands of great stories, achievements, and more information about Mo Farah’s Ethiopian hotel bills than we probably need. On a personal coaching level, […]
And so the marathon season gets into full swing and a group, based in the likes of London, Aberdeen, Bournemouth (I like coaching people in Bournemouth, work this one out!) […]
A very busy period of racing, with many testing themselves over half marathons as the marathon season fast approaches. We’ll start with a marathon and a very impressive early season […]
....on cross country and road. At the sharpest end, Chris W had a great month; 3rd in the Middlesex Championships; 4th in the fierce Metropolitan League then a very exciting […]
Let’s start with the most recent because as well as the raw data being very impressive it’s a fine example of perseverance and was achieved by one of life’s finest […]
Last orders for the track season and segueing into the road season there have been various highlights and breakthroughs, in each case well deserved after toughing out the training through […]
I really shouldn’t do this but I came across this one when for some reason I was directed to the USA Amazon site which seems to have different content, on […]
Too much going on across the running world to be fully comprehensive for all coachees but I’ll do two parts. Firstly, Swift Serpies. In order of descending age: Christine K […]
Ahead of the London Marathon some notable highlights included a big marathon breakthrough by Jack B at Manchester, with 2.55 a 7 minute PB. At the Valencia Half Chris O […]
A tale of several halves, some very ill-timed snow and ice and some compensatory Treadmill heroics. Amongst the racers, The Big Half was a super day for Serpentine, with the […]
As winter starts to bite in London, a round-up of later autumn progress. Numerous marathon advances across the span of UK, Europe and USA, but also some hard-earned progress at […]
Berlin is always a target for several and this year proved particularly fulfilling for some of the long term highly committed runners I coach. A great run and 3 minute […]
Over the summer the coaching headlines (well, this coach’s headlines) shift away from people doing marathons to more races in the 5k and 10k range on road and track, the […]
So the dust settles over the London Marathon. As ever, many stories, some great achievements and, this being about the coaching of people rather than robots, a couple of disappointments. […]
December is a relatively quiet time for key races, and ditto January, but for the old school types early January means the County Cross Country Championships, By old school, I […]
I thoroughly enjoyed Rio. I’ll try to find something vaguely original and not too gushing about the action. Given how much has been written already, I won’t have much to […]
A lot of numbers there. Firstly, it relates to the great landmark set by Roger Bannister in May 1954 in breaking the Four Minute Mile, which was commemorated in a […]
In the UK in June/July 2016 Euro tends to refer to the Brexit referendum fias…..errm result or the half-baked ineptitude of the English football team. But in the athletics world […]
Here’s some race results that show that coaching people could all be very straightforward, if only the ‘people’ bit could eliminate the human behaviour side of things. Here’s how the […]
Home territory for this, presenting the road tested material I have used at some England Athletic network Flying Coach sessions, this time with a Serp-centric slant. There are always two […]
Early January in the traditional running world has often meant County Cross Country Championships and 30 years ago it was commonplace for Olympic level distance runners to toe the line […]
The word ‘dodgy’ has preceded the word ‘Russian’ in several sports for many many years. Now we know that we can simply say ‘cheating’ and avoid the nudge-nudge innuendo. I […]
On a weekend when the UK half marathon scene was dominated by the Great North Run and the Bristol halves, two much smaller races yielded chunky PBs for coachees. So […]
A couple of thoughts relating to the sharp end of the sport as the upcoming World Championships in Beijing approach. The UK Athletics team found no place for Andy Vernon […]
At the haloed surrounds of the Stratford Holiday Inn for an England Athletics session with Alan Storey and Lindsay Dunn. Both have a vast array of GB Olympians and internationals […]
An exciting afternoon at Birmingham’s Alexandra Stadium for the UKA Championships/World Championship trials. Olympic Champions Jess Ennis-Hill and Christine Ohorougu are in action before an enthusiastic but worryingly sparce crowd […]
This is one of the more cutting edge things that I have been involved in. A Norwegian business has commissioned a market research company to put together a steering group […]
So the Al Sal story rumbles on. I don't claim to have read everything on the subject, or intend to do so. My view is that his extremely detailed 12,000 […]
To Folkestone in Kent to do an England Athletics Flying Coach seminar with the county’s athletics network coaches. The theme is Marathon, which in early March is very timely. Folkestone […]
It was pleasing to have a positive response to the marathon training piece published in today’s Guardian Running blog,http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2015/mar/04/mar... so thanks to Lifestyle Editor Kate Carter (3.11 at a very […]
A super day on Saturday with the National Cross Country Championships taking place at Parliament Hill, Hampstead, one of the sport’s ‘spiritual homes’. The best runners from all age groups […]
'Elite' is becoming very overused. Someone I know described his football coaching as the 'Brentford elite Under 9s' and he wasn't being ironic. Another running coach who should have known better […]
Travel to Birmingham University for Bud's Run, a one off tribute 5k to help raise funds to combat Parkinson's disease which Bud has very sadly been suffering from for four […]
So, now he is the UK's most famous ever 2.15 marathon guy – though not as famous as the UK’s 2.15 marathon woman! It’s a great story, fat ex-smoker to […]
This was shortlisted for the 2013 Sports Book of the Year and would in many years have been a worthy winner of the award. The author, a former USA college […]
With new 10k runs popping up all over the place, there was a special evening of 10,000 metre races at Parliament Hill track on Saturday. The second year of this […]
A great pleasure to interview 1986 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres Champion Jonathan Solly for a Serpie event on Thursday. I've known Jon through the England Athletics Coach Mentor scheme and as […]
The endurance world, and coaches in particular, was shocked and immensely saddened to hear of the recent and premature passing of Dave Sunderland. He was a great coach, a great […]
A busy weekend, with a marathon-focused workshop for England Athletics in Stockport that seemed to be well received by all. http://www.englandathletics.org/news.asp?itemid=12645&itemTitle=Training+for+the+Spring+Marathon+workshop+sees+excellent+turnout§ion=000100010002001300020001 Away from the Church Community Centre and out […]
http://www.runnersworld.com/new-york-city-marathon/citizen-runner-yuki-kawauchi-takes-on-the-nyc-marathon An amazing story to enlighten a runner's Christmas. The race frequency of Yuki Kawauchi, and the amazingly high level he keeps running these marathons at, is totally without compare in […]
Very encouraged to be asked to join this small group of coaches who are looking at ways to restore former glories in an increasingly Kenya/Ethiopia dominated world. The day kicks off with some building […]
Two intense and interesting days at Nottingham University for the European Federation Endurance Conference. It's a great mix of high achieving coaches (European and world champions and medallists on their […]
Here's a coincidence. On the same night that Tokyo is awarded the 2020 Olympics, someone I coach updates me on his applicaton for the Tokyo marathon in 2014. The race […]
A wonderful race fantastically covered by the combined BBC expertise of Steve Cram and Paula Radcliffe. WIth 2 1/2 hours of uninterrupted coverage of the race it was a rare […]
This is wonderful stuff. Although the marathon is supposedy everyone's favourite sexy running distance, this coach has always been fascinated by the 10,000 metres on the track (notice my pointless […]
This seems to have become the hottest topic in running recently. There is a huge array of material, mainly web based, amidst which it can be hard to pick out […]
Touring Spain's Basque country (Pais Vasco). If like me you are a Hispanophile endurance obsessive, and admittedly it's maybe not the UK's biggest niche group, then when you reach the […]
So, my book Improve Your Marathon and Half Marathon Running has now been published by Crowood and I expect that even as I write the Amazon online system is about […]
Well I wouldn't fancy sharing a beer with the LOCOG officer who described the recent Games as 'a sporting overlay for the biggest regeneration project in Europe'. Strangely enough over […]
It’s now Day 10 of the Olympics and I suppose if a coaching blog is going to comment at all it should find something that hasn’t already been said a […]
Two days of competition so far, although sporting tales aside, when I was spinning the Sex Pistols' first album in 1977 I don't imagine anyone would have thought that Pretty Vacant […]
Saw 'Salute' today, a film about the famous Black Power salute on the medal podium in the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. It's one of sport's most stirring images, the […]
They say you shouldn’t meet your heroes and I admit that if Michael Stipe or Neil Young bumped into me at the bakery I would go all tongue tied and […]
These are opportunities that don’t crop up every day. Via the England Athletics Coach development Programme a group of 8 endurance coaches have a session on movement and technique with […]
At Bedford for the UKA Under 20 and Under 23 championships. A large part of the GB Olympic team for 2016 and 2020 will have been amongst the athletes taking […]
It's the first event in the 2012 Olympic stadium this weekend, and for all the students taking part in the British Universities and Colleges Championships (BUCS) a fantastic opportunity to […]
At Stanmer Park, Brighton. One of the hilliest cross country courses you could find and possibly on the borderline of being classified as a hill race. It’s a crisp mild […]
As part of the England Athletics Area Coach Mentor remit, hosting a coach development day focused on Female Endurance at Hertfordshire University. The morning sessions look at the specific medical […]
As part of the Brighton marathon build up, Event Manager Richard Nerurkar, himself one of GB’s marathon greats, backed by England Athletics, has invited over Italian guru Lucciano Gigliotti. Uniquely, […]
This was an interesting one. Firstly, it is the first time I’ve been in a conference room where the presenters are the same distance from the delegates as they are […]
