21 January 2012 - Female Endurance Coaching

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 […]
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14 January 2012 Coaching seminar at Brighton

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, […]
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7- 8 October 2011 European Athletics Association Endurance Conference at Heathrow

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 […]
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28 January 2012 - Southern Cross Country Championships

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 […]
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5 -7 May - Olympic Test Event

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 […]
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June 20 - Bedford

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 […]
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27 June - Masterclass

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 […]
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29 June England Athletics Marathon Workshop

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 […]
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15 July - When Running Goes Beyond Running

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 […]
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29 July - Olympics Are Go

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 […]
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Olympics Day 10 - No Quick WIns

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 […]
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24 August - Olympic Legacy musings

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 […]
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17 September - Author's Footnotes

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 […]
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27 September - Victorious from Vitoria

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 […]
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April 3 - Barefoot Musings

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 […]
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June 6 - Highgate Track 10,000s

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 […]
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August 10 - World Champs Women's Marathon

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 […]
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7 September - Tokyo Stats

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 […]
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European Endurance Conference - 9/10 November

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 […]
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1 December - UK Athletics Marathon Coaching Group

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 […]
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December 28 - World's Most Outstanding Marathoner?

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 […]
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January 4 - Across the Counties

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&section=000100010002001300020001  Away from the Church Community Centre and out […]
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19 February RIP David Sunderland

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 […]
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3 April - Jonathan Solly at Serpentine - Wisdom, Wit and Nostalgia

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 […]
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May 12 - 25 laps of thrills

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 […]
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21 June - Review of The Sports Gene by David Epstein

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 […]
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July 27 - Commonwealth Games Marathon - Steve Way - My Part in his downfall‏

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 […]
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October 5th - Bud's Run

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 […]
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January 17 - Is this 'elite'?

'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 […]
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February 22 - National Cross Country

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 […]
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March 12 - Flying Coach visit to Kent

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 […]
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March 4 - Guardian Running article

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 […]
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27 June - Some Thoughts on Al Sal

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 […]
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1 July - Omega 3 research

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 […]
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20 July 5k – the elite, the pretty good and the with child

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 […]
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25 July - Coaching Masterclass

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 […]
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4 August - Sharp End Shenanigans

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 […]
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September 15 - A Small Half and Last Knockings at 5000 metres

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 […]
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9 November - Russian Cheating

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 […]
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13 January - Serpentine Marathon Seminar/Q+A

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 […]
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9 January -New Year, Big Mud, Mo Outprinted

 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 […]
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6 June - Dorking 10; takes all sorts

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 […]
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July 12 - Runcoach at the Euros

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 […]
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28 July -3.59.4 – 1954 and 2016 Iffley Road

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 […]
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29 August - Rio.......and Stretford

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 […]
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January 16 - Counting the Counties

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 […]
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London Marathon - April 25

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. […]
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23 May - Highgate 10,000s

If you are reading this you will probably know about the event. It’s one of very few events that I wish had existed for me to toe the line in […]
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3 September - Long Summer in 4 soundbites

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 […]
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25 September – Berlin Breakthroughs, and more

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 […]
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Autumn Wrap Up

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 […]
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March 23 - Half Marathons vs Snow: Score Draw

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 […]
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29 April - Most Roads Lead to London

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 […]
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Summer Highlights Hotchpotch – Jul 23

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 […]
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1 August - Writer Goes On Ego Trip

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 […]
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October 8 - Early Autumn Pacesetters

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 […]
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December 3 - Autumnal Action

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 […]
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January highlights

....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 […]
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Early March - PBs, Wins and Winds

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 […]
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EARLY APRIL – Hours of Truth

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!) […]
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Capital Gains at London Marathon

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, […]
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Summer PBs on Track and Road – 7 October 2019

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 […]
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4 November 2019 - Autumnal Antics

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 […]
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Fall Wrap Up - 11 December 2019

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’ […]
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Winter Ramblings - Feb 6th 2020

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 […]
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Athleticus interruptus - October 2020

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 […]
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April 26 2021 The shutters finally come up

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. […]
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Summer and Autumn Highlights

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 […]
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Winter Racing - 16 February 2022

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 […]
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April 2022 - Marathons On The Go

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 […]
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March - Onwards

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 […]
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Autumn marathons – Phase One; October 5 2022

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 […]
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Summer Scribblings - Summer 2022

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 […]
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Autumn Race Highlights 2.0 - 12 December

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 […]
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Marathon – Deciding Goal Pace

I always make this is one of the key themes to address at a Flying Coach visit.  There’s, in my view, less need to go into the science beyond some […]
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Marathon Taper

Here are a few guidelines; certainly not exhaustive, and indeed not looking at anything outside the actual running,  but intended to put right some of the slightly off-beam advice that […]
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Running at or around Marathon Pace

This often comes up in exchanges with runners. What is often shown in some of the glossy mags (which I believe are shrink wrapped on newsstands so you don’t see […]
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Half Marathon Menu

There's an ever growing array of half marathons on offer. These are long tough distances for anyone and particularly if you don't have some years of training under your belt. […]
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Marathon Menu

Here is a list of recommended marathons that cover the UK, Europe and indeed the world. I have coached people who have done all these races and they all have […]
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Injuries - Guidelines

I've set out below extracts on injury management and avoidance from my book.    Bear in mind that ‘overuse’ is a deliberately generic word that in running injury terms can […]
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Marathon Recovery

I've set put below the principles of how best to recover after a marathon. It's one of the few aspects of 'training' where I find that what seems optimum for […]
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Marathon training

How Simple Can We Make It? Back in 2008 there was a UK Athletics Marathon Squad weekend where the then UKA Head of Endurance - with various Olympic medallists on his coaching […]
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Hill training

How can structured hill training work for you? Training on hills will:- Increase the efficiency of each stride Help to prevent injuries by strengthening the joints needed for free easy […]
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10km racing

We’ve all had that dialogue with non-runners who have two concepts of racing distances. Marathon – very long and tough. 10k – short and simple, the distance of choice for […]
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Strength and conditioning

This training element can combine any of the following, and all the permutations within each discipline Without going into detail in this website, a runner will run faster if, all […]
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Stretching - for better or worse?

As it always crops up in runners' debate on how to fune tune their training, we'll sum up, simply but practically, the latest thinking as applied to athletics and, particularly, […]
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How the elites train

Elite Marathon Training What can we learn from how a top international level marathoner trains?  Here is an insight into the training of top Spanish endurance athlete, Fabian Roncero. How […]
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Fundamentals

Some of the wisest running advice comes from some of the sport’s most respected achievers and they express great wisdom very simply. Here are some basics:- Make the hard days […]
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What's In A Name?

That’s ‘runcoach 1to1’ I mean, not my actual name (third generation Russian immigrant in case you wondered, my great grand-father never got round to Anglicising the surname) . I liked […]
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'Who Does He Coach?'

Some of you may wonder ‘ Is this coach for me?’ so to add to the information shown on the website of what I am and what I am not, […]
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Preface to my Book

I have set out below the preface from my book as it shows more about what I am like. Perhaps deludedly, I still think I can promote myself with a […]
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Other testimonials

Dr Sarah Rowell, Chair of UK Athletics and former UK Marathon record holder (2.28) and Technical Consultant to the English Institute of SportDavid has shown tremendous intuition and drive to […]
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The coach

David Chalfen David is a runner and coach with over 40 years experience, and 18 years in coaching with a focus on longer distances, up to the marathon.  Qualified at Level […]
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The Runners

In addition to the fuller profiles set out below, which span much of the time I've been coaching with a focus on recent and long term high achievers.... Runners I coach […]
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Questionnaire

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Coaching service

The usual starting point is asking you to complete as fully as possible the Runner Questionnaire. This gives a holistic picture of where you are as a runner. It is valuable to spend this time at the outset, so that the programme starts off from a fully informed position.
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April Marathons And More

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 […]
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