2009 hopes and marathon predictions

Running over the christmas holiday period didn't exactly go according to plan with a small problem in my left hip bringing me to a standstill for a few days. It was quite literally a pain in the arse and meant that I had to miss out on the Nos Galan 5k race on New Year's Eve. Although I'm now easy running again, this weekend's South West Cross Championships is also out the question so I will wrapped up warm taking photos and cheering on my Wells City Harrier team mates as they chase some more silverware.

The link in the Book secition to the Canova/Arcelli book from the IAAF was no longer working and has now been fixed thanks to a sharp eyed reader.

2009 promises to be an exciting year for marathoning. With Haile ruling the roost and Sammy Wanjiru proving in Beijing that he can win the hard way the scene is set for the world record to get pushed into new territory. Add in a growing group of east africans who have worked out how to prepare properly for 42km and we could see a 2:02 before the end of year with the right race and conditions. Though like many athletics fan what I would really like to see is a Haile v Wanjiru match up. Somehow I don't think it will happen in '09.

The big unknown for the women is what level Paula can return to. I've got a feeling she could be sub 2:20 again but no longer so dominant that she can run away from fields from the gun. So who will be brave enough to go with her and put her under real pressure in the last 10km ? London should be a fascinating race.

Domestically the women look stronger than the men with Mara Yamauchi also having emerged to world class in 2008 with her win in Osaka in January backed up with 6th in Beijing and 3rd in Tokyo at the end of the year. Expect a big PB revision this year.

All eyes will be on London to see if any of the british men can take the step from 2:18 to sub 2:15 and beyond. Their (our) cause is hardly helped by the selection policy of UK Athletics which persists in declining to send to a team to the IAAF World Marathon Team race. Other countries such as Canada have seen the light and are taking a more incremental approach and will send a team to Berlin as long as 4 guys have the IAAF standard. They have a really simple, long term approach which is articulated in a short document on their website. Not surprisingly Canadian marathon standards are on the rise already after 1 year of this strategy. Ian Stewart take note. Dan Robinson will be looking to take a big chunk off his 2:13 PB and an interesting debut could be Andrew Lemoncello who just looks like a marathoner in the making.

My plans will revolve around 2 marathons this year and key to making progress will be to carry improved 10k speed through the marathon build up phase. I'm really looking forward to it along with another training camp or two in the mountains (photo). Before that though there are some cross country races to be negotiated with the highlight being the Saucony English National at Parliament Hill. Bring it on !

Canova Hill Sprints

The last few weeks I have been back on the track doing some specific training sessions to prepare for the 10,000m trials on the 14th June. One of the things I've noticed is that despite having done very little traditional 'speedwork' I have still got plenty of speed (by my standards) and was able to run a series of 200s in 29 secs the first time out.

I'm sure that retaining the ability to run at close to my maximum speed has got something to do with the hill sprints that I have been doing for the last year. I started them as part of my build up for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2007 and have kept them going weekly during the winter. The idea has been popularised by Italian coach Renato Canova who is currently head coach for Qatar and the personal coach to athletes such as steeplechase world record holder Stephen Cherono (aka Said Saeef Shaheen) and Mubarak Shami (formerly Richard Yatich) who won Marathon silver at Osaka's World Championships.

The idea behind the hill sprints is quite simple. As long distance runners we spend a lot of time exercising the slow twitch and intermediate fibres in our muscles but relatively little time on the few fast twitch fibres that we have. However these fast twitch fibres are needed at the end of the race when all the others are exhausted or to produce a sprint finish. So to train them effectively we need to provide a training stimulus which activates them and the quickly overloads them. Hill sprints are how we do it. I tend to do these workouts in flexible shoe such as the Saucony Type A or Grid Tangent as there is a lot of foot flexion required to maintain a good running action when sprinting uphill.

The precise gradient of the hill is not that important but it needs to be steep and long enough for a 10-12 second maximum effort. After a good warm up you are ready to go.
1. Sprint for 10-12 seconds uphill at maximum speed. Why 10-12 seconds ? Well after that the effort is starting to be lactic-anaerobic and the speed will start to decrease. Remember we are looking for a maximum effort to recruit the fast twitch fibres.
2. Walk back down the hill taking as long as required to recover. 2 minutes is probably the minimum recovery time.
3. Repeat until the legs are exhausted. You will tell when they are because they feel like jelly and the speed starts to drop off ! As soon as you can no longer maintain the speed then stop.

Adaptation to this type of training is surprisingly fast. The first time you try it you may only be able to manage 3 or 4 efforts but can add one effort each subsequent session.

Remember though, its all about maximum speed and full recovery !

1st July 2009 COMING SOON - photos and video clip