{"id":364,"date":"2013-10-03T15:42:02","date_gmt":"2013-10-03T15:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/theed\/?p=364"},"modified":"2025-06-17T10:23:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T10:23:31","slug":"intro-to-the-athlete-ab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.com\/theed\/10k-training\/intro-to-the-athlete-ab","title":{"rendered":"Intro to the athlete AB"},"content":{"rendered":"

The end April this year; 2013, I approached a local athlete on the island of Lanzarote (and it is with her permission that I am writing this blog<\/em>) with the intention of training her. One of the main ideas behind this, was that I knew my wife would be needing a training partner in the future.<\/p>\n

AB at the time, had participated in the local Volcano Triathlon and was somewhat disappointed in her event that she had only managed her 10k run in 51:07, at the end of the Tri. Please note; that after a few decades of coaching, I do consider myself to have an eye for ability and when I approached her, I knew there was a great amount that could be transformed.<\/p>\n

The negatives the athlete would say, was that she was turning 50 and that she was not very fast. I stated that if you can run sub 4 minutes for 1km there was a great deal we could do with her. She didn’t think she could run sub 4 minutes for 1km. I was not too concerned and AB was willing to go ahead with the training immediately.<\/p>\n

She stated that she had entered the Wine Run 21km on the 23rd June and wanted to run that. I didn’t have that much time to get AB to truly believe that she was indeed a runner and that the only problem was that she had never thought she could run faster before.<\/p>\n

AB was pointed towards the sub 50 minute 10km Training Program<\/a> and we had begun.<\/p>\n

The first 3 x 2k session AB rolled out at 4.55 per k and this was not considered that easy.<\/p>\n

Belief and self-belief, are massive components in an athlete transforming and running faster; the willingness to do the work and accept what comes with it are imperative.<\/p>\n

I knew that AB could run sub 50 minutes off the training she had done for the Triathlon, and all that was needed to be done, was for us to arrange a time-trial along the route of the local Lanza Road Runners club run. Boom, AB churned out a 47:48 (we were grateful to the assistance of 2 pacesetters<\/em>) on the 25th May.<\/p>\n

We were on our way in her development<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Two weeks later and after having done a little bit more on the program with not much mileage, AB needed to run a 5k time-trial. By this time, my wife had joined AB, but did not have much training under her belt. On the 8th of June, AB ran 22:18, having picked up the pace over the last 1.5km. After this run, AB stated that she could not run any faster, that she was shattered. I replied that this would be the pace she would run for 10km come the end of summer.<\/p>\n

I was given a look that I may be mad.<\/p>\n

It must be noted, that the session AB had done during the week, 6 x 1k, was only at 4.40 per k. So sub 4.30 per k for AB was certainly due to her natural ability, and we had a fair amount of work to do, if we were to get a sub 45 minute come the end of summer.<\/p>\n

Maybe, I was indeed mad.<\/p>\n

On the 15th June; AB, the wife and myself rolled out a 54 minute 10km and this was a week before the wine run 21km. I did not want to place any pressure on AB and told her to go and enjoy. Of course, the athlete’s self-belief and in her mind, the lack of training for the distance worried her. I mentioned that all would be OK.<\/p>\n

Things were OK and on the 23rd June, AB ran 1:51:49\u00a0 for the off-road 21km. I was only too happy to have that out the way, as I had also mentioned on the day that AB ran the 22:18 that she would run sub 22:00 for 5km, the next time we were knocking out the time-trial on the route.<\/p>\n

Even if AB was training on the sub 50 minute schedule, my job at hand was to convince the athlete they could indeed run.<\/p>\n

And run they could, on July 6th, AB popped out a 21:30 5k time-trial. She finished shattered, in the same state as when she ran 22:18, and I obliged by saying that next time out she would run sub 21 minutes.<\/p>\n

We now had 2 weeks before the 20th July for AB to run a 10km race.<\/p>\n

We were hoping there was more to come.<\/p>\n

more to follow, as this has all taken place in the past<\/em><\/p>\n

The next article in the series – The Making\u00a0 of the Athlete AB<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: Gavin Doyle<\/p>\n