Scottish Athletics statistician, Arnold Black posted the following:
“ATHLETE OF THE DAY – MARK MITCHELL
When Mark Mitchell won the 800m/1500m double at the 2012 Scottish Champs, he was the first athlete to achieve that feat since Duncan McPhee in 1923. Mark won 5 Scottish track champs, 1 indoor title, 1 road and 1 cross country title. He was a finalist in the 800m at the Euro Juniors and semi-finalist at the World Youths and Juniors. He gained the qualifying standard for the 2014 Commonwealths but unluckily missed out on selection. Representing Forres Harriers and Birchfield, he set career bests of 48.90 (400), 1:48.42 (800), 3:41.48 (1500), 4:01.23 (1M), 7:59.00 (3000) and 30:23.13 (10,000).”
Twice, in 2012 and 2014 Mark raced 3000m on the track as a Senior for Scottish International teams.
Mark Mitchell was born in 1988 and had great success from early on, securing many Scottish titles.
Under-13: 2001 Scottish Short Course; Scottish Schools Group D 1500m;
Under-15: 2002 Scottish Schools Group C 1500m.
Under-17: 2003 and 2004 Scottish Schools Group B 800m; 2003 and 2004 Scottish Championship 800m; 2004 Scottish Indoor 800m. In 2003, at Belfast, Mark raced cross country for Scotland.
In 2004, Mark travelled with the Scottish team to the Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia. Could that be him kneeling in the middle of the front row?
Under-20: 2005 Scottish Schools 800m; 2005 and 2006 Scottish Championship 800m; 2005 and 2006 Scottish Indoor 800m.
As a Senior, Mark Mitchell won the 2013 Scottish Short Course XC Championship; and finished an excellent third in the 2016 Scottish Senior National XC Championships. On the road, he won the 2016 Scottish 5 km Championship. His Scottish track titles were: 800m in 2008, 2010 and 2012; 1500m in 2011 and 2012; Indoor 1500 in 2014. In addition, he secured a bronze medal in the British 2012 Indoor 3000m Championship.
Mark won many North District XC Championships: under 13 in 2000 and 2001; under 15 in 2002 and 2003; under 17 in 2004. As a Senior, he was North District Champion in 2011, 2012 and 2015.
Scottish Athletics reported:
“Despite severe forecasts, the atmosphere at the 2015 North District Championships could not be dampened and the event was a massive success with increased numbers in most age groups and a high standard of competition with lots of close finishes. The talk was all about Inter-district selection as well, so there was a lot to play for.
It was also a day when the Senior titles delivered success which can aptly be described as ‘his and hers’ with Mark Mitchell taking the Men’s race in a great finish as his partner (and future wife), Eilidh Mackenzie, won the Women’s gold for the fourth time.”
Top four in the Men’s race – with Mark Mitchell champion again
Left to right: Kyle Greig, Mark Mitchell, Kenny Wilson, John Newsom
“The Senior Men’s race had a field packed with high standard athletes and internationalists, which delighted the spectators. Mitchell won it from John Newsom, of Inverness Harriers with Kyle Greig, Forres Harriers, in third and Kenny Wilson, Moray Road Runners, fourth.
The Senior Women did not disappoint with an exciting battle between eventual winner Eilidh Mackenzie, Stornoway RAC from Sarah Liebnitz, Inverness Harriers, with Rhona Grant, Highland Hill Runners taking the bronze place.”
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It has been a remarkable career with several highlights but what does Mark himself think of his athletics career so far when he looks back at it? We asked him to complete the questionnaire to give us some insight into his own thoughts and feelings. The other thing that runners want to know, is about the training that other, often more successful runners are doing. It is covered in these replies and are really worth inspecting.
MARK ANSWERS THE QUESTIONNAIRE
NAME
Mark Forbes Mitchell
CLUBs
Forres Harriers
Birchfield Harriers
DATE OF BIRTH
23/05/1988
OCCUPATION
Physiotherapist, NHS Eileanan Siar (NHS Western Isles)
HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE SPORT?
My Auld Boy (Dad) used to play squash and someone advised him to take up running in order improve his aerobic fitness for squash. He took himself along to train with Forres Harriers and he would do all of the local road races up to half marathon distance. I’ve got some relatively early memories of him running races in Forres, Lossiemouth and Elgin. I am unsure of his PBs but he tells me he got close to breaking 1 hour 40 minutes for a half marathon at one point. He’s got all the results written down on the back of an A4 envelope in a drawer somewhere. I am unsure whether his squash performances benefitted from these endeavours.
My older brother and older sister then followed him along to the club training on Tuesdays and Thursdays. At about the age of nine I did the very same. I think it was essentially a cheap way to keep three kids entertained and get us out of the house in order to give my Mum a bit of peace – the same reason we were “made” to attend Sunday School. My older brother, John, represented Scottish Schools at the British Schools Cross Country International at Chepstow in Wales in 1997. He was in the same team as Andrew Lemoncello, in the intermediate boys’ race, which was won by none other than Mo Farah. Chris Thompson won the senior boys’ race that year.
I commenced competitive running almost immediately on going along to Forres Harriers training nights and I think my first taste of action would have been the under 11 division of the North District Cross Country League. The league stretched from Peterhead to Lochaber and as far North as Caithness. Everything else followed on from there.
HAS ANY INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP HAD A MARKED INFLUENCE ON YOUR ATTITUDE OR INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE?
I think the biggest influence on my performance/mindset came once I started being coached by Lewis Walker in around early 2011. Lewis essentially rejuvenated an ailing 800m performer (me) into a much more rounded runner capable of competing from 1500m up to half marathon. Under Lewis’ tutelage I was able to produce results and training sessions over much longer distances than I ever thought I was capable of. It gave me a completely different trajectory and some of my best individual successes.
I would also mention a good friend here – Dan Mulhare of Portlaoise, Ireland. Dan was a contemporary of mine in that we both worked together in a running shop in Edinburgh and that we were also training and competing pretty seriously at the same time in circa 2010. With his attitude, work ethic and devotion to training he got himself picked for both the Euro Cross Country Champs and Euro Indoors (over 3000m) in the same winter season (2010/2011). His approach to running led to a period of introspection in myself and I tried to be more like Dan thereafter.
WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU GET OUT OF THE SPORT?
This has changed and evolved over time and (at time of writing) I haven’t run a competitive race since representing Scotland and running a distinctly average half marathon time in Denmark in 2017. My mind and thought processes are in a completely different place to where they have previously been during my younger, much more competitive years.
Having been involved in competitive running from a young age my sole focus was competition from the outset – specifically to win, run as fast as I could and compete at the very highest level. There is a buzz about competing that is quite difficult, if not impossible, to replicate in “normal” day-to-day life. I would find it difficult to articulate exactly what the group of emotions are when it comes to competing but, depending on how the preparation has been, probably includes a combination of nervousness, anxiety, excitement, anticipation, fear, relief and either ecstasy/agony (or somewhere in between, although not often).
I remember listening to an interview with Stephen Hendry once and he was asked whether winning a snooker tournament made up for all snooker tournaments that he’d lost. He simply answered “No” which sounds miserable but I think I understood where he was coming from. For me there were many, many low points and self-designated poor performances when I was competing. I often wondered whether the highs that I experienced from competing made up for the lows. I think that, despite myself, I am maybe a bit more optimistic than Hendry.
Highs can be high and the lows are definitely low and I think that probably showed how much I was emotionally invested in competitive running. At times I often thought that investing all my time in training and racing was, in a way, a pretty selfish and indulgent endeavour. I’m also not sure it was always the healthiest pastime and during periods of being unable to run due to injury it can be a very lonely, depressing place to be. Losing your identity as a “runner” when injured is complete and abject misery. However, all in all, and despite the previous sentiments, I think almost all of it was time well spent! I remember listening to the legendary Bobby Quinn of Kilbarchan AAC talk about how, in running, if you set yourself a goal and then achieve It, then the feeling you get from that fulfilment is unrivalled. Verbatim he said “You cannae whack it” and I can only agree with him on that.
Thankfully, I’ve grown out of the mindset and opinion that running had to be undertaken with the sole purpose to compete and win. At present I generally enjoy being active and use running as a form of exercise with a view to staying fit and healthy. My mind and productivity generally function better if I have been active and running is a very time-efficient and cost-effective method of releasing the body’s natural chemicals to achieve this. At present I’m managing to run most days and can cover up to 50 miles a week without making the runs too much of a chore or too arduous. It keeps the body weight down and allows me to be a bit more liberal with my diet and alcohol intake. A win-win situation as they say.
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST EVER PERFORMANCE OR PERFORMANCES?
One performance that always comes to the top of my mind is finishing 3rd at the UK Indoor Champs 3000m in 2012, running 7:59.00. On paper it is the single best result I had at a senior UK Champs and it was also a PB I was very happy with (and still am). There is also some subtext here which is key in my own mind as to why I rate it higher than all others. I’d only decided to “move up” from 800m the year before (2011) and had managed to make the UK Champs final over 1500m that year (finishing 8th in a PB of 3:44.44 – won by James Shane in a rapid 3:36.22). My own perspective was that I was still essentially a novice at anything longer than 800m on the track. As previously mentioned, Lewis Walker was coaching me at this stage and had gone about reinventing my physiological system and I had trained really, really well that winter. I ran 8:07.90 in Cardiff, essentially on my own, two weeks prior to the UK Champs. I was, at that time, unemployed and had been “signing on” for a couple of months. Between going to the Job Centre every two weeks I was training on my own in Forres as well as looking after my parents, who were off work having both had surgical procedures at roughly the same time (they recovered well are both totally fine). I saved up the weekly £52 that I was receiving from the State to travel down to Sheffield for the Indoor Champs. Before the race Lewis advised me to “not come 4th” and “don’t not break 8 minutes” or words to that effect. You regularly hear Michael Johnson using the word “execute” when talking about racing and, to borrow that cliché, it was probably a race that I “executed” to perfection. I hit the front in the last lap but couldn’t quite hold off Jonny Mellor and Stephen Davies. I finished 3rd (not 4th) and I also didn’t not break 8 minutes so I was delighted. For an “800m guy” this was a really, really pleasing result. To quote Bobby Quinn, “You cannae whack it”.
On reflection winning the 800m/1500m double at the Scottish Champs in 2012 was also pretty good – but only truly with the prism of hindsight. At the time this venture had been planned purely as a training session for a BMC race in Watford the next weekend. The prevailing vibe was that the Scottish Championship had sort of lost its appeal and wasn’t considered as the pinnacle of Scottish summer competition (in complete contrast to the National XC in winter of course). Loads of the faster Scottish middle-distance guys were out in the US and had pretty much finished their collegiate seasons and I always had the feeling that our Anglo-Scots didn’t really see the point in coming up to compete. So, with that in mind, I used it as an opportunity for a bit of a workout (essentially treating it with the same level of derision, for want of a better term, as the aforementioned others). However, looking back, “the double” is something that hadn’t been done since 1923, which is an interesting statistic if nothing else. I ended up running a 1500m PB of 3:42.52 the next weekend which was much more meaningful to me at the time.
I’m also very at ease with my Scottish National XC bronze medal performance in 2016. In my opinion The National XC is the biggest race in Scotland, bar none. Back when it was over 12km, I caught a really good late February afternoon with Callendar Park in great condition for me personally (i.e. not that muddy). Lewis had reinvented me again at this stage and my focus all winter had been to train for the Inverness Half Marathon, a couple of weeks after the XC in March. I had thought I was in good shape to try and feature at the Nationals – a race and a distance I didn’t think I could really ever compete at only a few years earlier. I was somewhat surprised that I was able to keep up with Andy Douglas and Andrew Butchart over the first 4km lap. They eventually started to move away a bit thereafter but I felt really aerobically strong and was really satisfied to finish 3rd. Butchy went on to finish 6th in the 5000m final of the Olympics only a few months later! I finished behind Andy Douglas again a couple of weeks later in my half marathon debut, running 66:07 which I was also happy enough with. I reflected at the time that I had managed to win Scottish national level medals at distances ranging from 200m (bronze at the U13 Boys Champs in 2000) up to 12,000m over the cross – another interesting statistic, if not too trivial and esoteric.
YOUR WORST?
Almost innumerable. Where to start eh? One that still rankles (although less so with the passage of time) is the Memorial Leon Buyle in Oordegem in 2014. I went all the way over to Belgium to race in a 1500m and got shafted into the “after programme”. Anyone who’s been to a Flanders Cup event will know the ignominy of being in the “after programme” and the treatment I was given could only really be described as a shafting. I watched my namesake and 1500m contemporary Steve Mitchell of Bristol get dragged round to a time of 3:38.27, finishing in 11th place, in the A race. This is absolutely nothing personal with regards to Steve, I really like the guy, but I couldn’t believe it – he hadn’t run quicker than me that year (in fact he’d run considerably slower) but he had been seeded into a much faster race. Needless to say, once the “after programme” came round at about 10pm at night, the weather had taken a massive turn for the worse and was it chucking it down – the conditions during the A race had been perfect of course. The organisers also didn’t bother to put a recognised pace maker in the field – which was the whole point of travelling to Belgium (get dragged round to a fast time, in a fast race). All thing considered, I was in a bad place mentally and dropped out after 800m when we went through in outside of 2 minutes, which was way off the pace for anything resembling a good performance. Very petulant and uncharacteristically aggressive, I horsed (read tipped) a table over on the infield and uttered multiple swear words (some children were very much within earshot). I’m not proud of it but at that point I felt that, for some mystic reason, the whole world was against me. I’d travelled over with my good friend Jenny Tan (now Selman) and it must have been a pretty long trip back for her to Edinburgh in my company. Apologies Jenny.
WHAT UNFULFILLED AMBITIONS DO YOU HAVE?
Learn to speak French. Learn to play a musical instrument. But in terms of running, it could theoretically be endless. Every single runner must think that when they run a PB that they could have gone quicker. It must be evident in almost every immediate post-race self-analysis – the “more to come” belief. It almost takes away a bit of the joy from a good performance – the big “what if?”. That’s the thing with running – you could, in theory, have gone faster. I’ve got loads of PBs that are stuck on times that (in my own head) I would be more satisfied with if they were a just bit faster. The truth, of course, is that I’d still not be happy with those times. It’s an almost insatiable appetite to run faster that motivates some runners, if not all, and I was completely sucked into that. Spare a thought for high jumpers and pole vaulters though – they’ve got to perform until literal failure. What a mixture of feelings that must be.
In terms of other running-related unfulfilled ambitions – the big one was to compete at a major athletics championship. In consecutive years I went to Commonwealth Youth Games, World Youth Champs, World Junior Champs and European Junior Champs. Come senior level it was a different story – I went to zero major champs. In 2014 I actually did as much as you can do without getting to go to a major championship. After being injured almost all of 2013, I managed to run the Commonwealth Games qualifying time for 1500m a total of 3 times in the summer of 2014 but I didn’t get picked to run at Hampden. I had even filled out the requisite media biography questionnaire and given staff my sizes for the team kit. However, I was 4th fastest over 1500m (just) prior to the team getting picked and there were no trials or selection race – I don’t think anyone had really predicated that there would be more than 3 folk qualify for any event in Scotland. I have solidarity with Kimberley Reed, in the women’s hammer, who also hit the qualifying mark multiple times but missed out as a 4th ranked athlete. In the end, unfortunately for me, my best metric mile performances coincided with the Scottish 1500m landscape moving up a gear (if not multiple gears), kickstarted primarily by Chris O’Hare (a former training partner of mine) with Jake Wightman, Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley following him. After the summer of 2014, the real world was catching up on me. I had finished my post-graduate physiotherapy degree and I now needed a job. I managed to get one in Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and moved away from Edinburgh with my now wife Eilidh. Realistically any ambitions to qualify for a major championship essentially ended at this point but it was something that I took a while to come to terms with. I remember Michael Crawley (international runner, author of the Ethiopian running culture book “Out Of Thin Air” and friend) saying that it took his coach Max Coleby a long time (measured in years) to come to terms with not being a genuinely competitive runner any more and I experienced the same feeling.
OTHER LEISURE ACTIVITIES?
I remember someone describing a strange phenomenon that happens to folk in Scotland when they reach 30 years of age and said phenomenon is thus – have an urge to start walking up hills. I can only say that this phenomenon very much took a hold of me. Since first running up Ben Wyvis in 2018 I have gone on to scale 90 (out of 282) Munro classified hills. I’ve run up and down some but I’ve mainly walked them. As a form of activity, I could extol the benefits of hill walking at length. I’ve made this pastime a bit more challenging now that I live on the Isle of Lewis which has a sum total of zero Munro classified hills, although height is not always the be-all-and-end-all when it comes to hills. Generally being outside and walking in remote landscapes is a form of activity that I am very much enjoying at present.
I’m persistently trying to read more, with a specific interest in Russian and Scottish histories. I’ve got a great book by Peter Drummond, titled “Scottish Hill Names: Their Origin and Meaning”, which ties in the etymology of the hill nomenclature with the history of the land. As a subject, I absolutely love it.
I’m also in the process of a pending 2.37 acre croft assignation. So hopefully it all goes through with no objections and I can get stuck into that.
Listening to vinyl LPs could also technically be classed as a leisure activity. I’ve recently upgraded my speakers and the collection of LPs continues to burgeon.
WHAT DOES RUNNING BRING YOU THAT YOU WOULD NOT HAVE WANTED TO MISS?
I had some absolutely brilliant times through running. The places I’ve been, the characters I’ve met and the relationships I’ve formed wouldn’t have happened without the medium of running. Very top of that list being that I met Eilidh (née Mackenzie), my own wife, through the sport.
One of the things I really miss, when looking back, was training in a group with my mates Dougie Selman and the Brothers Gauson (Darren and Kris). The crack that was had in my first years at Meadowbank in Edinburgh, under legendary coach Dave Campbell, was unbelievable. We trained hard and session-to-session wanted to absolutely bury each other. If you had a sniff that someone was flagging or not on top form the knife would be stuck in and twisted. We were all guilty of it and were all very much susceptible to it as well, but the friendship we formed over those years stands the test of time today. These were halcyon days for me, in terms of having a brilliant group to train with regularly.
Generally, I’ve met an amazing amount of folk from all walks of life, all thrust together by the love of running. I think, for a bloke from Forres, that’s given me a wider world outlook than I would have necessarily had if I hadn’t been involved in the sport. That’s definitely something I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on.
When I reflect back, I also got to compete against some of the most iconic athletes in the history of the sport of running. The principal figures being: David Rudisha (raced him in the heat and the semi-final of the 800m at the World Junior Champs in Beijing in 2006); Mo Farah (raced him indoors over 2 miles at the NIA in Birmingham in 2012); Eliud Kipchoge (raced him twice – in the same 2 mile race as Mo and at the 3km XC race in Holyrood Park in 2012 as well); Kenenisa Bekele (was also in that 3km XC in 2012); and Bernard Lagat (raced him indoors over 3000m at the Emirates in Glasgow in 2014). There’s a video of the indoor 2 mile race in Birmingham in 2012 on YouTube and (after a quick check there) it has had 7.5 million views. Outside of Mo’s brief foray into marathon running, I’m not sure how many times he raced Kipchoge and I think that’s why this video has so many views. Kipchoge beats him, which at the time, I think, was an upset. This is probably why it has been viewed so many times. Anyway…rather surreally, I’m on the start line wearing the red vest of Forres Harriers – a brand new one donated by the club for that matter – given to me because the one I was wearing on my previous TV appearance was somewhat dated (it was actually my Auld Boy’s one from “back in the day”). I suppose this is the sort of thing I can always look back on and, potentially (at some point) show the grandbairns.
CAN YOU GIVE SOME DETAILS OF YOUR TRAINING?
I thought I would post from a couple of different eras of my career here. I thought I had stuff written down somewhere in a diary when I was primarily running 800m races but I can’t find it unfortunately. I’ve put in the training which went along with some of my aforementioned best performances.
Below is, firstly, the build up to running 7:59.00 and finishing 3rd at the UK Indoor Champs in 2012.
WC 02/01/2012 (5 weeks out from target 3km race)
Monday
am – 4.5 miles easy
pm – 7 miles easy
Tuesday
am – rest
pm – interval session: 6 x 600m with 3 minutes (Garmin measured on the road)
Average for 600m reps = 1:43.4 (reflected at the time I wasn’t feeling great that day)
Wednesday
am – 5 miles easy
pm – 7 miles easy
Thursday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 5 miles easy with short 60m hill reps in the middle
Friday
am – rest/travel to Edinburgh for XC race
pm – 2 mile “shakeout”
Saturday
am – race: Great Edinburgh XC – 3km – finished 9th (1 place behind Brimin Kipruto and 2 places behind Kenenisa Bekele).
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Sunday
am – long run: 13 miles
pm – rest
Weekly mileage = 67.5 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 09/01/2012 (4 weeks out from target 3km race)
Monday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – 7 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – track session: 12 x 200m (40s rec), 3 mins, 6 x 200m (75s rec), 3mins, 4 x 200m (120s rec).
12 x 200m av time = 30.68s
6 x 200m av time = 28.70s
4 x 200m av time = 27.15s
Wednesday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 7 miles easy
Thursday
am – 6.5 miles easy
pm – threshold/tempo: 25 mins moderate, 15 minutes fast
25 mins mod @ 6:02/mi
15 mins fast @ 5:03/mi
Friday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – hills session: 3 mile easy, 2 sets of 10 x 15s hills with 45s & 3 minutes (combined with 2 sets of 4 exercises after each hill set – squat jumps/A-skips/calf bounce/sagittal split squat jumps), 3.5 miles easy
Saturday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Sunday
am – track session: 5 x (2 x 600m with 2 mins rec) & 4 mins between sets. 1st rep of each set at 3km pace, 2nd rep quicker – 1st rep av = 99.25s, 2nd rep = 93.83s, session av = 96.54s
pm – 4 miles easy
Weekly mileage = 97.7 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 16/01/2012 (3 weeks out from target 3km race)
Monday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – 6.5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – track session: 8 x 300m (60s), 3 mins, 5 x 300m (90s), 3mins, 3 x 300m (180s)
8 x 300m av time = 46.79s
5 x 300m av time = 44.21s
3 x 300m av time = 41.83s
Wednesday
am – rest
pm – 6.5 miles easy
Thursday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – threshold/tempo: 20 mins moderate, 20 minutes fast
20 mins mod @ 6:07/mi
20 mins fast @ 5:13/mi (diary states conditions were poor)
Friday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – hills session: 10 x 30 sec with 90 sec recovery
Saturday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Sunday
am – track session: 5 x (800m, 2 mins, 200m) with 4 mins between sets.
800m av time = 2:15.8
200m av time = 29.34 (done on Morriston cinder track in Elgin – which the diary states was in a poor state)
pm – 4 miles easy
Weekly mileage = 85 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 23/01/2012 (2 weeks out from target 3km race)
Monday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Tuesday
am – track session (binned Morriston and went to Queen’s Park, Inverness):
6 x 500m (90s), 3 mins, 5 x 400m (90s), 4 mins, 3 x 200m (180s)
500m av time = 81.14s
400m av time = 62.09s
200m av time = 28.41s
pm – 4.5 miles easy
Wednesday
am – rest
pm – rest
full rest day – diary states I was feeling “lethargic and weird”
Thursday
am – threshold/tempo: 20 mins moderate, 10 minutes fast
20 mins mod @ 5:58/mi
10 mins fast @ 5:02/mi
pm – 5.5 miles easy with 6 x 60m hill sprints
Friday
am – 4.5 miles easy
pm – rest/travel to Glasgow
Saturday
am – rest/flight Glasgow to Cardiff
pm – 6 miles easy
Sunday
am – race: Welsh Indoor Champs, Cardiff, 3000m – finished first in PB of 8:07.90 – pleasing
pm – rest/travel home
Weekly mileage = 55 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 30/01/2012 (1 week out from target 3km race)
Monday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 6.5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 6.5 miles easy
pm – hills session: 3 miles easy, 6 x 80m hill sprints (60s rec), 2.5 miles easy
Wednesday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – track session: 8 x 400m (60s), 3 mins, 5 x 400m (90s), 3 mins, 2 x 400m (180s)
8 x 400m av time = 63.71s
5 x 400m av time = 60.72s
2 x 400m av time = 60.36s
Thursday
am – 6.5 miles easy
pm – rest/travel to Aberdeen to visit my new born nephew – Magnus
Friday
am – threshold/tempo: 20 mins moderate, 10 minutes fast
20 mins @ 5:58/mi
10 mins @ 5:02/mi
pm – hills session: 3 miles easy, 6 x 80m hill sprints (60s), 2.5 miles easy
Saturday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Sunday
am – track session: 5 x (600m (120s), 400m (120s), 200m) with 4 minutes between sets
600m av time = 94.68s
400m av time = 60.82s
200m av time = 27.77s
pm – 4 miles easy
Weekly mileage = 85 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 30/01/2012 (week of target 3km race)
Monday
am – 6 miles easy (recorded my lowest resting heart rate, at that point, of 32 bpm on waking that morning)
pm – 6 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – track session: 4 x 500m, 4 x 300m (with 3 minutes recovery throughout)
500m av time = 81.45s
300m av time = 44.70s
Wednesday
am – threshold/tempo: 20 mins moderate, 10 minutes fast
20 mins @ 5:57/mi
10 mins @ 5:05/mi (diary says it was windy)
pm – hills session: 3 miles easy, 6 x 60m hill sprints (60s), 2 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 7 miles easy
Friday
am – travel to Sheffield
pm – 4 miles easy
Saturday
am – 2 miles easy pre-race “shakeout”
pm – target race: UK Indoor Champs, Sheffield, 3000m – finished 3rd in PB of 7:59:00 – “feel great with the result, Lewis delighted” to quote the post-race analysis in the diary
Sunday
am – 7.5 miles easy
pm – rest/travel back to Forres
Weekly mileage = 70 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
Threshold/tempo sessions have average pace noted from my Garmin which is maybe not entirely accurate but I thought using the same watch all the time, at similar locations, meant that I could keep tabs on the intensity of that side of things. All track session splits were all taken by me, while I was doing the sessions.
I did all of this running (apart from the races) on my own. It was as much out of convenience rather than being purely anti-social. I got really, really used to training on my own (or as I used to think – “just me and the Garmin”) and I’m not sure if that made me a bit stronger mentally than I had previously been. It may have made no difference, I’m not sure, but I didn’t feel like it was detrimental or necessarily bad in any way.
For the 8 weeks leading up to that 6 week build up I’ve written there I had averaged a consistent 80 miles per week (some weeks at 70 miles, if racing a XC, and some at 90 miles, if not racing) – this was significantly more volume than I had ever previously attempted and the type of training was also all pretty new to me. I still felt like an “800m runner” or, at a stretch, a “1500m in transition” during this period. However, after this block of training and races, I believed that there was no “type” of runner based on event alone. I wasn’t willing to be defined by a race distance any longer. In my mind there were now only race distances and runners – two separate entities. Moreover, I militantly shunned the idea of a “5km runner” or a “1500m runner” and would be quite brusque if I heard my peers give out such labels (I can’t have been a barrel of laughs to be around at that point). I was fully bought into the notion of “moving up” and I was excited by the prospect of running faster over distances from 1500m up to 10km that year. I did indeed manage to post a 10k m road PB of 30:33 at the Nairn 10km in March and a 1500m PB of 3:42.52 at a BMC in Watford in June. I went on to post the quickest mile race of my career that year at the Meeting voor Mon in Leuven, Belgium – the time was 4:01.23 – which, annoyingly, was as close to a sub-4 minute mile as I got. On the plus side I was given €200 and a Leffe beer gift set as a reward (2 glasses, 1 bottle of Leffe Blonde, 1 of Leffe Brune). However, those Leffe-branded beer glasses still sit in my house, providing a constant reminder that I never ran a sub-4 minute mile.
This is the build up to a series of 1500m races, culminating in the fastest time I ran at the distance – 3:41.48 – in the summer of 2014. I was frantically chasing the 1500m Commonwealth Games Qualifying time (3:42.20), with the selection criteria requiring you to post the QT twice before the cut-off date of 08/06/14. I was living in Edinburgh so sessions were invariably done at Meadowbank (which was right next to my flat) or around the perimeter of The Meadows (which I absolutely love as a training venue).
WC 28/04/2014 (5 weeks out from 1500m PB)
Monday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – interval session: 5 x 5 minutes (60s recovery) (av pace = 3:06/km)
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – interval session: 6 x 3 minutes (60s recovery) and 6 x 60m hill sprints (with walk back recovery (WBR))
av pace of 3 minute reps = 3:03/km
Friday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – rest
Saturday
am – track session: 10 x 200m (30s), 6 minutes, 6 x 200m (60s), 6 minutes, 4 x 200m (120s)
10 x 200m av = 30.08s, 6 x 200m av = 27.95s, 4 x 200m = 26.31s
pm – rest
Sunday
am – 8 miles easy
pm – rest
Weekly mileage = 60 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 05/05/2014 (4 weeks out from 1500m PB)
Monday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy plus 6 x 60m strides
Tuesday
am – travel to Manchester
pm – race: BMC Gold Standard, Stretford, 1500m A race – finished 3rd in 3:47.06 – thoroughly disappointed with this performance – way off where I wanted to be. I had a similarly bad performance at a BMC Gold Standard at Watford two weeks prior to this (23/04/14) when I ran 3:48.43. I thought I’d be much closer to the CWG QT – I really thought that might be it for my chances of running the QT.
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 10 x 2 minutes (60s recovery) – av pace = 3:00/km
av pace of 3 minute reps = 3:03/km
Friday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Saturday
am – track session: 3 x 60m flat out (2.5 min), 2.5 minutes, 10 x 400m (60s), 7 minutes, 5 x 400m (120s)
10 x 400m av = 62.20
5 x 400m av = 59.86
pm – 5 miles easy
Sunday
am – 10 miles easy
pm – rest
Weekly mileage = 60 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 12/05/2014 (3 weeks out from 1500m PB)
Monday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – track session: 2 x (800m/400m/300m (all with 60s recovery)) and 15 minutes between sets
Set 1 = 1:59.52/58.97/43.12 (which adds up to 3:41.61)
Set 2 = 2:00.55/60.30/43.30 (which adds up to 3:44.15)
Average cumulative 1500m time for session = 3:42.88
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – track session: 7 x 500m (90s), 6 minutes, 2 x 200m (4 minutes), 500m av = 80.61s, 200m av = 25.41s
Friday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – rest
Saturday
am – travel to Watford (early morning flight)
pm – race: BMC Grand Prix, Watford, 1500m A race – finished 5th in a PB of 3:41.96 (previous PB 3:42.52 from June 2012 at the same venue/meeting). 1st CWG QT nailed. Felt like a phoenix rising from the ashes of a 3:47 performance only 11 days earlier. An absolutely brilliant feeling.
pm – rest
Sunday
am – travel home
pm – 8 miles easy
Weekly mileage = 60 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 19/05/2014 (2 weeks out from 1500m PB)
Monday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – track session: 3 x 60m flat out (4 minutes), 4 minutes, 8 x 500m (75s), 6 mins, 4 x 500m (2.5 mins)
Session didn’t go to plan at all. 8 x 500m was switched (mid session – by me) to 2 x 4 x 500m (with 2.5 mins between sets). Then only managed 2 of the 4 x 500m (2.5 mins) before jacking in the session. Likely still physically and emotionally tired from the “big” result the previous Saturday.
Wednesday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – interval session: 6 x 3 mins (with 2 mins) followed by 6 x 60m hill sprints (WBR)
3 min reps @ 2:59/km av pace
Friday
am – 5.5 miles easy
pm – 5.5 miles easy
Saturday
am – track session: 4 x (600m/400m/200m) with 2 minutes between reps and 4 minutes between sets
600m av = 91.70s
400m av = 58.83s
200m av = 27.64s
pm – 4 miles easy
Sunday
am – 10 miles easy
pm – rest
Weekly mileage = 80 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 26/05/14 (1 week o out from 1500m PB)
Monday
am & pm – 5.5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – track session: 1000m (75s), 400m (30s), 200m, 15 minutes recovery, 1 x 600m
1000m = 2:28.21, 400m = 58.50, 200m = 28.35 (adds up to 3:55.06 for 1600m = 58.77s per 400m pace)
600m = 86.62 (57.75m per 400m pace)
Myles Edwards came down from Aberdeen and stayed with Eilidh and me for a few days to help out with this session. He led out the 1000m, 400m and 600m reps and I tucked right in behind him. He did a fantastic job and made sure I got the most out of myself. Myles was rewarded with as much food as he wanted (he is known for having an insatiable appetite) and he didn’t even complain about having to sleep on a blow-up mattress. An all-round great guy is Myles.
Wednesday
am & pm – 4 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – interval session: 6 x 3 mins (with 2 mins) followed by 6 x 60m hill sprints (WBR)
3 min reps @ 2:59/km av pace
Friday
am – travel to Charleroi, Belgium on an early doors Ryanair flight.
pm – 4 miles easy post-travel
Saturday
am – easy 2 mile pre-race “shakeout”
pm – race: IFAM, Oordegem (Belgium), 1500m B race – 3rd in PB of 3:41.95. A PB by a full 0.01 seconds. 2nd CWG time achieved. Objective achieved. 2 CWGs QTs, essentially out of nowhere. Really satisfied with how it had all come together. News filtered through prior to the race that Jake Wightman had run 3:41.40 at a BMC in Manchester so I was 4th ranked in Scotland (outside of the top 3 for CWGs). I had one more week to try and run quicker before the 08/06/14 selection deadline.
Sunday
am – easy 4 miles
pm – rest/travel home (Weekly mileage = 55 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs))
WC 26/05/14 (1 week o out from 1500m PB)
Monday
am & pm – 5.5 miles easy
Tuesday
am & pm – 4 miles easy
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 1 x 600m flat out (in lieu of an 800m race) followed by 10 x 200m fast, 100m job – described as a “lactic flush” (I actually have no record of the 600m time! Although the instruction was to “commit through 400m” – I must have run alright…)
Thursday
am & pm – 4 miles easy
Friday
am – travel to Munich, Germany
pm – 2 mile post-travel “shakeout”
Saturday
am – easy 2 mile pre-race “shakeout”
pm – race: Sparkassen Gala, Regensburg, Bavaria (Germany), 1500m A race – 4th in PB of 3:41.48. A PB again, a third on the bounce, by about half a second only though. A 3rd and final CWG QT. Close but no cigar – 0.08 seconds short of Jake Wightman’s time. I’d managed to get into this race at the very, very last opportunity and given it my all. Conditions were absolutely amazing in Regensburg and the race was won in 3:38.63 by Florian Orth (who, incidentally, is from Regensburg so was at his home track). I actually finished ahead of Zane Robertson of New Zealand in this race (he wasn’t 100% on the day) who went on to win bronze at the 5000m at the Commonwealth Games that year.
Eilidh ran a 1500m PB of 4:24.11 that night (which still stands as her PB). She’d lived and worked in Geisenhausen as a translator, which is just down the road (50 minutes by car) from Regensburg. She’d actually sent the email, in German, to get me into the race. We celebrated the PBs that night with more than a few Weissbier from the local brewery along with Central AC’s Tom Watson (Bischofhof is the brewery if anyone’s interested – really, really good stuff).
Sunday
am – rest – was given the call that I wasn’t going to be selected for the CWG later that summer, disappointing, obviously, but not surprising. I’d given it one last roll of the dice and I don’t think I could have given it much more.
pm – rest/travel home (didn’t bother counting the weekly mileage that week)
I tried to keep the season going after that point – Lewis and I were convinced a big PB was going to drop – sub-3:40 was surely just round the corner. It never materialised for whatever reason and, as I mentioned earlier, the real world was, unfortunately, catching up on me.
I was at the end of my 2-year post-graduate Physiotherapy MSc and I had 10 weeks of consecutive physiotherapy placement to crowbar in – that I’d rearranged due to the summer track season. I left Edinburgh and went back home to Forres for placements in Inverness and Nairn. At the time I didn’t know if that would be “the end” of my track “career” but, in the end, at age 26, it sort of unceremoniously was (unless you count my 10,000m track effort from 2016 (30:22)).
My dissertation massively got in the way too. I’d put it off all summer so I had to squeeze out 12,500 words of a systematic review into the effects of gait training to reduce falls in populations with dementia. That dissertation almost killed me, no exaggeration. I did, eventually, end up ticking all the boxes for the MSc and landed a job almost immediately at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness (initially on a temporary contract). After a period of adjusting to life as a full-time worker (and securing a permanent post) I then decided to shift the focus to 10km/HM training and racing, primarily on the road.
Here is the build up to National XC 3rd place and Inverness HM debut (66:07) in 2016. Easy runs done at or around 4:21/km (7:00/mile). Sunday long runs done a bit faster. All average pace times from my trusty Garmin Forerunner 310XT (grey & orange coloured huge thing) – again, I’m not sure how accurate it was (probably always measured things a bit quicker than they were) but it was always the same watch for my training so useful to monitor but not get carried away. Almost every single steady run and session was done within the confines of the University of the Highlands and Islands campus at Beechwood, Inverness (1.5 miles from my house at that time). Most easy running was done to and from work (going via UHI campus). I did A LOT of running in that UHI campus.
WC 01/02/2016 (5 weeks out from HM)
Monday
am – 5 miles easy
pm – 5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – session: 3 x (4 min, 2 min recovery, 2 min) with 4 min between sets (av pace 4 min reps @ 2:50/km, 2 min reps at 2:45/km)
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – session: 5 miles at cruise/threshold in 25:13 (3:08/km)
Friday
am – rest
pm – 8 miles easy
Saturday
am – session: 3 x 9 minutes with 4 minute recovery (at 2:57/km average pace)
pm – rest
Sunday
am – long run: 15 miles
pm – rest
Weekly mileage = 82 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 08/02/2016 (4 weeks out from HM)
Monday
am – 9 miles easy (on annual leave)
pm – rest
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 5 miles easy (in possession of emergency respiratory physio on-call bleep = no session)
Wednesday
am – 2.5 miles easy (tail end of overnight on-call)
pm – session: 6km/5km/4km/3km with 5/4/3 minute recoveries (6km @ 3:06/km, 5km @ 3:06/km, 4km @ 3:05/km, 3km @ 3:02/km)
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy
Friday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy
Saturday
am – rest
pm – race: North District XC League (Grant Park, Forres – home turf) – finished 1st (8.8km). Added on a 4 mile hilly fartlek after (run fast up the hills).
Sunday
am – long run: 15 miles
pm – rest
Weekly mileage = 80 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 15/02/2016 (3 weeks out from HM) – on annual leave all week
Monday
am – 9 miles easy
pm – rest
Tuesday
am – session: 5 x 1km with 3 minutes (av pace 2:42/km)
pm – 4 miles easy
Wednesday
am – 6 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy
Thursday
am – 10 miles steady (@3:15/km – 52:20)
pm – rest
Friday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Saturday
am – session: 2 x 10 minutes with 10 minutes recovery (on canal tow path) (at 2:54/km and 2:55/km average).
pm – 4 miles easy
Sunday
am – long run: 15 miles
pm – rest
Weekly mileage = 82.5 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 22/02/2016 (2 weeks out from HM) – week of National XC Champs
Monday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – session: 5 x 4 minutes with 60 seconds recovery, then 3 minutes recovery, followed by 1 x 1km as fast as I can. 4 minute reps @ 2:59/km average, 1km rep @ 2:35
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy (on call)
Thursday
am – 2.5 miles easy (tail end of overnight on-call)
pm – session: 2 miles steady, 2 miles cruise/threshold (2 miles steady @ 3:13/km, 2 miles threshold @ 3:04/km).
Friday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 3 miles easy (post travel Inverness to Stirling)
Saturday
am – 2 mile “shake out”
pm – race: Scottish National XC Champs (Callendar Park, Falkirk) – finished 3rd (12km)
Sunday
am – rest (travel back to Inverness)
pm – long run (15 miles)
Weekly mileage = 77.5 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 29/02/2016 (1 weeks out from HM)
Monday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 5 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 10 miles steady @ 3:13/km (51:47)
Friday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 6 miles easy
Saturday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – session: 3 x 3km with 4 minutes rest, then 4 minutes rest, followed by 1 x 1km fast (3km reps at 2:57/km, 1km rep @ 2:41/km)
Sunday
am – 5 miles easy (working weekend respiratory shift and then on-call)
pm – 4.5 miles easy (on-call overnight)
Weekly mileage = 80 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
WC 07/03/2016 (week of HM)
Monday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy
Tuesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – session: 6 x 5 minutes with 60 seconds recovery (3:04/km av pace)
Wednesday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy
Thursday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – session: 2 miles steady, 2 miles cruise/threshold (2 miles steady @ 3:13/km, 2 miles threshold @ 3:06/km).
Friday
am – 4 miles easy
pm – 4 miles easy
Saturday
am – rest
pm – 5 miles easy
Sunday
am – 1 mile pre-race walk
pm – race: Inverness Half Marathon – finished 2rd – HM debut in 66:07
Weekly mileage = 73 miles (including session warm ups/warm downs)
I think some of my training was arguably better the next year in the build up to the Inverness HM in 2017 although, ultimately, my performance on the day wasn’t as good as my debut – I ran 68:11 to finish 2nd to Weynay Ghebresilasie of Shettleston in 2017. On race day I was, unfortunately, feeling a bit under the weather and I had been suffering from a flare up in a persistent tendinopathy of my right tendo-Achilles (which has plagued me most of my adult life). Actually, looking back through my training it just doesn’t look quite as consistent as the previous year – even though some individual sessions were of superior quality.
The thoughts of Lewis had been that I had actually responded quite well to the aerobic side of training and I’d maybe missed out on not doing some higher volume sessions in the build up to my previous HM. During the 2016 Inverness HM race I had definitely started to feel I was going into the unknown in the last couple of miles of the race and I suppose, on reflection, I was. I think I had essentially been doing 10km training with a little bit of HM stuff thrown in – it was all new to me so I had no idea how I’d respond. Therefore, Lewis added in some Renato Canova-type stuff into the 2017 HM build up and I actually think some of these sessions were the hardest sessions (of any training) that I’d completed. I’ll list a few favourites:
28/01/17
5 x 3km/1km “wave run” (a continuous run – 3km fast, 1km less fast but not jogging – I’ve seen it described as a “float” but I didn’t necessarily feel like I was floating during it, also finishing on a “float” 1km)
Splits (pace/km): 3:07/3:35, 3:06/3:35. 3:07/3:35, 3:07/3:41, 3:08/3:32
3km sections av pace = 3:07/km
1km sections av pace = 3:36/km
I remember being absolutely gubbed after this. A genuine HM session – 20km in volume.
08/02/17
13 miles steady @ 3:10/km (13 miles in 66:27)
We’d progressed the “10 mile steady” from the previous year to 11 miles and then 12 miles over the month before and this was as far as the steady ever went. I should have just rounded it up to the full HM distance on the Garmin – the time would have been better than what I managed on race day.
15/02/17
4 x 4km/1km “wave run” (same idea as the first wave run but a more frightening and unknown prospect with the fast sections pushed out to 4km and there ultimately being one less float/recovery section – still at 20km volume)
Splits (pace/km): 3:05/3:34, 3:05/3:36, 3:05/3:36, 3:06/3:31
4km sections av pace = 3:05.25/km
1km sections av pace = 3:34.25/km
I nicknamed this session “The Revenant” (named after the film Leonardo DiCaprio won a best acting Oscar for the previous year). There’s a scene where DiCaprio’s character (Hugh Glass) gets mauled by a bear and left for dead. And that was exactly how I was feeling after this session. The exact same feeling. It was a pretty dreadful February night in Inverness – dark, cold and also snowing at times – not too dissimilar to the conditions of the unchartered wilderness Hugh Glass found himself getting mauled by said bear in. I don’t think you could call my run home a warm down, I shuffled back at a snail’s pace, after lying about on a paved section of the UHI Campus for a few minutes. One of those sessions where you have to sit down in the shower afterwards. If I mention to Eilidh, my wife, that I feel like I’ve “just done The Revenant” the reference doesn’t have to be explained to her – it’s crossed over into our common parlance.
