The day I went running with Julia Bleasdale
Last week I had the pleasure of going running with Julia Bleasdale. Yep, that’s right… the runner who came 8th in both 5,000m and 10,000m finals at the London Olympics, running a personal best time of 30:55.63 in the 10,000m race. the very same Julia Bleasdale who is…
What we need are heroes
I believe that one of the reasons for periods of time when certain nations or even regions dominate in any particular sport, is the presence of heroes. There are others factors, certainly, but being surrounded by people one knows or you can relate to who are doing amazing…
Hicham El Guerrouj – a running hero
For many people in the UK, the 1500m is a race that had its heyday with Coe, Ovett and Cram. After them – after Peter Rono put an end to Great British dominance of this event in the Olympic final in 1988 – the 1500m sort of lost…
An amazing triple
I was reading a book recently called Tracking Heroes and was especially fascinated by Emil Zatopek: his training methods, attitude to racing and the struggles in his life…
Feather-weight comfort
I like Adidas – I like the brand, I like the German-ness of the company. I like their focus on performance above all else. And I really like the products, especially the adiZero range. One of my favourite bits of kit – and I have quite a bit…
What we can’t learn from Mo Farah
Yesterday at the Diamond League athletics at the Alexandra Stadium, I watched Mo Farah race in the unusual distance of 2 miles. And whilst it was great to see him boss the field of athletes assembled and witness what was undoubtedly a sort of lap of honour (well…
The perfect review of ‘The Perfect Distance’
A two part review of Pat Butcher’s book The Perfect Distance In this review, Michael Shelton took the time to review the book that takes an in-depth look at the rivalry between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett and ultimately resulted in such spectacular races in the late 1970’s…
London Olympic Games Men’s marathon report
As the London Olympic Games of 2012 draw to a close, the men’s marathon promised to be a fitting end to a wonderful few weeks of sport. Perfectly appointed to provide a stunning backdrop to the action, London was going to make the most of this final act…
London Olympic Games: Saturday 4 August 2012
An experience like nothing I’ve ever known before This is going to be one of the hardest posts I have ever written: I don’t want to rely on over-used superlatives to describe the experience of watching the Olympics in the athletics stadium last night, but that might be…
Lessons from the Legends: John Treacy
Recently I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet a running legend – John Treacy, AKA The Mudlark. It was a huge honour to meet him and have the opportunity to ask him about a whole host of different things. Naturally the conversation turned to training…