Threshold Runs, Race Specific Practise And Not Being Intimidated By The Africans: Craig Mottram
In this exclusive interview, just a few months prior to the Commonwealth Games, Mottram shares some basic training information…
On training for the 2006 Commonwealth Games:
“The Commonwealth Games were the major focus of the year for me and most Australian athletes. To be ready for it, I did more stuff on the track than I normally do at that time of year. But to be honest, if I need to be, I’m never more than six weeks away from being in sub-13:00 shape. So we just moved that time frame forward. That doesn’t mean I can’t do it again in the same year.”
On being fit, year round:
“I’m fit pretty much all year round. At the end of the European season, I rest a bit, but I still run every day, because I like going out for a run and I just like feeling fit. There’s no point in the year when I’m not fit or I’m putting on weight or anything like that. Your observation that I’m in good shape for several distances throughout the year is because my aerobic fitness is good all year; the base is always there. The basic principle is a lot of running, longer reps and pace runs. There are maybe only six weeks in the year when I’m not at 150 to 170 kilometers for the week. I don’t go much below 140 kilometers a week even when racing in the European summer. Our year runs 12 months—we have commitments in the Australian summer, when it’s winter here. So I’m not someone who lets the volume drop much throughout the year.”
On Pace Runs (threshold runs):
“The other day we did three times 15 minutes, with a one-minute jog between. It was on a pretty flat dirt path, soft surface. Each one, the first five minutes were at a heart rate of 165, then the next five minutes at 170, then the last five minutes at 175. That, of course, is very individual, what heart rates you run at. But the amount of work is pretty standard for pace runs, somewhere between 30 and 50 minutes of work.”
On practising surging in training:
“That is very difficult to simulate in training. The key is to be super fit and ready to deal with whatever happens in the race. A lot of people say you have to be super quick to medal in championship races. But in Helsinki, we ran the last lap in 53. That’s not super quick. The fitness and strength have to be there so that you can get through the first 11-and-a-half laps. I don’t care how quick you are if by the last lap you’ve lost your ability to sprint. So the basic thing is to be fit and strong. The races give you that little extra quickness.”
“We don’t alter pace in the middle of repeats, no. But say we’re doing kilometer repeats on dirt. We’ll do eight or ten, and maybe do the fifth and seventh ones 15 seconds faster than the rest.”
On running easy on recovery runs:
“We always run slowly. That’s why you have your [hard] sessions. Recovery runs are just that— recovery runs. I train a lot of the time with girls, and they drop me some of the time. They’re just able to get rolling sooner than I am.”
“Not a lot of them (American runners) are doing 110 miles a week for most of the year, either. Do that and you’ll get sore and tired and fatigued. It becomes more of a survival thing. You usually feel better at the end than at the start.”
On not being intimidated by the Africans:
“I’m lucky that I wasn’t running in the ’80s and early ’90s when the Africans started dominating. I never learned I was supposed to be intimidated. I always assumed when you line up, you line up to try to win the race. A lot of people weren’t—maybe they were trying to be the first of non-African descent across the line. It was definitely not bred into me that I couldn’t compete against them. I didn’t even know I was supposed to be afraid of them when I ran the junior world cross-country championship in ’99. It’s never been “us” versus “them” for me. In ’99, it was just a race, and it still is.”
