My road to Rio

So, the journey begins...

Im sure many others have been inspired by the british athletes this olympiad, everyone has their idol/hero, mine is Mo Farah, to emulate what he did is my dream, my destiny, my journey.

I begin today a path that I hope will take me to the pinnacle of any sporting career; Olympic Gold. This is no small feat, you need dedication, perserverance, determination and ability, all traits I believe I possess and are required to reach the top.

My running career is short but I am only 18, I always believe you are never too old to achieve your dreams, stick to it and don't let anyone bring you down.

Seb Coe, I salute you, you have inspired a generation, you have inspired me.

What is my dream? To achieve Gold in the 5k and 10k, and goddamn I am determined to do so, and I won't let anyone tell me otherwise.

Bring on Rio!!! 

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Comments

  • £5 says you're already too late to qualify.

  • Posting an ambitious comment. That's a very good first step. What next?
  • glad to see you are p[osting your short and long term achievable goals..................image

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    If this dream is ever to become a reality, at some stage or another you will be dealing with UK Athletics.

    ...ANOTHER GOOD REASON TO JOIN A CLUB.

    image

  • mike rushton wrote (see)

    My running career is short but I am only 18, I always believe you are never too old to achieve your dreams, stick to it and don't let anyone bring you down.

     

    In which case............

    I'll see you in those finals in Rio, Mike! image

  • See you there. I'm going to have at that greco-Roman wrestling.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Mike, last thing we said on your other thread was to pick some attainable short term goals...

    instead you've gone the other way and picked an even sillier target. Surprised you didn't add, smash the world records as well! image

  • mike rushton wrote (see)

    I won't let anyone tell me otherwise.

    Bring on Rio!!!

     


    Good luck to you then and there's nothing wrong with having a dream but there'll be times along the way people tell you things you don't want to hear.image

  • JH 1JH 1 ✭✭✭
    Behave yourself MR. You've only knocked a few secs off your 5k last week and doing 20mpw won't get you far as well as playing other sports. I'll have a bet that you're not below 17mins by end of year at a park run. You want to get to club standard, then county, national and finally international before you talk about gold medals.



    Are you from Iten in Kenya by any chance before I make that bet?
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    JH, i think that bet is very safe...sub 18 by the end of the year won't be a stroll...

  • Hi Mike - nothing like a bit of enthusiasm! How about doing a blog to chart your progress? If you do win your medals you could perhaps make it into a book which I'm sure will sell really well! But you might wish to aim for 2020 - Mo is 29 and to be fair started a bit earlier than you so maybe 2024 for the double would ba a safer bet?

  • Tom.Tom. ✭✭✭
    Nice one Mike....try googling Alex Vero. he'll show you exactly how its done
  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    Alex Vero wants to update his website, where he calls himself an athlete. According to his Po10 profile he's not raced since 2007.  Or does he only run ARC sanctioned races these days?  image

  • Alex is a good example of getting from slob to 2.20 marathoner. Mo Farah spent the last four years going from 5th placer to 1st placer. Kenyan and Oregan boot camps and four years of hard work to gain a few seconds over his rivals to turn a finalist into a champ. Four years may sound like a long time but 10 years is closer to the amount of commitment required.
  • Also-ranAlso-ran ✭✭✭

    Bear in mind that the Alex Vero route will require a period of heavy drinking and getting Mike's weight up to 16 stone before the training can begin. That's a lot of pressure on top of picking up two Rio golds.

  • MR - has the 5k thread been killed off then ? I hate to say it but - starting when you're 18 quite patently is too late. Your enthusiasm is admirable but you slightly run the risk of becoming a figure of ridicule stating these frankly ridiculous goals.

    I could come on here and say I'm planning to train to run a sub 2.30 mara as a 45 year old next year. It's a lovely thought but it ain't going to happen

    Perhaps you'll prove me wrong but I suspect you won't

  • GraemeKGraemeK ✭✭✭

    I like the ambition however overambitious it may be, but four years of training, physio, coaching, travel to races etc don't come for free. I may be wrong, but I'd say unless you are in contention for club races now, at 18, then 2020 is too close.  

    Athletics may be about hard work, but natural ability is important.  There are doubtlessly athletes who work just as hard as Farah but don't acheive the success. At that level, tiny differences mean the difference between success and failure. Ali Brownlee when asked about decreasing his 10k time from 29.07 to that which Farah won the 10,000m in said something along the lines of that 90 seconds (from 29:00 to 27:30) is far harder to gain than the three minutes from 32:00 to 29:00.

    If you do it, I'll be the first to cheer.

  • Tom.Tom. ✭✭✭
    Sussex Runner: I don't think Alex ever got anywhere near 2:20.......more like 2:57, pretty pedestrian for someone with such lofty aspirations.
  • Mike, did you start smoking crack recently or is it a long term thing?

  • JoolskaJoolska ✭✭✭

    Po10 says Vero has a  PB of 2.57.  He did dip under 17 for 5k at Bushy Park after a couple of years' training, but if you compare that with what a world class runner such as Mottram or Baddeley achieved there the gulf between Vero and world class becomes clear...

    Mike: I hope you achieve your potential, whatever that may be.  Although there's nothing wrong with aiming high, it's impossible to have any idea about where you might end up.  Let's face it, you may not be able to cope with the volume or intensity of training required (I've been running for 11 years and have discovered the hard way that my natural limit is about 70mpw).  I think you need to set yourself some short-term achieveable goals (3 months, 6 months, 12 months) and join a club with a decent beginner's section so that you can get advice and assistance along the way.

  • I have an inkling that he did better than 2.57. More like sub 2.30 or something. I can't find anything. Does anyone else remeber what he managed or am I just going crazy?
  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭

    I have been told 2:57 by someone who went to a talk that he was giving. Was a fair while back so he could well ahve gone faster. Apparently 1:13 for HM so I think he should have gone faster than 2:57.

  • I read that he did 1 hr 7mins for a half somewhere. I know he overcooked a marathon and had to walk to a "dissappointing" 2.57 but I thought there was a footnote at the end of the doc where he ran a quicker time.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Sussex, i think you're well off on Vero!

    2:20 was his frankly ridiculous aim, 2:57 the reality. In fairness it seems to be that he unfortunately got sun stroke near the end of that 2:57, and took 28mins for the last 2miles, when a sub 2hr45 was on the cards.

    1hr 13 for a half was his best time on record, and if you took the story of fat bloke to 1hr 13 half /sub 2hr 45 marathon that's an incredible result.

    However, when you pitch it at 2:20, most runners sneer at the effort, as it was so overblown and he got nowhere near it. I certainly remember a fair few running elite on this forum giving him stick.

    In the same way, Mike gunning for gold medals will simply be treated with ridicule, hence this thread racking up the posts....if instead he had a training thread to attract the tips of the better runners on here, he'd get praise and encouragement galore along the way...

    nothing annoys more than johnny come latelys thinking they can smash the results you've strived for years for on the cheap

  • YoungPupYoungPup ✭✭✭
    +1 for what Stevie said in his 2nd to last paragraph.



    Mike - I think ambition is fabulous, and having the confidence to not let yourself be fettered by conventional thinking is also admirable. However, you may have gone a bit too far?....



    Step 1 has to be to get yourself into a decent club, join one of their coaching groups, and (hopefully) that will help you to realise that the journey ahead of you is a very, VERY, long one, and that there simply aren't any short cuts (irrespective of how much natural talent you may have)....
  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭

    I wouldn't shout too loudly about the "fat bastard to fit runner" story until a former 16 stone bloater at least managed to run under 73 minutes for a half marathon.

    image

  • Concentrate on getting to a standard where you might be invited to the Olympic Trials. Then worry about running fast enough to get the 'A Standard' required to get selected. Then worry about Olympic finals and medals. If you achieve even  the first of those things then that would be very very impressive, considering that I don't think that you are even running the equivalent of a 3000m English Schools standard at the moment. Never say never, and you will never know if you don't try, but it's best to take it in stages and concentrate on being the best that you can be.

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Dancing...i think you're missing about 50steps out on the journey.

    The first couple of steps are getting a regular decent mileage built up and then joining a proper athletics club...

  • WiBWiB ✭✭✭

    Is this all because they sold out of TeamGB vests? Be honest!

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