My road to Rio

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  • You got no chance Paula Radcliffe was running 5k in 16:16 at your age.

  • Also-ranAlso-ran ✭✭✭
    Nick Windsor 4 wrote (see)

    Such encouragement!! and Paula's Olympic career is not really much to aim for is it.

    Representing GB in an Olympic Games is an incredibly ambitious aim, requiring a huge degree of self determination and natural talent. It just goes to show that even for world record holders and former world champions, there are no certainties in life.

    Lets hope that between now and the selection process for Rio, Nick can suggest a plan to take a 20 mile pw runner to meeting the selection times for both 5k and 10k - perhaps coming up with 'A' standard times in Beijing 2015? Go on Nick, help the guy out with some proper mentoring.

  • Also-ranAlso-ran ✭✭✭

    image  Maybe you didn't count me as a faux also-ran - a bit like faux encouragement is your theme of the dayimage

  • Wow Mike R thats some aspiration you have there, I mean its the pinnacle of the sport, thats serious stuff. I see there has been several comments about your 5k times and the whole Alex Vero thing but at the moment what would a typical training week look like for you? Also when you say your voing to be dedicated does this mean you'll cut out Alchahol and stuff.
  • Andy, don't make any mistake about Mike's giving himself totally and utterly over to this crazy dream to be number one in Rio. Sometimes he's already running like 20 miles per week. image

    I love a dream... a mad goal to spur me on... It's just that if it ever fails to be connected with cold, rational, steely-thinking, well it's just a nice dream. At age 18 I had a propensity to dream a bit and life wasn't bad. Mid-forties i still dream, but now i know how to turn them into realities.

    It's got something to do with the relationship between aspiration and perspiration. If I was a WUM aiming to troll a load of sweaty middle-aged runners who were a bit defensive about their own achievements, I might create a persona just like Mike's self-projection here. What I love about this thread, is that I think he's 100% genuine and Nick is 1% more genuine than that

    image

  • PhilPubPhilPub ✭✭✭
    Tricky Dicky¹ wrote (see)

    What I love about this thread, is that I think he's 100% genuine and Nick is 1% more genuine than that

    image

    101% isn't enough though is it.  I quite clearly heard a number of Olympians over the past couple of weeks saying that they gave it "110%", often "literally 110%", so that's obviously the benchmark.

    image

  • I saw a great Tweet on athletic articulacy last week Phil. It went something like: "Obsession with athletics is ruining adult literacy. Discus"

    image image

  • JoolskaJoolska ✭✭✭

    Effort inflation is worse than grade inflation.  In my day, 100% effort meant 100% effort...

    Nice tweet, TD image

  • I say dreams can come true, you sound like you are really focused go for it!
  • Tom.Tom. ✭✭✭
    Shit...I"ve done it again. I've posted an incredibly withering and articulate comment about what a load of rubbish Mike's ill stated ambition is and how feeble and unconsidered are the comments of those who encourage him to follow his dream.



    However I deleted it because I didn't want to hurt anybodies feelings.
  • The fact remains that 4 years ago Anthony Joshua had never before put on a pair of boxing gloves and less than 7 days ago he won super heavy weight GOLD at the Olympics - no particular articulation required.
  • andy the deestrider. wrote (see)
    Wow Mike R thats some aspiration you have there, I mean its the pinnacle of the sport, thats serious stuff. I see there has been several comments about your 5k times and the whole Alex Vero thing but at the moment what would a typical training week look like for you? Also when you say your voing to be dedicated does this mean you'll cut out Alchahol and stuff.

    At the moment im training around 25mpw, I run 5 times a week and race once a week(workout in itself) so 6 days a week 1 day rest.

    Monday - 5mile tempo run

    Tuesday - Intervals 

    Wednesday - 8mile steady run (haven't started this yet starting tomorrow)

    Thursday - 5mile tempo run

    Friday - rest

    Saturday - parkrun race

    Sunday - 5mile steady run

    I used to drink a couple years ago as a normal teenager does, but not anymore, haven't touched alcohol in almost 6 months now.

  • kiwirunner73 wrote (see)
    The fact remains that 4 years ago Anthony Joshua had never before put on a pair of boxing gloves and less than 7 days ago he won super heavy weight GOLD at the Olympics - no particular articulation required.

    This! Same story with a few of the rowers. You can't deny that boxing is that much different to running in terms of dedication and natural ability, anthony had the determination and ability and he made it...

  •  

    Gareth Edwards 21 wrote (see)
    Little Ninja wrote (see)

    There's far worse things you could be trying to achieve at 18.

     

     Than trying to become the internets finest troll?

    He's not a troll.  The world isn't going to end just because someone's got a huge dream.  Also it's not like Mike is the first young'in that has come on here with a huge 5k goal.

    What's the worst thing that can happen? Probably that he'll injure himself but noone else is going to get hurt. Oh and he may piss off a few people who take the time to try and answer his questions and his selective filtering skips good advice.

    mike rushton wrote (see)

    Wow this topic has made such a stir in only a day, thanks for all your replies. image

    I know there's only a very slim chance I will even make the olympic team, I stated that I hope to make it, and am determined to try my best because I was inspired by Mo's performance, theres other factors to consider to, injures, surrounded by the right people etc. 

    Im sorry if I offended anyone, I understand everyone here is a keen runner just like me and have worked hard for most of your lives to achieve your targets, I just hope I can achieve mine, no matter how 'unrealistic' they may be, I will do everything in my power to achieve it.

    Have a good nights sleep everyone! 

    Now Mike - make up your mind - do you want to achieve gold as per your first post or make qualification?image 

  • To get gold in the olympics you need to qualify, you've got to be in it to win it so everyone has a chance. 

    My dream is to win Gold, because thats a bigger achievement than qualifying. image

     

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    A few things...

    he's certainly not a troll, and he's not doing this for a reaction.

    Boxing is nothing at all like Running

    There's a massive difference between fantasising about winning Olympic gold when out running, and actually stating this as an aim.

  • Be interesting to know how many boxers our gold-winner needed to be better than to make the team given the specific weight requirement and it being a relatively minor participation sport.

    As a comparison to making the Olympic 5k team over thousands of competitive runners, it really isn't one..
  • Nah im not trolling, infact I despise trolls, I am being serious.

    May I ask for some advice? What pace should you run intervals? Should I run them faster, the same or slower than my current 5k race pace? Im kinda torn on what to do, I want to do what benefits me most.

  • Mike - I think you need to read back the advice you have already received - I think this has already been answered. You are not inspiring me now to bet on you for the double!

  • Run 'em til you puke. Then do it again.

    And again...

    And again...
  • Mike cheers for the reply by the way, I'm qiute interested in this thread well specifically your future really to be honest. The reason I asked you a specific question about not drinking is because as a 21yr old runner who has a 16:22pb for 5k to my name a fair few people my age that I know have asked me how to get good and an easy way of finding out how much they want sucess is to ask them what there willing to sacrifice, beer, junk food, girlfriends, social life and so on, depending how badly you want it. Also I asked what your typical training week is because I feel you have to take it 1 week at a time to keep perspective on the situation. I myself have run in a North Wales vest a few times but want a wales vest so much that I've made pretty much all the sacrifices there are, and am currently doing about 100mpw, its taken about 4yrs to build up to this level but like you if I dont try then i'll never know.

    When you say about your intervals what is a typical session for you because you may be doing them fast enough allready or not enough or to short or whatever. I agree with the others though that boxing is no comparison to running, you just cannot go from couch potato to mo farah in 4yrs its just not possible in that time scale.

    Andy
  • Tricky dicky I'm sure making yourself sick is counter productive.
  • Hi Andy, yeh I agree sacrifices need to be made, depends how much you want it. And wow, 100mpw for a 'recreational' runner? I won't be doing them miles until at least 2 years methinks. image

    My interval session is 5 x 1km at 3:40 pace - 5 seconds per K faster than my current 5km pb w/ 200m jog recovery. Should I make my intervals faster, how should I progress it? 

  • Safe to say I want it a fair bit, I dont drink, eat rubbish food hardly unless birthday cake, or christmas, I religiously make sure to get enough sleep even having an hour in between runs if needed, probably getting about 12hours a day of sleep. I do take my training pretty seriously to the point where I think of it like something thats a basic part of the day like eating, breathing an so on. I barely compromise on it because when you really want it you have to pretty much consider running well as your number 1 priority. After doing 5k)-16:22. 10k)-34:38. And HM in 1:16:56 people suggested some speed work so 5 weeks ago I started doing 12x400 in 72-75secs with 75 sec walk recoverys. At first it felt hard as hell but its become managable now so I have introduced a tempo sort of run this week, you could probably benefit from VERY VERY GRADUALLY adding slow miles to your training so that as well as improve your pure speed you also learn to be able to keep it going because of increased endurance.
  • You may want to think about doing shorter reps of say 400 if it allows you to improve the actual quality of the session.

    This morning I did this for example 1.20 1.14 1.13 1.17 1.15 1.15 1.13 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.15 1.15 1.14 I felt I could of gone faster on most of them by a few seconds but then if you cant walk the next day then its not really helping. So I'll keep my session like this for the time being. To focus on my marathon pace workouts.

    If I were you and was going to focus on shorter distances then you really dont wanna be doing a marathon at your age its really going to hinder you for the time being.
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